ANY reef-safe butterfly's?

[tonyespinoza]

other than copperbands...

i ran across this (which claims these are reef safe), but am dubious.

thanks in advance for sharing any ideas!

particularly interested in folks with first hand experience with a particular species.

Pyramid Butterflyfish
http://bluezooaquatics.com/productDetail.asp?did=1&pid=667&cid=26

 

[Valab]

Heniochus diphreutes

 

[lawboy888]

i think they are all risky

 

[pusanpa]

there are two long nose. the longer nose one is reef safe.

 

[philter4]

Reef "safeness" is up to the preferred food choices, feeding habits, and individual fish.

Any of the longnose butterfly are fairly safe in a reef. They use their long nose to pick inverts from between the cracks in the reef. Some also eat tube feet of urchins, and some will eat feather dusters and such, some that eat aptasia may also eat other anemones and zoo's, but generally leave the corals alone.

The planktavores are also probably reef safe, leaving most of the ornamental inverts we would keep alone.

There are some problems with them once we put them into our tanks, first many animals do things in captivity they would never do in the wild. Second, as far as I know except for coral eaters there are no butterflies that are so specialized that they won't leave your reef totally alone, that is why even among CB's there are some that are perfect in a reef and others that eat zoo's and clams etc. There are better choices for your tank, for instance I love the atlantic longnose butterfly, and I have one for each of my tanks, mine don't bother any of my inverts, including octocorals and zoo's. They don't eat aptasia either. IMO all butterflies pose some risk, but there are choices that increase your chances of having a good fish for your tank.

 

[tonyespinoza]

thanks for sharing all the knowledge!

-tE

 

[TheSaltwaterGuy]

For the most part, the Pyramid Butterflies are reef safe. But every fish is different, remember that.