butterfly fish

[Patriot54]

What is the most reef safe butterfly

 

[snorvich]

Yellow pyramid. Some people think Copperbands are, but I disagree.

 

[Patriot54]

Yellow pyramid. Some people think Copperbands are, but I disagree.

Why do you disagree

 

[snorvich]

Because they are not reef safe, or at least not all are reef safe. Also, not all will eat aiptasia; some will, others not.

 

[OneArmedBandit]

I personally don't consider any Butterfly "reef safe". I have a Copperband, Burgess and a Lemon (Millaris) Butterfly in my FOWLR. I decided to go FOWLR because I wanted multiple Butterflies; however, I can say that my Lemon Butterfly did not touch a single coral in my previous softie/ LPS reef. -Steve

 

[Beaun]

Pyramid butterflys are reef safe except for the VERY rare occurance, all others have a much higher chance of eating corals.

 

[falconut]

Agreed, Pyramid B/F's are thebest bet, but I think mine finished off my small neon green trumpet coral. It disappeared shortly after adding the B/F, but I didn't see it do it or go near any other coral. I only had it a few months though. I've had my Copperband for7 months now and he doesn't bother anything. I don't have feather dusters or fan worms or he would have probably eatten them. I don't know about aiptasia, because I didn't have it. Just make sure if you get a Copperband it eats at the LFS and you can get live blackworms. I read that the Longnose B/F may be, but I've never had any experience with them. So, I'd have to say it would be between the Pyramid and the Copperband, but it's never a guarantee. HTH

 

[elFloyd]

I have had my Longnose Butterflyfish for over six months... no problems at all... but YMMV.

 

[ntropics]

My lemon butterfly pretty much tears apart any zoanthid that I put into the tank. I have to hide them from him, and then I really can't see them anyway. He leaves the ricordia, mushrooms, closed brain corals and fungia alone, however.


Bruce

 

[skibum9884]

also depends what you're keeping. "reef-safe" for me is different than others because i'm only keeping SPS. what types of corals are you keeping?