In the smaller juvenile fish there is a white ring around the blotch on the flanks, this is rounder and less teardrop shaped than in adults, the black also being tinted with blue.

As they grow the white outer ring turns yellow and the mark develops a teardrop shape.

[2] The yellow teardrop butterflyfish is found in the Indian Ocean where it occurs along the coast of East Africa from Somalia and Socotra south to South Africa east to the coast of Sumatra and western Thailand, including most of the Indian Ocean islands and southern India.

[1] The yellow teardrop butterflyfish inhabits habitats varying from coral reef flats to deep slopes.

[2] They are omnivores and have a varied diet which includes hard and soft coral fragments, sponges, polychaetes, and filamentous algae.