Horned Bannerfish

About this species

Heniochus varius, the horned bannerfish or humphead bannerfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the family Chaetodontidae, native from the central Indo-Pacific area.

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

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

Loading the map

Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 117 records
February: 180 records
March: 195 records
April: 194 records
May: 167 records
June: 198 records
July: 218 records
August: 151 records
September: 218 records
October: 332 records
November: 175 records
December: 121 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 5–21 m · Deepest record: 41 m

0–10 m: 373 records
10–20 m: 282 records
20–30 m: 78 records
30–40 m: 5 records
40–50 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 24–30 °C

24–26 °C: 16 records
26–28 °C: 102 records
28–30 °C: 229 records

Photos

(c) Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ryan McMinds, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Piotr Lukasik, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Nicola Crockford, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Piotr Lukasik, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Horned Bannerfish, Horned Bull-fish, Horned Bullfish, Humphead Bannerfish, Hunchbacked Bullfish, Hunchbacked Coralfish

Names in 6 more languages

German: Brauner Wimpelfisch, Schwarzer Wimpelfisch
Spanish: Pes estandarte cornudo
Filipino: Paru-parang dagat
French: Barbet souffré, Barbet souffré, Barbillon, Barbillon, Poisson cocher cornu, Poisson-cocher noir
Japanese: Tsuno-hatatatedai, Tsunohatatatedai, ツノハタタテダイ
Simplified Chinese: 白带马夫鱼, 白帶馬夫魚, 黑身立旗鯛, 黑關刀

Other scientific names: Taurichthys bleekeri, Taurichthys varius, Taurichthys viridis

Similar species

Pennant coralfish
Heniochus acuminatus
Horned Bannerfish
Heniochus chrysostomus
Pennantfish
Heniochus diphreutes
Masked bannerfish
Heniochus monoceros
Philippine Kabubu
Heniochus singularius
Indian bannerfish
Heniochus pleurotaenia

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).
1,432 open-data records from 1931 to 2022.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.