Spotted Butterflyfish

The peppered butterflyfish is silvery white in colour marked with irregular vertical rows of dark spots or speckles on the flanks, these reorient to a more horizontal plane on the lower flanks. There is a thin, vertical dark bar running through the eye> The rear of the dorsal fin has an orange bar and this reaches the upper part of the caudal peduncle. The caudal fin has a black submarginal band while the dorsal fin has a yellow margin. The dorsal fin contains 12–13 spines and 22–24 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 16–18 soft rays. This fish attains a maximum total length of 12 centimetres (4.7 in).

The peppered butterflyfish is found in the Indian Ocean where its range extends from the East African coast where it ranges from Somalia to South Africa and across the Indian Ocean as far east as Bali in Indonesia and the Australian territories of Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. It appears to avoid the mainland coasts of Southern Asia but can be found in the Maldives, off Sri Lanka and the Indian islands of the Andamans and the Nicobars and other islands in the Andaman Sea.