Butterflies with SPS

cmpenney

cmpenney

New member
What has everyone experiences been with Butterflies in SPS only tanks? I have no clams, zoas, LPS, or softies so I don't need to worry about picking on those types but I'm looking for a butterfly I can add as a pair to an SPS tank and reasonably not worry too much about them wiping out the corals.

I can deal with them picking once in a while, it happens, but I don't want something that is going to see the SPS as a primary food source.
 
The "most safe" would probably be Hemitaurichthys polylepis (Pyramid Butterfly), although you could keep many other species with minimal picking.
 
Well, it depends a bit on your system. I am keeping a Prognathodes Butterfly in an SPS reef with minimal picking on SPS (almost none, and certainly no damage). Some of these fish do have other special requirements though, like a lower temperature around 75. Some would also consider them quite expensive.

Since they are deeper water butterflies, I believe they don't pick much since SPS is not normally encountered in their natural habitat.

Beyond that, you could try a Copperband (which has a very poor track record in terms of survivability), or a YLN, however I don't believe they're quite as safe and have no experience with them.
 
I have always been told to stay away from butterfly fish they eat coral in the wild so I am sure they would probably eat your sps. However I like to push the limits of what I can keep in my reef. If it becomes a problem you can remove it.
 
If you are talking about Chaetodon species, you're going to have a hard time. Trial and error... mostly error, would be my guess. I know our local club recently had Joe Yaiullo come speak to us about his 20,000g reef. From what he described, so far, a pair of C. semilarvatus are the only ones he's been able to leave in there... and they pick too.
 
Wow, that's interesting. I've always heard that Semilavartus are known to pick quite a bit and can decimate a reef. However, I think what you could do in a 20,000 gallon reef is very different than we can do in our systems!

I agree with you Peter, most Chaetondon are not well suited for a reef. Also, if you check out Coral Magazine, there was a past issue (Nov/Dec 2009) about keeping Butterflies in reefs and it listed the relative safety of many species of butterflies. Keep in mind there is often a good deal of variability depending on the individual fish.

Unfortunately I can't find you a digital version.

One thing I will say, I love my butterfly and keeping it in an SPS reef has been a great experience. He is curious, smart (as fish go!), beautiful (although some might not appreciate it), and has a great personality!
 
I know someone who keeps a Copperband in SPS reef with some softies and does not have any problems. Finiky eater and took some time to train to eat mysis and can sometimes be hard to keep like said above, but are relatively cheap in comparison to many of the other butterflies;)

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
 
the more reef safe ones are

- pyramid butterflies
- prognathodes sp. (aya, marcellae, etc)
- forcipiger sp ( flavissimus, longirostris) [these guys are extremely safe. kept them over 10 times and none ate corals)
- chelmon sp. (rostratus, marginalis). [same as forcipiger]
- chaetodon tinkeri complex (these includes mitratus, declives, tinkeri, burgess, flavocoronatus). these guys are one of the safer chaetodon species but they do nip LPS once in awhile, damage done isn't much though in my experience.

certain species of heniochus are pretty safe too.
 
tinkeri would be cool. I used to have a copperband in my SPS tank, for 2 years in fact, I long power outage while I was away from home cost me him as well as everything else in my display tank. Many of the fish were 8-12 years old and needless to say I was pretty upset.

So I'm planning to rebuild and I'm working on a plan to repopulate the tank again. I want to put in a butterfly and will go with a Copperband again if that is my only option other than a Pyramid but I'd like to look into something else. Possibly even try to get ahold of a pair if I can.
 
the safest bet would be pyramid, copper band and longnose.

i would go with either of these. or all 3. if you have a suitable tank size of course
 
The only butterflies that I have personally kept with corals are Chaetodon mitratus and a few Prognathodes species (i.e. aya, brasilliensis, etc.). I have never had any of these fish bother corals. Some minimal picking, but nothing that would cause permanent damage.

~Michael
 
I'm with Michael on this one....the Mitratus (and I think Tinker's and Declivis would be similar) and Prognathodes are beautiful, unusual, and do very well in reefs.
 
While I have not personally kept all of them, I would not hesitate to keep any of the species in the "tinkerii-complex" in a reef tank. Just be certain to consider the environment that these fish come from. Most of these species require cooler water temperatures than most reef tanks are kept at.

~Michael
 
There are only a few species of butterflies that can extract a polyp from its skeleton. I read an article on GBD that mentioned that they are not actually eating the polyp but upsetting it to get the mucus that the polyp excretes. So unless you want an ornate butterflie or one of the coral eating only butterflies then i would say no dont do it. If you dont mind spending a little money i say get a pair of mitratus butterflies. And polyp extenstion doesnt slow down coral growth.
 
only some butterflies can extract polyps out of SPS.

like ornate butterflies and the similarly shaped complex,

bennetti, plebeius etc, and the triangular complex.

the rest cant remove polyps and only peck at the mucus or 1 tentacle of the polyp at best. this will make the sps polyps retract and there will be no to minimal polyp extensions, like in the wild.

polyp extensions resume at night. so if you ask me, what's all the fuss about? not many butterflies actually do harm the SPS.
 
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