The Punctato Butterfly, Chaetodon punctatofasciatus, is also known as the Dot Dash Butterfly, Spotband Butterfly, Punctato Butterflyfish, Sevenband Butterflyfish, Spotted Belly Butterflyfish, and Spots and Bands Coralfish.
It has a relatively unique body color and pattern for Butterflyfish. Its body is a mustard yellow color with a combination of black stripes and black spots. There is a bright orange band near its tail and a unique cat-eye-like band over its eyes. This is a really attractive butterflyfish species and looks great roaming around an established reef tank.
Punctato Butterfly Care Facts:
- best kept in tanks of at least 100 gallons with plenty of live rock and free swimming space and a sandy substrate
- can be kept singly, in mated pairs, or groups if tank size is larger
- this is a peaceful species that should not be housed with aggressive tank mates such as Damsels or Angelfish
- they will occasionally nip on corals and sessile inverts
- they will feed on a varied omnivorous diet consisting mostly of finely chopped foods as they have an extremely small mouth - feeding should be twice per day
- tanks littered with algae provide the Punctato Butterfly with supplemental feeding as it will graze making it a beneficial tank member for algae cleanup
- it is one of the most hardy and easy to care for butterflyfish species