Butterfly fish from live aqaria (not divers den)

[geaux xman]

i really dont know much about BF's at all except for having terrible luck with them.
i'm not sure what killed my BF's, they were under cupramine(well less than .5) and prazi. the only thing i can think of is my initial dose was too much on one shot. i was doing .25 in a single instance, but the BF's died several days after, so i dont know.

heres the thread of the guy with several golden BF's.
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=173193&page=74

 

[jjk_reef00]

My blackback died today. He wasn't eating very well, only picking a little here and there. I didn't notice him loosing any weight and his behavior was normal up until today. He spent the last two hours laying on his side. When he did try to swim he swam sideways and upside down. It was not a pretty site.
Someone mentioned it may be cyanide, but I'm not sure. The fish was only 2.5" and the rest of them were 4" or more. I've heard it is hard to get the smaller ones to eat. I suspect this might have been the case along with the fact that that species might be more difficult than my others. If anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.

All the others are eating very aggressively and are at the recommended dose of cupramine with no ill effects.

 

[WuHT]

aw man thats unfortunate, tough to keep an eye on smaller fish. Glad to see that the other butterflies are taking cupramine's effect well (as was my experience as well with nearly all sorts of different butterflies)


In terms of butterfly growth, my pakistani grew from 1.5" inch to 4+" really quickly (maybe 3/4 of a year) and i've had a heniochus that exploded in growth from half an inch to almost 5" in about the same time span.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Thanks for the feedback, your experience is encouraging to hear. What is your feeding regiment?

 

[WuHT]

If anything I underfeed. I feed about 2-3 pinches of NLS pellets (back when the butterflies were small they'd still go around trying their best to fit pellets too large into their mouth) twice daily. On days where I am home, I triple the number of feedings. The butterflies were pretty much the only fish willing to eat the pellets off the sandbed though, so they kept eating while the rest of the fish gave up and swam around.

 

[Editour2]

Very interesting thread. My goal is to add 3 pyramid butterflies to my main DT (215 gal reef tank) at some point. I have not had an easy time in attempting to accomplish this. My initial purchase of 3 pyramids did not work out well since within 14 days they perished. These fish were approximately 5" and did not eat from inception. I was hesitant to treat with prazi since that further inhibits eating. I finally did treat them with prazi....after visible signs of what I now believe to be fluke but I think I waited to long... A second attempt was made when I recently purchased 2 pyramids from Liveaquaria. After acclimation 1 was swimming either upside down or sideways however within a day it seemed better. There was some kind of small growth under one of it's lower fins so as a precautionary measure this time I treated right away with prazi. These 2 were eating like pigs on day 2. After about 13 days and the growth diminishing this same fish developed a small growth by one of it's eyes yet was still eating and swimming normally. That same day...about 4 hours later the fish was visibly distressed....I again treated with prazi and was going to perform a water change later that day. 2 hours later the fish was dead......I don't know why. The second fish is still fine and eating normally. I have seen these pyramids go 40 days without eating and then all of a sudden show an interest and then begin eating. I am hoping that this second pyramid survives and I can eventually add 2 more.....reading threads like this helps educate and therefore I thank you all for your input.

 

[jjk_reef00]

40 days wow! I've noticed that if they are at all sick they will not eat. Much more sensitive than angels I've previously kept. My raccoon must have had flukes because he hardly ate until I dosed with prazi, then began eating almost everything. I'm thinking that it is better to treat both cupramine (ramp up slowly) and prazi within a few days of receiving these fish. My dot-dash will go on at least a one day hunger strike if anything changes. I removed the rock hunger strike, I did a water change hunger strike. And he only eats very very small pieces of food while all the other ones will eat whole pe mysis shrimp with no problem.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Everyone is in the dt. I spent last night removing the tuxedo damsel which was the only fish who survived the power outage. I had to remove 80% of the rock out of my tank to get him. Over the past two weeks I've tried fish hooks fish traps but nothing worked. I was hopping he would be peaceful with the other fish but he beat up the raccoon within 5 minutes of acclimating. The raccoon is happy and eating today so I'm happy.

Last night:

 

[aquaph8]

Theres always a problem child it seems, glad you got him out.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Everyone is in the dt. I spent last night removing the tuxedo damsel which was the only fish who survived the power outage. I had to remove 80% of the rock out of my tank to get him. Over the past two weeks I've tried fish hooks fish traps but nothing worked. I was hopping he would be peaceful with the other fish but he beat up the raccoon within 5 minutes of acclimating. The raccoon is happy and eating today so I'm happy.

