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Raccoon Butterflyfish
Butterflyfish

Raccoon Butterflyfish

Chaetodon lunula

A hardy, handsome butterfly in warm yellow-brown with a black bandit's mask across the eyes edged in white — one of the easier Chaetodon to keep, but firmly not reef-safe. In the wild it eats tubeworm tentacles, nudibranchs, other benthic inverts, coral polyps and algae, and in a reef it will graze corals and anemones (armoured crustaceans it leaves alone). Give it a big, well-established FO or FOWLR tank with rock to shelter in by day; it is peaceful toward unrelated fish and gets quite bold with time.

Temperament
Peaceful
Max size
7.9"
Min tank
75 gal
Reef-safe
Not reef safe
Diet
Omnivore
Zone
Rockwork, Mid-water
Keep just one per tank — two will fight.
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Tankmates

How Raccoon Butterflyfish gets on with the rest of the reef, checked pair by pair by the same engine as the live pre-flight.

Best kept apart

A real clash — aggression, predation or a same-genus fight.

Copperband ButterflyfishA robust Raccoon out-competes the slow, deliberate-feeding Copperband; they can coexist in 180+ gal but the shy Copperband almost always loses the food competition and can starve.Pearlscale ButterflyfishRaccoon Butterflyfish and Pearlscale Butterflyfish are the same genus (Chaetodon) and will fight — keep only one.Snowflake MoraySnowflake Moray has a big enough mouth to eat the much smaller Raccoon Butterflyfish.Zebra MorayZebra Moray has a big enough mouth to eat the much smaller Raccoon Butterflyfish.Chainlink MorayChainlink Moray has a big enough mouth to eat the much smaller Raccoon Butterflyfish.Clown TriggerfishClown Triggerfish (aggressive) is much larger than the peaceful Raccoon Butterflyfish and may harass it.Miniata GrouperMiniata Grouper (aggressive) is much larger than the peaceful Raccoon Butterflyfish and may harass it.Panther GrouperPanther Grouper (aggressive) is much larger than the peaceful Raccoon Butterflyfish and may harass it.Blue-Leg Hermit CrabRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Blue-Leg Hermit Crab is on the menu.Trochus SnailRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Trochus Snail is on the menu.Astrea SnailRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Astrea Snail is on the menu.Cerith SnailRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Cerith Snail is on the menu.Nassarius SnailRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Nassarius Snail is on the menu.Nerite SnailRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Nerite Snail is on the menu.Mexican Turbo SnailRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Mexican Turbo Snail is on the menu.Bumble Bee SnailRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Bumble Bee Snail is on the menu.Scarlet Reef Hermit CrabRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab is on the menu.Zebra Hermit CrabRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Zebra Hermit Crab is on the menu.Halloween Hermit CrabRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Halloween Hermit Crab is on the menu.Emerald CrabRaccoon Butterflyfish hunts small cleanup-crew inverts — your Emerald Crab is on the menu.