Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Wildlife Wednesday - Rainford's Butterflyfish

Sorry I've been AWOL. I went out to house sit for friends and took a pocket wifi, but when you're in the bush, sometimes those things don't work as well as they're marketed. It was fabulous compared with the noting we had 2 years ago, but compared to wifi in the city, it was patchy and intermittent. Unfortunately my day job sucked all my wifi patience, and my blog got little attention. But I'm home now!

The Australian Museum has some info here if you're interested. It eats algae and benthic invertebrates (which are backbone-less critters at the bottom of the water).

These are rather small fish growing to about 15 cm. Their colours are their distinctive feature.

There are heaps of different butterfly fish but they all have this incredible body shape. I get excited every time I see one because when I was a kid, they fascinated me when I saw them in books, so to see them for real is a thrill that never goes, no matter how many I see.

Oh, the Australian Museum site claims they're one of the most beautiful tropical fishes - so it's not just me who's taken by them! If you want to ogle some more of these gorgeous fish, they have heaps here.

These guys are tropical fish only coming down so far as southern Qld. They can be seen up the Qld coast and around PNG. This one is in the waters around Green Island, off Cairns.


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