page_title: Melon butterflyfish
section_title: Description and characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Melon butterflyfish / Description and characteristics
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Un couple de poissons-papillons à trois bandes (Chaetodon trifasciatus) aux Maldives (Landaagiraavaru, atoll de Baa).
context_page_description: The melon butterflyfish or Indian redfin butterflyfish is a species of butterflyfish. It is found in the Indian Ocean from East Africa to Western Java. This is one species of a closely related group which includes the Black-tailed Butterflyfish of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and the Oval Butterflyfish which is found in the western Pacific, from eastern coasts of the Indonesian islands to Australia.
  Melon butterflyfish should not to be confused with Chevron butterflyfish Chaetodon trifascialis, Three-striped butterflyfish Chaetodon tricinctus, or Three-banded butterflyfish Chaetodon robustus.
context_section_description: The oval butterflyfish and the black-tailed butterflyfish resemble C. trifasciatus in coloration. The former has a less conspicuous back patch below the dorsal fin and a mainly dark anal fin, while the latter has black caudal and anal fins.
  Melon, black-tailed and oval butterflyfishes and probably also the somewhat aberrant Arabian butterflyfish (C. melapterus) make up the subgenus Corallochaetodon, of which C. trifasciatus is the type species. They are probably quite close to the subgenus called "Citharoedus" (that name is a junior homonym of a mollusc genus), which contains for example the Scrawled butterflyfish (C. meyeri). Like that group, they might be separated in Megaprotodon if the genus Chaetodon is split up.
caption: A pair in the Maldives.
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