Chelmon

Copper Strip (Chelmon rostratus )

Chelmon is a species-poor, only three, each highly similar types of species of the butterfly fish ( Chaetodontidae ). The species are 18 to 20 inches long, have high backs and drawn by a pattern of wide, copper-colored to brownish bands on a silvery white base. Dorsal and anal fins are extended and to emphasize the high body. The muzzle is pulled out very long, which the fish was the German trivial name Pinzettfische. Grown Chelmon are territorial and live solitary or in pairs in coral reefs, and estuaries. Chelmon rostratus and the juveniles of Chelmon muelleri carry a large eye spot in the soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin. Chelmon species feed on small invertebrates that they can move with their long snouts of dense coral pinnacles and crevices. They are closely related to the subtropical Pinzettfischen the genus Chelmonops and are regarded as their sister group.

Species

• Copper Strip (Chelmon rostratus ) ( type species ); Linnaeus, 1758; occurs up to the Ryukyu Islands and Australia in the central Indo-Pacific from the Andaman Sea.
• Western barred (Chelmon marginalis ) ( Richardson, 1842); occurs on the coast of northern Australia from Western Australia to the northern Great Barrier Reef and the coast of New Guinea. It differs from Chelmon rostratus by the absence of the intermediate copper-colored band and the lack of eye-spot.
• Müller (Chelmon muelleri ) ( Klunzinger, 1879) ( type species ); occurs on the coast of Queensland and the north-western Australia, especially on muddy seabed. Juveniles resemble rostratus Chelmon. In adult fish, the rear half of the body darkens a growing, so the typical drawing of Chelmon species is finally barely recognizable.