Butterfly's

[jer77]

I am in the process of adding fish back into my 180. I used to have 6 fish in it before the blizzard last year. Then everything but a blue tang turned up dying. So I started again to add the same fish to my tank.

I started with a full grown blue tang and a kole tang. I just added two butterfly's like I used to have, a Falcula and a Semi golden. They are smaller(2.5''-3.5'') than the ones I used to have which prob makes my problem harder, cause they don't eat any fish food. They just roam around he tank pecking at the rocks. This is not good cause eventually whatever they are pecking at is going to disappear and they will slowly starve to death. I am wondering if they will ever realize they have to eat what I'm feeding them. I've tried feeding them pretty much everything without success. This is a very common problem with butterfly's I know, but I just want to know if I can do anything to help them eat, and to figure out what the survival rate is with fish like this?

 

[snorvich]

What are you feeding? My C. semilarvatus and C. falcula eat: Roggers Food from a feeding clip, clams on the half shell, two kinds of mysis, capelin fish roe, live blackworms.

 

[jer77]

I am feeding them(or trying to at least):

Brine Shrimp
PE and smaller Hikari Mysis Shrimp
Green, Purple and Red Seaweed
Spectrum pellets(small ones)(I was told the Semi was eating them when I ordered it)
Cyclop-eeze Wafers
Ocean Nutrition Brine Shrimp Flake
Omega One Kelp Flake

I haven't tried anything live, clams or smaller stuff like fish eggs. Do you think growing brine or mysis shrimp help them out, or other live stuff?

 

[jer77]

And, if live food would help, what type and where is a good place to get it?

 

[snorvich]

If they will not eat at all, often times brine or live black worms will get them started. Long term, brine has insufficient nutritional value.

 

[Big E]

Use a rubberband to tie a piece of raw shrimp, scallop or clam to a rock. They don't naturally eat food from the water column. Once they start eating that they go for it floating in the tank.

You can also use a feeding clip or your magnet cleaner.

This is a big reason why BF's need to be QT'd. You have to train them to eat food differently than how they do in the wild. It can be a pain when the other fish in the tank eat it all. I would be a good idea if you could use a piece of egg crate & divide them from the tangs so they can pick at the food without the tangs eating it all. You can pull it out once they are eating.

 

[jer77]

I'll try the live brine if it doesn't cost too much. I'll also try to anchor some food, and try to separate the tangs if they become a harassment. I guess I was really lucky to get two butterfly's last time that ate anything and only picked at a single coral, xenia. I think I got them a lot bigger last time, which I think made it easier to train them to eat whatever. A big fish can't go days on end without eating compared to a smaller fish I guess. I hope these guys start eating and don't go after my clams or else I'll have to find a new home for them.

 

[snorvich]

I am unsure if size of fish has anything to do with it. My auriga is small, my falcuia is medium, and my semilarvatus is large. But I like Big E's suggestion.

 

[rssjsb]

A lot of people have reported success with live blackworms. They were about the same price as live brine last time I checked.

 

[ntropics]

I don't know if this will help, but I have a C. auriga, falcula, and semilarvatus. I feed the San Francisco Bay Brand angel and butterfly frozen, along with Mysis shrimp, red/greeen/brown nori, spirulina laced flakes, and saok in a small amount of garlic guard and selcon. They ate it without hesitation form day one. They also ate all of my ricordea!

Bruce