🐠 Latticed Butterflyfish (Chaetodon rafflesii)
Marine Not-Reef-Safe Butterflyfish • Yellow Body With Dark Lattice-Like Scale Margins & Black Eye Band • Genuine Colour-Shifting Camouflage • Intermediate Marine Fish
 
📋 The Latticed Butterflyfish, also known as Raffle's Butterflyfish or Raffles' Coralfish, has a genuinely striking, uniformly yellow body with dark scale margins creating a distinctive lattice or pineapple-like grid pattern, a black band running through the eye, and a blue patch between the eyes.
Native to a genuinely wide range across the Indo-Pacific, from Sri Lanka to the Tuamoto Islands, north to southern Japan and south to the Great Barrier Reef, this species inhabits reef environments at shallow depths.
A genuinely fascinating documented behaviour: this species can shift to a darker, shadowy appearance with a dark blotch on the front of its body, both at night to blend into its surroundings and when stressed, including for a period after first being introduced to a new tank — genuinely normal, and it should still feed and behave typically during this time. We want to be honest that some individuals are documented to eat glass anemones (Aiptasia), though this isn't guaranteed for every specimen. It's genuinely a somewhat nocturnal species that adapts well to daytime aquarium schedules, and is best kept as a solitary specimen or genuine pair, as it's found in pairs in the wild. We want to be upfront: this species is not reef safe, and will genuinely nip at corals and anemones.
 
🟡⚫ Highlights
🎨 Yellow Body With Lattice-Like Scale Pattern: A genuinely distinctive, sought-after butterflyfish
🌓 Genuine Colour-Shifting Camouflage: Darkens at night or when stressed, a real natural behaviour
🦐 Genuine Occasional Aiptasia Eater: Not guaranteed, but documented in some individuals
⚠️ Not Reef Safe: Will nip at corals and anemones
💪 Genuinely Hardy: Adapts well to aquarium lighting and feeding schedules