Melon butterflyfish

About this species

The melon butterflyfish or the Indian redfin butterflyfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the family Chaetodontidae. It is found in the Indian Ocean from East Africa to Western Java. This is one species of a closely related group which includes the blacktail butterflyfish of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and the oval butterflyfish which is found in the western Pacific, from eastern coasts of the Indonesian islands to Australia.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Melon butterflyfish”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 169 records
February: 131 records
March: 195 records
April: 133 records
May: 135 records
June: 84 records
July: 178 records
August: 215 records
September: 204 records
October: 182 records
November: 200 records
December: 172 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 2–10 m · Deepest record: 1,000 m

0–10 m: 923 records
10–20 m: 84 records
20–30 m: 14 records
30–40 m: 4 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 22–30 °C

20–22 °C: 1 records
22–24 °C: 1 records
24–26 °C: 8 records
26–28 °C: 157 records
28–30 °C: 81 records

Photos

(c) Zach Johnson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Storm Martin, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Leonel Roget, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Darren Obbard, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Иван Ковтун Ivan Kovtun, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ryan McMinds, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Melon butterflyfish, Indian Redfin Butterflyfish, Lineated Butterflyfish, melon butterflyfish, Pinstriped Butterflyfish, Purple Butterflyfish, Rainbow Butterflyfish, Redfin Butterflyfish, Redfin Butterfly Fish, Three-banded Butterfly, Three banded coralfish, Three-banded Coralfish

Names in 7 more languages

German: Dreistreifen-Falterfisch, Indischer Rippen-Falterfisch
Spanish: Pez Mariposa Melón
Filipino: Paru-parang dagat, Paru-parung dagat
French: Chétodon à nageoire rouge orange, Chétodon à trois-bandes, Papillon, Papillon côtelé indien, Poisson-papillon côtelé indien, Poissons-papillon à trois bandes
Japanese: Misuji-chô-chô-uo
Thai: ปลาผีเสื้อไข่
Simplified Chinese: 三带蝴蝶鱼

Other scientific names: Chaetodon bellus, Chaetodon layardi, Chaetodon ovalis, Chaetodon pepek, Chaetodon taunigrum, Chaetodon vittatus, Choetodon trifasciatus, Mesochaetodon trifasciatus, Tetragonoptrus trifasciatus, Tetragonoptrus vittatus

Similar species

Threadfin butterflyfish
Chaetodon auriga
Citron Butterfly
Chaetodon citrinellus
Blackblotch Butterflyfish
Chaetodon ephippium
Sunburst butterflyfish
Chaetodon kleinii
Raccoon butterflyfish
Chaetodon lunula
Oval Butterflyfish
Chaetodon lunulatus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
1,571 open-data records from 1901 to 2021.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.