butterflies in reefs

aqua - i have

marginalis
yellow longnose
fremblii
declivis
mitratus
a 1 inch baby guenther's butterfly (it's mitratus 2.0. i'm gonna photo track it's growth)
i lost a few along the way for no reason like my paucifasciatus.

drew
- of course a smaller one would be better and nicer. so far none of my butterflies have bothered any of my clams and bubble tips. FYI i have 2 head sized bubble tips and they are clownfish-less with nothing to protect them against nippy fish. so far so good for me.

peter
- well if you've seen some really cool large sized mitratus in the wild, the are really solid yellow with little white. my guess is they lose more white and gain more yellow as they grow, but that's just a guess. so far mine lost most of it's white and is really yellow as you can see from the photo.

and yes, the eye-spot thingy goes away with age. it's a juvenile thing only. most butterflies have eye spots on their soft dorsal as juveniles and lose them as they grow. mitratus has a weird oval shaped one which doesn't really look like an eye spot, but it's there, and it goes away with age.

as for the fremblii, mine has coloured up and has gotten reaaaaly fat now. it's fatter than the declivis! and he loves eating flake, pellets and chopped seafood. this guy's really obese.
 
here are some adult mitratus butterflies in the wild.

check out the awesome solid yellow colours these guys have.

maybe the intense yellow is hard to achieve in the tank? fish are of course, much better coloured in the wild.





 
Perched Urchin said:
Lemon and Peter,
Thanks for continuing this thread. I have been following for months now.
I can't recall if either of you have posted a list of the corals you have in your tanks along with the BF's. Obviously in your tank shots we can see most, but I would really like to know the types you have and if there are any that just had to go (or the BF's decimated them). I think Lemon has clams as well, right?
Not looking for an omnibus list, just a high level of the types of SPS, LPS, polyps, softies/leathers. Your pictures seem to show a very wide variety.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Thought this might have gotten lost as we moved to the next page. I have since seen posts that Lemon has clams and BTAs, but still wondering about the types of corals and if there are any that even when they are healthy are just too delectable for the BFs to resist.
 
hi sorry if i have ignored this question by accident!

i have sps, lps and soft corals.

my LPS include

euphyllias
turbinaria
lobophyllia
caulestra

the only coral that has been attacked is the caulestra when it was injured. and this was done by my centropyge angels instead of my butterflies.

i have SPS too from a wide range of genus, but mainly acropora. my butterflies occasionally nip at the SPS but no damage has been done except when the SPS is experiencing RTN/STN. when having tissue necrosis, the additional pecking of the butterflies destroyed them completely. so far the only butterflies that have directly caused damage to the SPS were my paucifasciatus butterflies, which are gone now, unfortunately.

My soft corals include

xenia
lobophyton
sarcophyton
sinularia
nephthea
litophyton

the only soft coral that was nipped on was the litophyton, by the fremblii butterfly. this happens a few times a day but the nipping is very light and not serious. the fremblii butterfly is well fed and i think that is why the nipping is not harmful. plus, the corals are large so any damage is not obvious at all.

my anemone species include

phymanthus
entacmea

so far the phymanthus and entacmea (bubble tips) are completely ignored.

i hope this helps
 
Whose picking up this tinkeri hybrid? What a beauty!!!

lg-1013111-469.jpg
 
i'm very skeptical about that declivis x tinker's hybrid.

i'm not doubting liveaquaria, but that to me, looks like a normal declivis.

there are two subspecies of declivis. C. declivis declivis, and C. declivis wilderi.

one of them is entirely blackish like the one pictured above, and the other is yellow.





here are two old photos of my declivis.

these are the brown variants. don't they look exactly like the one above?

the only thing strange is the anal fin which has alot of black. that region is yellow in declivis but black in tinker's. that's the only visual indication of the hybrid. so it could be a hybrid, but a really subtle one.

moreover, the fish is listed as christmas island declivis x tinker's hybrid.

i don't think you can find tinker's butterflyfish in the christmas islands. they're pacific ocean species and can be found in hawaii, marshall and johnston islands.
 
I love this hybrid! Probably because I prefer the dark declevis variety... probably becasue I prefer tinkeri ;)
 
Well I am proud to say I can now join the ranks of this thread! My yellow longnose butterfly is now out of quarantine and in the reef!
IMG_0648.jpg

Not the best picture but you get the idea. Still a bit on the skinny side but she will fatten up quickly. In quarantine she ate mysis and now in the DT she is eating NLS pellets which is autofed 3 times a day. Also, it is in a tank with a large Hawaiian feather duster and a small coco worm. She has swam by both and paid no mind to either of them, YET. 3 days in so far.

I have a Copperband in QT right now doing well. We are almost ready for a prazi treatment.

I was really looking forward to getting a saddleback until I read Peters account with this :( Seems to be not many "safe" choices except for deepwater butterflies. PIA has a really sweet hybrid but I can't justify dropping 7 bones for it
523-967-thickbox.jpg


Most the other "safer" butterflies are yellow. I have enough yellow in my tank now between the longnose, my Moorish Idol and my yellow coris wrasse.

Any suggestions on what my next butterfly should be?
 
I don't know that I'd rule out the saddleback so quickly, considering you have a morrish idol in there. My saddleback ate mushrooms, euphyllia, and majanos, but that's it. Who's to say they all would be the same.
 
I've had my Idol since Feb 14th 2011. I havent had any issues with the Idol nipping or eating any corals. It sure does love to mow through my expensive money making macros though!
 
Here are a few photos of my Butterflies, both past and preset.

This little guy was about the size of a quarter when I got him, such a cute little fish.

SANY0183.jpg


SANY0164-2.jpg






SANY0675-1.jpg




SANY0670-1.jpg


~Michael
 
the only prognathodes we've seen here so far are marcellae, aculeatus and aya. the aya were big.

no brasiliensis! i love it!
 
It has been a while since I have seen any P. brasiliensis. A few years back (3 or so) there seemed to be an influx of this species in the US (still not huge numbers) and this is when I got mine out the Divers Den.

One reason this fish may not be super popular is the fact that it is often found in much cooler water than many butterfly species.

~Michael
 
Since moving my marginalis and saddleback into the FO, my QT was painfully empty. So I had to remedy the situation :)

I picked up a burgessi. Beautiful, underrated fish!! It is a bit more cream colored than the stark white fish I was expecting. Actually, it's more like each white scale has a small yellow tinted dot on it. Is this a regional thing?

I originally wanted mitratus, but after realizing they lose any white, and just become yellow and black, I decided against one, since the pair of YLN in my reef satisfy that color combo :) . No pics yet... I believe in the curse :rollface:
 
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