butterflies in reefs

[cougaran]

My threadfin ate my hammer alot less when I threw a chunk of scallop in the tank. Guess corals aren't quite as tasty. In the end I had to remove the coral....

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

I was considering putting a clam in to see if that would keep it from eating corals but the scallop is better as it won't foul the water. Plus, I can put it in a clip with a mesh holder. Left some nori in a clip but I doubt that will interest the fish.

 

[sabodish]

i just added a small 2" klein to my reef this evening..i have mostly lps and softies at the moment. any of you guys have experience with kleins?? im excited to see how this works out, just need to stop my powder brown from beating the hell out of it...

 

[mosuhu]

Hi,

I have just asked the question whether anyone has kept a Collare (pakistan) butterfly with any suscess in sps reef tank with not much response. I thought this would be a good place to ask....so, has anyone? I really like this fish!

Mo

 

[SDguy]

Mine ate every mushroom in my FO. No experience with one in a full reef.

 

[PaulFMcG]

Hello,
I wanted to get some opinions here since you are all on the topic...
I recently purchased a 4 Eye Butterfly Fish and then shortly after purchased a Blue Striped Mushroom...
I was told it should be fine, but he keeps picking at the Mushroom...
Any idea if I am fine to let it be or should I take out the fish???
I plan on adding more corals and mushrooms, but I dont want him eating them all...
Pics Below of the Fish
Thaxn

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FyPU2pM3E5F4CAi9UH8Cgw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5-cnhgz4C7Q/TjCGP4I-jUI/AAAAAAAAHSY/gE7SvFITvoI/s640/Butterfly.jpg" height="427" width="640" /></a>

 

[SDguy]

That's a Bennett's buttefly, not a foureye buttefly. It's a coral polyp eater. I'm not sure they do very well in captivity long term. Is it eating any food you provide?

 

[PaulFMcG]

Ohhhhh...My Mistake...My LFS didnt know what it was so I tried to do a search and that made sense to be the 4 Eye...LOL
Anyway...it does eat the Brine and Mysis that I feed...BUT I dont want it eating a $40 Mushroom that I shuld put in the tank...Not to Mention my Polyps (which I NOW know why they are not fully extended since his arrival)
Guess I need to find a way to trap it and get rid of it...
He looks cool too =(

 

[SDguy]

Shame you don't have a FO for him. It's nice to find one that eats

 

[LemonLemon]

i recently acquired a marginalis again. there were many muelleri too but i did not get those.

the marginalis this time is proving rather picky compared to my old one. it's not eating enough and it's pretty skinny. we'll see how it goes. it prefers bigger food pieces.

 

[bamf25]

Not so easy question, but....

If you could reccomend one relatively reef safe butterfly for a new to salt water person that would be going in a 4 month old 120g tank. Ok, just got a few new fish so would be 5 to 6 month old tank once it went in assuming it was my next purchase.

 

[SDguy]

i recently acquired a marginalis again. there were many muelleri too but i did not get those.

the marginalis this time is proving rather picky compared to my old one. it's not eating enough and it's pretty skinny. we'll see how it goes. it prefers bigger food pieces.

Glad to hear you are trying another one, though it sounds like you may have some odds stacked against you already. You can read about my own troubles in my marginalis thread.

As for the food, I've experienced that before. The fish sees and goes for the largest pieces of food, even though smaller bite sized ones are available. It can't yet rip the food apart on its own, and keeps trying, but eventually ends up eating nothing Try to only provide uniformly sized, smaller food items.

 

[SDguy]

Not so easy question, but....

If you could reccomend one relatively reef safe butterfly for a new to salt water person that would be going in a 4 month old 120g tank. Ok, just got a few new fish so would be 5 to 6 month old tank once it went in assuming it was my next purchase.

Look into pyramid/zoster, or yellow longnose butterflies.

 

[GvineReefer]

Bamf25,

Agree with the longnose butterfly recommendation. Mine struggled to eat at first, but has come through and been a great fish so far. I have not seen him look twice at any of my corals and I have a full mixed reef covering all ends of the spectrum. My hippo tang nips more than anything I have now, surprising to me. I hope to add another butterfly once I upgrade to a larger tank.

Good luck

 

[bamf25]

Look into pyramid/zoster, or yellow longnose butterflies.

does anyone have these in stock? The few online places I have looked are not available (at least for the pyramid or zoster). Beside live aquaria and blue zoo where are other good places to get fish?

 

[LemonLemon]

my marginalis is feeding more today and readily eats mysis of all sizes.

i hope it sustains it's appetite and continue to eat more.

 

[SDguy]

does anyone have these in stock? The few online places I have looked are not available (at least for the pyramid or zoster). Beside live aquaria and blue zoo where are other good places to get fish?

Not really sure... I see them listed on LA's site pretty frequently. I just found a small zoster locally

my marginalis is feeding more today and readily eats mysis of all sizes.

i hope it sustains it's appetite and continue to eat more.

Sounds good! Mine continues to eat during prazi treatment in QT. Hopefully that'll fix whatever the problem was...

 

[Yurivd]

Not really sure... I see them listed on LA's site pretty frequently. I just found a small zoster locally



Sounds good! Mine continues to eat during prazi treatment in QT. Hopefully that'll fix whatever the problem was...

I am glad to hear it is still doing good

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

1 for 2. I just put my falcula and saddleback into my DT from 6 weeks of quarantine. It took the falcula about 20 minutes to go after the corals. I have 5 soft corals and he went after 3, including the green star polyps and the toadstool green polyps. The saddleback ignored them so far. I fed both heavily before the transfer from QT to DT but I guess it wasn't enough.

I will see whether it continues to be a problem tomorrow, but I guess I have no reason to expect it to get better. With my luck, the falcula will teach the saddleback to eat the corals also.

To correct this post, it turns out my "falcula" was a ulietensis (double saddle) instead. They are not listed as reef safe. After the initial couple of days of the ulietensis niping at ployps, neither butterflyfish has bothered them again when I was watching.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

The seller has acknowledged they mistakenly sent a ulietensis rather than a falcula and are going to ship me a falcula to make up for it. Has anyone had experience keeping a falcula and a ulietensis of roughly the same size together? They are fairly similar in appearance although there are clear differences. The ulietensis is supposed to be peaceful and the falcula semi-aggressive, so it would seem that I have the right order adding the falcula second. I don't want to go bigger on the falcula as I like the medium size fish (1.5-3").