🐠 Pearlscale Butterflyfish (Chaetodon xanthurus)
A Pearly White Body With a True Net-Like Crosshatch Pattern • Orange Fin Accents • One of the Hardier Butterflyfish
 
📋 The Pearlscale Butterflyfish has a striking appearance: a pearly white body marked with a true net-like, cross-hatched black pattern, a bold black eye bar, and vivid orange-to-yellow sickle-shaped markings on the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins.
It comes from coral-rich reefs and lagoons across the Indo-Pacific, belonging to what's known as the "xanthurus complex," a group of closely related, near-identical butterflyfish including the Redback Butterflyfish and Merten's Butterflyfish. This species is distinguishable by a white-rimmed, dark oval spot set slightly askew behind the eye band, and its cleaner, true crosshatch pattern compared with the more chevron-shaped patterning of its lookalikes. Every Pearlscale Butterflyfish we ship is feeding well.
It's hardy and peaceful for a butterflyfish, and it generally settles in well. It's not reef safe, and will nip at soft corals, stony coral polyps, tube worms, anemones, and ornamental shrimp, making it best suited to a spacious fish-only or FOWLR aquarium. It's also territorial toward similarly patterned butterflyfish, so avoid housing it with other xanthurus-complex species unless introduced simultaneously as juveniles. It reaches up to 15cm, so plan on at least 280L.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 A True Crosshatch Pattern: A distinctive net-like design with orange fin accents
🔍 Part of the "Xanthurus Complex": Distinguishable from close lookalikes by its eye-spot and pattern
💪 Hardy for a Butterflyfish: Settles in well
🪸 Not Reef Safe: Will nip at corals, tube worms, anemones, and shrimp
🍽️ Ships Feeding Well: Often accepts marine pellets readily