C. ulietensis vs. C. falcula in reef aquaria

Thanks for posting! I was going to buy a ulietensis tomorrow, as I saw yours was OK with your clams etc. I think being opportunistic feeders they will eventually have a "go" at most things, it all just depends on how much of a "go" you can tolerate with them I guess.

Still I have a choice of ulietensis, kleinii, citrinellus, rafflesi or tinkeri, but I think the tinkeri prefer cooler water so may not be an option anyway.
 
It's too bad photobucket really compressed the video to the point it's so pixelated it's unwatchable. I should try again with youtube maybe and see if it's any better.

Anyhow, I'm really torn. I really love these butterflies !! They are so pretty and are now pretty much eating everything I toss in (as food) to the tank: mysis, other frozen food, occasional flake, occasional pellet... but having the tank unintentionally turn into a FOWLR on me isn't good either. I'm giving serious consideration to turning a spare tank I have lying around into a "butterfly refugium" (ie., I'd drill it then tie it into the same sump).

All those b/f's you listed are pretty though. I have no idea how they compare to reef-safe or not. With the whole "falcula" vs "ulietensis" mixup in the first place it makes me wonder if I'd have the same issues with the true falculas although realistically maybe it would make little difference in terms of what would get picked at. I have no idea. I wish there would be more info "out there" as to what makes a fish "not reef safe". I was warned by the store that this fish wasn't reef safe, but when I pressed for details as to what would be at risk, all I got was "stuff."

At least now I know - it's tentacles that they seem to find irresistible. So anything with long feeders or polyps is probably at risk. I don't have any SPS but if I did I wonder if they would be sampling the Acro milliporas since those are always so fuzzy.

Anyhow good luck, please post pictures with whatever you end up getting. :)
 
SDguy said:
Yeah, isn't there one account of ulietensis in a LRAGE reef?

Personally, I've kept that fish twice. It ate anything and everything in the tank. I'm sure tank size plays a big role here....

No experience with falcula.
Click to expand...

we keep one each in a 6000 and 25 000+ (depends what you consider LARGE though), LPS, SPS, softies, anemones, and clams, and are model citizens. also have one other who didn't bother corals, but was extremely beligerent to tank-mates and is currently in time-out.
 
Here's a couple of pics

Here's a couple of pics

AT my friednds 375 mostly sps at the time w/o issues but feeding was on the heavy side. In a mature tank BTW
There was some lps and coco worms here and there that remained intact.
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nice aquarium but I don't see a ulietensis or falcula in it...

jd474- do you work for a public aquarium? What were you referencing?
jd474 said:
we keep one each in a 6000 and 25 000+ (depends what you consider LARGE though), LPS, SPS, softies, anemones, and clams, and are model citizens. also have one other who didn't bother corals, but was extremely beligerent to tank-mates and is currently in time-out.
Click to expand...
 
Gary Majchrzak said:
nice aquarium but I don't see a ulietensis or falcula in it...

jd474- do you work for a public aquarium? What were you referencing?
Click to expand...


yes, i work for a public aquarium. c. ulietensis is the butterfly of choice in all our indo-pacific reef tanks. raccoons also work well if only sps, and we use them in another 6 or so holding/propagation systems. i'm sure joe has a few in his tank as well, but i don't know what off-hand.
 
So any tips or tricks to suggest for keeping them in reefs and not nipping? I already feed heavy (nitrates at 30ppm.. blech .. ). I just sort of guessed that I was out of luck with them but if there's anything I can try, I'll do it ...
 
Just bought a pair of juv falculas, only 2" long, but they are just fantastic! