Longnose butterflyfish
Forcipiger longirostris
Valid name (FishBase; confirmed in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes and WoRMS, October 2026).
- English
- Longnose butterflyfish
- Scientific
- Forcipiger longirostris
- Dhivehi
- ތުންދިގު ބިބީThundhigu bibee
- Group
- Reef fish
- Maximum size
- Up to about 22 cm (total length)
- Depth and habitat
- Coral reefs and reef-associated habitats, recorded from 0 to 200 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2009
Description
A yellow butterflyfish with an extremely long, thin snout, longer than in the very similar forcepsfish, and a black upper head. Some individuals are uniformly dark brown. It picks whole small crustaceans from crevices with its tweezer-like mouth and lives in pairs on outer reef slopes, often deeper than the forcepsfish.
In the Maldives
Dhivehi Wikipedia (MRS-derived) gives thundhigu bibee; FishBase (Maldives) gives thun bibi.
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Forcipiger-longirostris.html
- fishbase.se /comnames/CommonNamesList.php?ID=5585&GenusName=Forcipiger&SpeciesName
- dv.wikipedia.org /wiki/ތުންދިގު_ބިބީ
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Longnose_Butterflyfish.jpg
Dhivehi name source: FishBase (country: Maldives) gives only the general group name 'Thun bibi'. Thaana from the Dhivehi Wikipedia article 'ތުންދިގު ބިބީ' (derived from the MRS 1997 Dhivehi edition). No published Latin-script form found; 'Thundhigu bibee' is Pax's transliteration of the Thaana (Malé Latin conventions). FLAG: Latin form is a transliteration, not a published spelling.