butterflies in reefs

LemonLemon said:
i'm in china now for 6 weeks so i can't update on my butterflies. i only hope they do well while i'm gone..

i'll be tracking the arrival of 2 C. paucifasciatus (red sea pearlscales) next week so stay tuned [like finally! after god knows how many years]! also, a gramma linkii will be arriving with them.

i've just received an email asking if i'm interested in Cirrhilabrus sanguineus and Paracheilinus picsilineatus from my LFS, but i'm too poor to afford.
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Lemon, how is the tank being cared for while you're in China? Do you have a friend or neighbor that is qualified? I'd be interested to hear how you manage being gone for so long!
 
Great thread!!

I have aptasia in my tank that I am trying to get ride of. I can not put peppermint shrimp in my tank because the Melanurus Wrasse will kill them in seconds.

I have a SPS tank with a Rose Bubble tip. Would you recomend a butterfly that would not harm the sps but eat the aptasia?

Thanks
 
skibum - my family, friends and LFS maintenance team will try to keep the tank running. i receive daily e-mail updates from my family and in the event anything goes wrong, at least i can advice via e-mail.

it's a dangerous task and there's bound to be some casualty, but the hope is to minimise as much as i can. the fishes will not be dumped into my tank while i'm not around. i won't allow that so i've arranged for them to be housed and will deal with them when i get back.

this month is very interesting for my country.

paucifasciatus butterflies
sanguineus fairy wrasse
piscilineatus flasher wrasse
gramma linkii

these are some of the most legendary fishes in the trade and all of them coming at once, my heart will probably stop.
 
Red Sea pearlscales?! Havent seen those available in forever. Especially not here in the states.

I have a declevis and trio of Johnrandallia nigrirostris now. I love those barberfish. I have had extensive butterflies in the past too. Just like angels, I dont think any reef should be without a butterfly or two.
 
Hi guys, very interesting thread !

My GF and I are Butterflies addict so we decided to move all our soft and LPS in a 24x24x24 Blau cube and dedicate our 36x36x24 cube to Butterflies and SPS.

We already have a healthy CB and a female Bellus (she can't go in the 60g so she'll stay in the 135g).

We're planning to add 4 or 5 Butterflies. Which ones of our list are the best for this kind of project ?

-Chaetodon Tinkeri - Tinker's Butterflyfish
-Chaetodon Declivis - Marquesan Butterflyfish
-Chaetodon Collare - Pakistan Butterflyfish
-Chaetodon Punctatofasciatus - Punctato Butterflyfish
-Chaetodon Semilarvatus -Golden Butterflyfish
-Chaetadon Ephippium - Saddleback Butterflyfish
-Heniochus Chrysostomus - Threeband Pennantfish
-Hemitaurichthys Polylepis - Pyramid Butterflyfish
-Hemitaurichthys Zoster - Zoster Butterflyfish

Thanks !
 
jmaneyapanda said:
Red Sea pearlscales?! Havent seen those available in forever. Especially not here in the states.

I have a declevis and trio of Johnrandallia nigrirostris now. I love those barberfish. I have had extensive butterflies in the past too. Just like angels, I dont think any reef should be without a butterfly or two.
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Is there a difference in pearlscales from different region? There was one at a LFS that was gorgeous but I was afraid it would munch on all the corals.
 
Jim Lepage said:
-Chaetodon Tinkeri - Tinker's Butterflyfish
-Chaetodon Declivis - Marquesan Butterflyfish
-Chaetodon Collare - Pakistan Butterflyfish
-Chaetodon Punctatofasciatus - Punctato Butterflyfish
-Chaetodon Semilarvatus -Golden Butterflyfish
-Chaetadon Ephippium - Saddleback Butterflyfish
-Heniochus Chrysostomus - Threeband Pennantfish
-Hemitaurichthys Polylepis - Pyramid Butterflyfish
-Hemitaurichthys Zoster - Zoster Butterflyfish
Click to expand...

Hemitaurichthys are pretty much reef safe - lots of people have both pyramids and zosters in their reefs with little to no picking. They are pretty easy going with others of their species as well. I've seen plenty of people with 3 or 4 of them in there and they apparently more or less ignore each other. The Heiniochus are pretty similar AFAIK. Tinkeri complex butterflys (declivis, tinkeri, burgess, mitratus, etc) are also generally pretty reef safe and peaceful, although I've heard of some aggression between species in the complex. Plenty of people have had multiple tinkeri complex butterflys in the same tank, so it might work - your tank isn't THAT big though.

Pakistan's and golden's are also both great fish, although I believe the risk of coral picking is increased. Saddleback is a bit riskier and I've heard multiple reports of aggression - it gets to be a fairly big boy and might picking on some of the other butterflys.

If it were me, I think I would do a tinkeri complex one first, then a zosters or pyramid (or two), then try another more risky one like a pakistan or saddleback.
 
along these lines, i have a declivis who promptly hit my open brain (removed) and mowed down my elegance. he has left my hammer and frogspawn alone as well as my chalice. thinking of adding a mitratus and wonder if he will leave the chalice alone..any thoughts
 
jeremy - the paucifasciatus pair arrived. if you're interested in seeing the photos, i've created a thread for it. 5 more weeks till i'm back from china and hope they survive till then :(

jim - your list is great. i would stick with the two hemitaurichthys (planktivores, 100% reef safe in theory) the tinker's and declivis would be worth a try as they're pretty ok. i have 2 roaops butterflies. they do fine with my corals. the heniochus is also a good bet.

the other chaetodon species are historically not reef safe. only add them if you're willing to take alot of risk and don't care much about reef-safeness.
 
jcw said:
Is there a difference in pearlscales from different region? There was one at a LFS that was gorgeous but I was afraid it would munch on all the corals.
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yes.

depending on the species and geographical location, some have yellow or orange backs.

the red sea variation is the most impressive. it has a scarlet red back. ubiquitous in the wild but in the past few years, almost impossible to obtain. no idea why
 
LemonLemon said:
jim - your list is great. i would stick with the two hemitaurichthys (planktivores, 100% reef safe in theory) the tinker's and declivis would be worth a try as they're pretty ok. i have 2 roaops butterflies. they do fine with my corals. the heniochus is also a good bet.

the other chaetodon species are historically not reef safe. only add them if you're willing to take alot of risk and don't care much about reef-safeness.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Lemon. I think we'll stay with the safer ones since we want to keep SPS and not only fishes in that tank. :beer:
 
What do you think about introducing a Longnose Butterfly with a well established Copperband ? Someone told me it could by tricky since they have the same kind of behavior and snout shaped mouth.
 
hmm...

copperbands can get fairly aggressive.

longnose on the other hand, are perfectly peaceful.

but i don't see a problem. i've mixed them up before. it's ok.

butterflies display their aggression not by long chasing or biting, but rater, slow circling, rapid dashes, fin display and sometimes, headbutting.
 
For those butterflies that nip at sps, do you think that frags would have a hard time getting a foothold before they stress and die?
 
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