Butterfly Fish Quarantine

[scooter31707]

Hello All,

I have decided to change the route of my tank. I have 16 or so corals in my tank, but I want to add some more action to the tank possibly going FOWLR, as I got a 4ft 120 gallon tank, so the real colorful Tangs are out of the question. Anyway, I am thinking about purchasing Pakistan and the Pearalscale Butterflies. Trust me, I know they have the potential of eating the corals, so be it if they do or they don't. if they don't, it's cool because I get best of both worlds. My question is, some butterflies presents a challenge of getting them to eat due to stress or illness. I was wondering, if it is safe to do the TTM upon delivery or putting them in the QT first and get them eating before during the TTM? Thanks!

 

[MondoBongo]

i usually go right in to an uncycled TTM tank, then i have two days to get them eating before their first transfer.

the only butterfly i've done this with was a copper band. i made sure he was eating in the store, and brought him home right in to the first TTM tank.

you're going to need to put them somewhere, so might as well be a TTM tank, and if they don't eat, you can always wait to start TTM a few more days, and just keep changing water to keep the tank clean.

 

[scooter31707]

Thanks for the info. Honestly I am worried about them not eating by being stressed or having some type of disease. If they do have an illness I am afraid of sticking them in the QT and get that infected. I will have no idea if they are eating, I will be taking a chance with that as I will be ordering from LA.

 

[lespaul339]

I have a copperband in my reef and he does ok. Butterflies are so cool and worth the risk in a reef tank IMO. I also have a yellow long nose in my QT tank right now that I plan on adding to my reef. What I'm doing with my yellow long nose is getting him to eat for a week and then I'm going to start TTM on him. That way if he gets stressed out and stops eating from the TTM he has a weeks worth of food in him. A word of advice, live black worms work really well to get picky eaters to start eating.

 

[A.Astore]

Pearlscale was one fish we were disappointed to have to cut from the stocking list when we decided we wanted coral. We had one in our old tank and it was so interesting to watch him interact. Hopefully you get lucky like we did because that fish came in a pig and was still a pig when we sold the tank due to a move.

I would do as the above poster suggested. Put them in the tank 1, if they eat you continue on your schedule. If they don't you can easily give them a few more days until they settle in a bit with just continued water care. Yeah, you could potentially cause a longer QT due to not flipping them to the new tank by hour 72 but it would mean you are already moving along if they do eat before the first transfer. I have noticed with the TTM that my fish never seem stressed when I catch and flip them to the next tank. I have it set up exactly the same even in terms of where everything hangs in there so they don't seem to skip a beat, just head right for their typical chill spot. Some may even tell you to just do the TTM. I know my Royal Gramma came in sick and hating life. The first transfer I thought he was going to kill himself but this last transfer he almost willingly swam in the item I use to move them (if only I could pat his head and say good fish).

The other thing is, do you plan to start the process with more than one. If so, a third tank could be beneficial possibly should you have some decide to eat while others don't. That way you can keep the TTM moving for those that have eaten rather than stall all of them.

Hope you get a swarm of hungry butterflies so your extra planning is unneeded!