Last night:

Congrats on getting your butterflies through quarantine and into your DT. After this long with them, you should be (hopefully) good to go for a long life.

Too bad on having to rip out all of your rock. Too late now, but there is a sticky somewhere on RC where Anthony Calfo describes pumping most of the water into bins, grabbing the offending fish and then pumping the water back into the tank. That may not have been practical for you given the volume of your tank but it is an interesting approach.

 

[aquaph8]

How are they doing ED?

 

[jjk_reef00]

They are all doing very well. Getting fat and eating a ton. I've added 3 fish into my qt tank. A large 6" falcula, a teardrop, and a tahitian butterfly. The teardrop and tahitian are about 4" each. They eat everything and are very fat. My falcula has been in qt for a little over two week and isn't eating aggressively. He will pick at a little bit of food here and there. It is really strange because he doesn't appear to be losing any weight. I long while back I had a Naso in qt that didn't eat and he was skin and bones within 10 day. The falcula is separated from the others and I observed a good amount of scratching and head shaking so I started both cupramine and prazi on the second day. I'm going to keep them in qt until Friday and then they go into the display. I'm hopping the live rock and space will help the falcula come around. My others B/F's showed a dramatic increase in appetite after they went into the display so I'm hopping the falcula will come around.

 

[jjk_reef00]

The new guys have been qt for about 3 weeks and will go into the DT friday.
3 weeks of prazi and it will be 3 weeks at full copper this Sat.
I saw some severe shaking and scratching on the 2nd day of arrival so I started medicating immediately. The fish were from BZ and LA.

I lost a 2" lattice and a 3" saddleback about a week after I received them.

 

[jjk_reef00]

 

[jjk_reef00]

I cannot believe the falcula is still alive. He doesn't even look like he is loosing weight. I haven't seen him aggressively eat anything in 3 weeks. He will pick a little here and there but only small nips. My other 6 B/F's all eat like crazy. I'm hoping he will get an appetite when he goes into the DT with clean un-medicated water and lots of room to swim.

 

[jjk_reef00]

One thing that helps the falcula is to put some chaeto in the tank and spread a bunch of food inside. He stares at the chaeto and takes small bits every once in a while.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Ed,

My falcula (5") has been in my qt since the beginning of August and still isn't an aggressive eater. During the same period, the longnose has become an increasingly aggressive eater, although still picky. The falcula eats, but only in a deliberate, measured manner.

I will move both fish to the dt this weekend and wonder whether getting out of copper and having competition from more tankmates will cause the falcula to go after food more. I also wonder wheher falculas as a breed are more deliberate eaters and whether the older fish need less food as their growth rate and metabolism slow. My falcula ignores pellets and flakes that it used to eat, looking for frozen food, but it eats them when it sees no other food is coming.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't seen many people keeping falcula, and I'm afraid mine is going to just deteriate away from not eating enough. It is going to be interesting because I have a good amountflow in my tank, whereas my qt is low flow. Please share your experiences as you move forward, and I wish you luck with your falcula.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't seen many people keeping falcula, and I'm afraid mine is going to just deteriate away from not eating enough. It is going to be interesting because I have a good amountflow in my tank, whereas my qt is low flow. Please share your experiences as you move forward, and I wish you luck with your falcula.

I will do so, and good luck to you as well.

My QT was pretty low flow, and I added the powerhead lying on the bottom of the tank for the same reason as you express - I wanted to get the fish ready for the greater flow of the DT.

I have had the same thought about my falcula deteriorating away due to not eating enough because it eats far less and far, far less aggressively than butterflies half its size. I just think/hope that it doesn't need as much food given it is more mature. It is eating more the longer I have had it and it certainly isn't wasting away.

I think yours has been kept separated from the other butterflies in your QT, right, so it probably will adapt to more competition for food.

 

[jjk_reef00]

I add the teardrop, falcula and tahiti to the dt. They are all pacing the tank. The only aggression is from the Chaetodon auriga. He first gave some chase to all three but it wasn't anything too bad. The lights went out and he is defending his territory against the falcula and teardrop with most of the aggression focused on the teardrop. The crazy thing is that the Mertensii and auriga will test eachother every now and then. They flare up and turn a little sideways. No physical contact but definitely an aggressive act. The mertensi hasn't shown any aggression at all.