Syncomistes butleri
Butler’s Grunter
Species Summary
Named after the Australian naturalist and television presenter Harry Butler, Syncomistes butleri is common throughout the Timor Drainage of the Kimberley region despite only being formally described in 1978. It grows to around 25 cm; juveniles show five or six dark horizontal body stripes and make reasonable community aquarium inhabitants, unlike many of the family’s larger, more pugnacious members.
Along with the related genus Pingalla, Syncomistes species feed largely on benthic algae and the small organisms living within it, rather than the more carnivorous diet typical of most grunters — a trait that lets them be kept successfully alongside larger rainbowfishes and gudgeons, though not with aquatic plants.
Compiled for Home of the Rainbowfish from ANGFA sources: B. Hansen, “Tune in and Turn on to Grunters”, Fishes of Sahul 14, 2000, pp. 663–666.