Reef Safe Butterflies..

[Ed Hahn]

I have witnessed several very healthy Butterflyfish in Reef Tanks. I am asking people that have them to explain their experiences.
Here is my thoughts of a Copper Banded Butterfly in a Reef Tank. You have to find one that will eat prepared foods. So ask person you are buying fish from to feed it and see what he is feeding it, ask seller to feed fish, monitor if fish is eating like seller says. You are taking a chance it will eat other things like frogspawn, or etc. My CBB was nice except for it only would eat atiptasia and copeopods. He had to compete with my mandarin. Mandarin was too efficient at eating Pods before butterfly. So I starved my CBB to death.

 

[Krish]

That's a good question ED. I've tried wild caught butterfly fish and they never ever do well...It's is cool when you do see people with them in their tanks doing well. Makes you kinda wonder what you were doing wrong

 

[jsmkmavity]

mysis shrimp, mosquito larvae and black worms on occasion. having aiptasia and those mini pink feather dusters helps too! theres a lfs owner near hear who has a product he makes called ocean blend and most fish that are picky eaters or hard to acclimate to captive life will eat it. once eating you have half the battle won. good water quality and natural habitat to some degree will help. some butterflies, like cbb are picked on by tangs or other fish and this is why some starve to death. a false falcula does well in captivity compared to others but is not really reef safe-nor are most butterflies.

 

[Paul B]

My favorties are copperband and long nose butterflies. You really have to see them eat in the store though. Most of them will eat live black worms some will eat plankton and I did have one that would eat flakes (although I do not feed that to them) The CBB I have now, along with the worms eats plankton, mysis sponge and bananas. It took a long time for him to like bananas but now he loves them. I feed them because I would like to get some diversity in him along with Selcon. I have been keeping CBBs and long noses since the seventees and never had a problem except I can't keep them as long as other fish. 5 or 6 years seems to be about it. Most of my other fish live at least ten. Maybe the bananas will help.
I also never had a problem with them eating corals but I have seen long noses do this in the sea.
Paul

Of course the lower right picture is not really a butterfly. I took that picture in Bora Bora and scanned it with the turtle picture. Her name is Clemintine.

 

[Blazer88]

I've had my CBB for a while and he has been doing great. I was very picky to make sure the CBB was eating mysis before I brought it home. He goes crazy for Mysis and loves to hunt pods and I've never seen him touch any corals at all. As people have said, just make sure they are eating first.

 

[reedman]

I just recently added a double saddleback (Chaaetodon ulietensis) to my reef and it seems to be doing great. I got this fish to combat my majanos (and it's nipping at them) per the this article (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/8/aaeditorial/view?searchterm=Chaetodon%20ulietensis).

So far the fish eats blender much like a pig (eats out of my hand) and is nipping at various items in the tank. it does nip at corals, so if you can't stand that this is not the fish for you. On the other hand, he spreads the nips around and I haven't seen any coral show signs of stress from this (except the majanos...YES!!!).

 

[Dragonfly]

I've never seen of a report of a CBB eating or picking at any corals in a reef tank. I love them as well but have killed 2 already.
Both starved in my systems after taking care of aiptaisia problems I was having. I will try another one but only after I'm sure that it will take prepared food.

 

[SueT]

I've had my copperband for going on 6 1/2 years now. The fish eats mysis like crazy and will taste enriched brine. It never has had the taste for aiptasia, but thankfully the few that have popped up it will eat if I act like I'm gonna do something to them. This fish has been a great fish.

I have heard that the pyramid butterfly is a good reef fish.

 

[CarlaW]

I have heard that the pyramid butterfly is a good reef fish.

Speaking of which.
I have had mine for at least a year and a half, it eats my prepared mush like a pig. It has been as good a fish as you can have, very mellow.

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[Scooterman]

That is very cool Charlie, you know your doing something right when you can keep one like you have.

 

[CarlaW]

That is very cool Charlie, you know your doing something right when you can keep one like you have.

Scooter, if I can keep one alive, anybody can.

 

[rudeanduncouth]

I have a longnose butterfly, and it doesn't really bother anything in my tank. It spends the majority of its day picking pods off the front on my tank. Bear in ming that I have only had this fish for a month or so. It is a pig and will eat anything that it can get in its mouth when I feed, which is actually is, surprisinly, a lot. I was actually hoping it might pick at the aiptasia but it could care less. Seems to pick at some algae a little bit too.

 

[jsmkmavity]

hey reedman, watch that double saddle closely when the aiptasia are gone. especially anthelia, clams, and lps like frog etc.

 

[morgan]

no one has mentioned desired tank sizes for these fish as that could possibly effect fish life in the long run?

 

[reedman]

This is not much of a concern in my tank. I have no LPS or soft corals. I do have 2 clams, but the butterfly has shown no interest. I will watch this though. For me it is an acceptable risk as I was overun with majanos and no other method of control was showing any signs of making a dent in them. Even if I have to remove the fish it was well worth it as my majano population is way down already.

hey reedman, watch that double saddle closely when the aiptasia are gone. especially anthelia, clams, and lps like frog etc.

 

[jsmkmavity]

i know how that goes. i have done the same thing twice in my tank. got a false falcula from kevin at retail and sold it back at wholesale when the job was done. i would call that a real bargain for getting rid of aiptasia! when the job was done he almost killed my frogspawn and one crocea before i got him out! i esed the crocea as bait in a clear rectangle tub to catch him- this might help you in the future!

 

[reedman]

Just to be clear I have a Chaaetodon ulietensis which is different from a Chaaetodon falcula. I've seen these fish mis labeled , mis IDed and otherwise dumped into one bucket because they look similar. They are different though.

 

[jsmkmavity]

the falcula does not have as nice of markings and the ulietensis is a more desireable reef fish but i would still watch it after the mojano are gone. its a chance we take and some fish that arent reef safe will leave everything alone and some that are reef safe will eat our corals. time will tell and i hope yours is ok, they are subtily beautiful fish!

 

[reedman]

100% agreed jsmkmavity....good post