Longnose Butterflyfish, Forcipiger longirostris (Broussonet 1782)

Other Names: Big Longnose Butterflyfish, Big Longnosed Butterflyfish, Black Long-nosed Butterflyfish, Long-beaked Butterfly Fish, Long-bill, Longer-nosed Butterflyfish, Longnosed Butterflyfish, Longsnouted Coralfish, Pipe-snouted Butterfly Fish, Rare Long-nose, Very-long-nose Butterflyfish, Very-long-nosed Butterflyfish

A juvenile Longnose Butterflyfish, Forcipiger longirostris, at Lembeh Straits, Sulawesi (North), Indonesia. Source: Dennis Polack / FishWise Professional. License: CC BY Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike

Summary:

The yellow butterflyfish with a black to greyish upper head, and a silvery-white lower head and chest, a black spot on the rear of the anal fin, and usually rows of black flecks or dots on the chest. The Longnose Butterflyfish has a long slender snout with the eye much closer to the pectoral-fin base than the tip of the snout.

Video of Longnose Butterflyfish at Homaunau, island of Hawaii.

Cite this page as:

Bray, D.J. 2020, Forcipiger longirostris in Fishes of Australia, accessed 06 Dec 2024, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/425

Longnose Butterflyfish, Forcipiger longirostris (Broussonet 1782)

More Info

Distribution	Offshore reefs of north Western Australia, and the northern Great Barrier Reef and reefs in the Coral Sea, Queensland; also Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island in the eastern Indian Ocean. Elsewhere the species is widespread in the tropical Indo-west-central Pacific. Inhabits coral-rich outer reefs, often near drop-offs. Individuals or pairs are often. seen picking small invertebrates from within corals or from reef crevices
Features	Dorsal fin X-XII, 24-28; Anal fin III, 17-20.
Size	To 22 cm.
Colour	Rare individuals may be all black or the yellow body may be all brown in colour.
Feeding	Feeds by sucking small invertebrates (mostly tiny caridean shrimps) from crevices and branching corals. Like many other plankton-feeding fishes, this species has greatly reduced dentition, and it can also rapidly move the entire jaw apparatus forward to capture prey.
Biology	Longnose Butterflyfish form monogamous pairs during the breeding season and females spawn thousands of pelagic eggs into the water column. Butterflyfish larvae typically hatch 30 hours after spawning and the larvae spend an average of 40 days in the plankton before they metamorphose and settle on the reef. The eggs and larvae of Forcipiger have been described. The larvae have an elongate, armoured snout, reduced supracleithral and posttemporal plates, a large, ragged supraoccipital crest, and long, sharp preopercular spines (Leis & Rennis 1983).
Fisheries	Although difficult to maintain in captivity, Longnose Butterflyfish are occasionally sold in the aquarium industry.
Conservation	IUCN: Least Concern
Remarks	Whether defending a harem or a monogamous mate in the wild, forcepsfish and longnose butterflyfish warn competitors away with a single percussive popping sound followed by a flick of the head. Predators are thought to be deceived by the black, eye-sized spot near the clear tail fin allowing the butterfly fish to escape. The real eye is "hidden" in the black head of these butterflyfishes.
Similar Species	Longnose Butterflyfish differ from Forcepsfish (Forcipiger flavissimus) in having a longer snout and smaller mouth, 10-11 vs 12-13 dorsal-fin spines, and black flecks or spots on the chest. The recently described Forcipiger wanai from Cenderawasih Bay, West Papua, is a dusky brownish-yellow fading to yellow-orange near the fins with a bright yellow band behind the black marking on the head.
Etymology	The species name longirostris is from the Latin longus (= long) and rostrum (= beak) in reference to the very long slender snout of this species.
Species Citation	Chaetodon longirostris Broussonet 1782, Ichthyologia, sistens piscium descriptiones et icones. Decas I.: 31, Pl. 7. Type locality: Hawaiian Islands [as Sandwich Islands], central Pacific.
Author	Bray, D.J. 2020
Resources	Atlas of Living Australia Australian Faunal Directory Catalog of Fishes

Longnose Butterflyfish, Forcipiger longirostris (Broussonet 1782)

References

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