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Foureye butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus) in a colony of Acropora cervicornis (stag horn coral)


Figure 3 - Foureye butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus) in a colony of Acropora cervicornis (stag horn coral) off La Parguera, Puerto Rico. Some butterflyfishes feed primarily on corals by carefully picking individual polyps off the colony. The presence of butterflyfishes has been proposed as a means to assess the health of a coral reef system; in this role they are know as an indicator species. Image courtesy of Ron Hill, NOAA Fisheries, SEFSC-Galveston.


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