Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Bright, uniform lemon-yellow body, laterally compressed and disc-shaped
• Long, slender, tube-like snout tipped with a small forceps-shaped mouth
• Black patch covering the top of the head and upper snout, sometimes extending faintly onto the nape
• Small black spot occasionally present low on the rear body near the dorsal fin base
• White pelvic fins narrowly edged in black
• Dark eye set within the black head patch, making it hard to pick out at a glance

Common look-alikes

• Big Longnose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger longirostris): snout is noticeably longer, roughly two-thirds of the head length versus less than half in the Yellow Longnose, giving a much more exaggerated beak.
• Bannerfish species (Heniochus spp.): also yellow-and-black but have a short snout and tall banner-like dorsal filament rather than an elongated tube snout.

Where you'll see one

This species ranges throughout the Indo-Pacific and into the eastern Pacific, from shallow reef flats down to deep drop-offs, using its long snout to pick tube feet, small invertebrates, and fish eggs from crevices other butterflyfish cannot reach.