butterflies in reefs

[jklaw]

anthony, great job on your latest book. i absolutely loved it and rank it at the top of the great reef books. after reading it, i immediately bought your book on coral propagation. i can't wait for your next one. (literally, i am coming to your house for the advance copy, JUST JOKING).

based on the advice in your book i upgraded the flow in my tank by adding two tunze 6000 stream pumps to get my water turnover to about 15X my volume. also, i added another set of vho's so that i have 6 X 6 foot 160 watt bulbs.

the increased circulation really seems to be helping with my valonia problem.

anyway, my question is i have a 125 gallon reef tank with mainly small fishes like gobies, etc, soft corals, a few lps, a few clams and a red bta. i have always liked butterfly fish. i currently have a golden angel (c. aurantia) and an african flameback. when i was researching pygmy angels , the general consensus was many had success but there was no guarantee. it depended more on whether you were willing to risk it, were you a fish person or a coral person. my angels have done fantasitc. i see them pecking at things, but there is never any evidence of damage and the pecking is only once in a great while.

do you think it is absolute folly to put a small butterfly in a reef. are there any particular ones you could recommend.

thanks for your time,
john

ps. my bubble tip has split twice and my yellow sea cuke has split once. isnt' that cool.

 

[jklaw]

clarification

clarification

i wanted to clarify that the advice i followed was to get adequate flow in the aquarium i know that you don't recommend powerheads but prefer the closed loop system but i'm a little lazy and a bit of a gadget fiend.

also, i was really happy with your acceptance of vho's as opposed to the general rule that metal halides are the light of choice for reefs. i had been considering upgrading to mh's ofr my clams but after i read your book i thought i would increase my vho's and see how the clams did under it. the depth from the sand bed to the surface of the water is 14 inches and my vho's are about 3 inches above that.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

No worries my friend... those Tunze streamers are truly outstanding I would never insult them by calling them a power head

Very good to hear about the improved water flow and success in your system! And grateful to hear that you've enjoyed my books. I'm working hard to try to get volume 2 of the NMA series out this year.

As to the butterflies, if you keep the tank truly peaceful enough, there are a few species that are no more of a risk than your dwarf angels to be sure. Copperband or Longnose yellow butterflies rank high on safety (and reasonably hardy with passive tankmates).

Be sure to QT them for a full month in advance to establish a level of comfort and feeding acclimation if nothing else. Please, truly do heed this advice. So many copperband butterflies would still be alive if aquarists had the patience to do this right/proper.

wishing you the best of luck!

Anthony

 

[Kirbster]

Anthony,

Not to muscle in on your fine forum here, but...

I have to give a shout-out to Chelmon muelleri, a close relative of the Copperbands. They're from Australia and are thus not common in the hobby in North America, but they look like a shorter-nosed copperband and are at the top of the reef-safeness monitor. They hail from mud flat environments, so eating corals is foreign to them and a good planktivorous diet keeps them going strong.

All of that is just IMHO...or more likely just plain old IMO.

 

[dougc]

Another possibility is the Pyramid butterfly Hemitaurichthys polylepis and the related Zoster Hemitaurichthys zoster. Both are mid-water plankton feeders and are supposedly reef safe. Also quite hardy, at least for butterflies.

 

[clsund]

What are the common names for these butterflys? thanks.

 

[Kirbster]

I have no idea what common names are used for C. muelleri ... maybe Mueller's Butterfly? I don't know. Doug gave the common names of his recomendations in his post.