Butterflyfish are a type of colourful tropical marine fish in the Chaetodontidae family, which also includes bannerfish and coralfish. The 129 species in 12 genera are primarily found on the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans' reefs. Members of the massive genus Chaetodon can be found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans in a variety of species pairings.
Marine Butterfly fish resemble angelfish (Pomacanthidae), however, they lack preopercle spines on their gill covers, unlike angelfish. Some species of the genus Heniochus resemble the monotypic Zanclidae's Moorish idol (Zanclus cornutus). The former is presumably not too distantly linked to butterflyfish among the paraphyletic Perciformes, whereas the Zanclidae appear to be significantly less so.
