3. Results and discussion
Coral condition (healthy, bleached or dead) had a significant
effect on the relative habitat use for both C. lunulatus
(F2,114 ¼ 64.037, P < 0.0001) and C. aureofasciatus (F2,102 ¼ 28.899,
P < 0.0001). The effect of coral condition on habitat use was driven
entirely by the very low use of dead corals (Fig. 1). Juvenile butterflyfishes
used both bleached and healthy colonies of
A. spathulata and P. damicornis in relatively even proportions (range
40e60%) and the relative use of these two coral treatments did not
differ significantly (Tukey HSD, P > 0.05) (Fig. 1). These findings
were also supported by an in situ observation in which 5 juvenile
C. aureofasciatus were co-habiting a large naturally bleached colony
of A. spathulata. The relatively even use of both bleached and
healthy corals by juvenile coral-feeders indicates that there may
not be any nutritional difference between bleached and nonbleached
coral tissue.