This is one of the beat know of the Hawaiian reef fish as divers can often see them in large schools up to 100 individuals. This eight inch long colorful fish that has facial markings that look like a raccoon have a very important Hawaiian name, kikakapu. This means strongly forbidden!
The Hawaiian people have lived on these magical islands of over 1,000 years in a sustainable way. They new they had to take care of the coral reef so it would continue to supply them with food and life giving energy. They realized that the butterflyfish cleaned the corals as they feed on dead or sick coral polyps.
These soft bodied coral polyps are the small anemone like creatures that grow a hard calcium carbonate skeleton we know as a stony coral. The coral polys are the building block of the entire coral reefs and form homes for the other reef fish to hide in and grow to keep the fish populations healthy.
The butterflyfish eat the old coral polyps making room for new polyps that produce more calcium carbonate structure to make the coral reef grow. So the Hawaiians named the fish “strongly forbidden” to let people know not to remove them from the reef!
The Raccoon Butterflyfish is well build for life on the reef as it is very flat and thin. When it gets frightened or chased by a large predator it can easily maneuver between the coral branches where the predator cannot follow. Kikakapu may travel in large schools but they also will just hang out in pairs under a rocky ledge and rest. At night they settle down on the sea floor by them selves to sleep.
Us marine biologist use the butterflyfish as “indicator species” to show how healthy a coral reef is. The more kikakapu on the reef usually means more live healthy coral. If the butterflyfish disappear from the reef then we are immediately alarmed that the corals are in trouble.
Hundreds of years ago no one in Hawaii called this fish a butterflyfish! That name actually came from Europe after explorers had gone to India where they first saw large butterflies.
The locals in India had named the insect a “flutterby” not butterfly! The Europeans got the name mixed up and used butterfly ever since then. So if we had the original name correct then were would call kikakapu a flutterby fish!
You can see all of the Hawaiian butterflyfish in action in movie The Worlds Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fish up on my underwater educational web page at www.underwater2web.com and also follow my marine life educational Instagram post at terry.lilley.
My underwater marine life video series makes a great holiday gift especially for the kids that love to snorkel on the coral reef and all the proceeds from video sales goes to our marine life research project here in Hawaii.
Aloha from under the surf.
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Terry Lilley, marine biologist, Hanalei, Kauai, underwater2web.com, www.gofundme.com/5urrm4zw, All Photographs © 2016 Terry Lilly
