Three-banded Butterflyfish
At the published northern limit, notable for numbers, age or season.
Sightings
2026 season, every one sourced
Southern California
- Oct 27, 2026"The Wall," La Jolla Submarine Canyon
- Oct 26, 2026Redondo BeachSource: iNaturalist 411114366
- Oct 22, 2026San Diego CountySource: iNaturalist 410790818
- Oct 18, 2026La Jolla, with 2 more at Vallecitos Point the same dayAbout 3 to 4 cm (1 to 1.5 in) juveniles
- Oct 17, 2026La Jolla
- Oct 15, 2026Vallecitos Point, La JollaButterflyfish on video, identified by commentersSource: Diver post via Jarvis, Oct 15
Photos
From California this season
No photos yet. If you photographed this animal in California this season, post it to the Coastal Bulletin.
Home Range
Where it normally lives
San Diego south to Peru, including the Galapagos Islands. Before 1997 the only California record was from the 1850s.
Range source: FishBase · Lea and Rosenblatt 2000, CalCOFI Reports 41
This butterflyfish belongs to the tropical eastern Pacific, from Mexico to Peru and the Galapagos Islands, and it has been called the most common butterflyfish in that region. Its listed northern limit is San Diego, but that limit rests on very few California records. It lives near shore over rocky bottom, from about 10 to 165 feet deep and usually shallower than 40 feet.
Identification
The three-banded butterflyfish has a deep, flat, disk-shaped body, a steep forehead and a short pointed snout. Its body is creamy yellow, crossed by 5 or 6 dark vertical bars that run over the head, the body and the tail. Adults reach about 10 inches, though most are about 5 inches long. A young fish photographed at La Jolla in October 2026 was about 1 to 1.5 inches long.
Natural History
Three-banded butterflyfish usually travel in pairs or small groups. Adults feed on algae and on small invertebrates picked from the bottom. They lay eggs, and they form pairs to breed.
In California
Before 1997, California's only record was 2 specimens collected in San Diego Bay during the Pacific Railroad Survey of the 1850s. During the 1997 to 1998 El Niño, a juvenile was seen in the San Diego-La Jolla Ecological Reserve on November 1, 1997, and was filmed at the same spot 3 weeks later. Another juvenile was collected at King Harbor, Redondo Beach, that December. The state and Scripps biologists who documented those fish called the species' return after almost 150 years one of the outstanding findings of that El Niño.
Taxonomy
Rarity
Rarity in the compendium is how often the animal has been reported on the California coast this season, not how rare it is where it normally lives. It moves as new sightings come in.