Butterfish

About this species

Odax pullus, known by the names greenbone, butterfish or its Māori language name mararī, or rarī, is a species of ray-finned fish, a weed whiting from the family Odacidae, which is found around New Zealand. It is of minor importance to local commercial fisheries.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Greenbone”, 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: 45 records
February: 42 records
March: 42 records
April: 26 records
May: 17 records
June: 10 records
July: 13 records
August: 11 records
September: 9 records
October: 25 records
November: 70 records
December: 51 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 6–26 m · Deepest record: 31.5 m

0–10 m: 54 records
10–20 m: 57 records
20–30 m: 50 records
30–40 m: 11 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 11–18 °C

10–12 °C: 3 records
12–14 °C: 5 records
14–16 °C: 1 records
16–18 °C: 174 records
18–20 °C: 5 records

Photos

(c) wild_wind, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) wild_wind, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Luca Davenport-Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Luca Davenport-Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) eyrezer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Oscar Dove, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Shaun Lee, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Butterfish, Greenbone, Green-boned Butterfish, New Zealand Butterfish

Names in 1 more languages

Japanese: グリーンボーン

Other scientific names: Callyodon coregonoides, Coregonoides vittatus, Odax vittatus, Scarus pullus

Similar species

Bluefinned Butterfish
Odax cyanoallix
Blue Groper
Achoerodus gouldii
Blue Groper
Achoerodus viridis
Hawaiian Hogfish
Bodianus albotaeniatus
Tripletail wrasse
Cheilinus trilobatus
Blunt-head Parrotfish
Chlorurus microrhinos

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).
189 open-data records from 1970 to 2015.
Species data updated November 5, 2026.