Heniochus varius
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.
Description
The horned bannerfish is a small-sized fish that can reach a maximum length of. It has the typical deep-bodied and highly compressed body, typical of butterflyfishes.The horned bannerfish is told apart from its congeners by the adults having a pair of obvious horns on the forehead, just above the eyes and a prominent bump on the forehead. The predominant colour on the body is brown to blackish broken by a thin white band behind the head and a second running from the spiny part of the dorsal fin to the caudal peduncle. The two white stripes create a triangle of the base colour on the body. The dorsal fin has 11 spines and 22–25 soft rays while the anal fin contains 3 spines and 17–18 soft rays.
Distribution and habitat
The horned bannerfish is widespread throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the central Indo-Pacific from Indonesia to Polynesia and from south Japan to New-Caledonia.It inhabits areas rich in coral in shallow lagoons and external reef slopes from the surface to a depth of 30 meters.
Biology
The horned bannerfish is a solitary fish but it can live in pairs or even in small groups.Its diet is varied and consists of coral polyps and various benthic invertebrates.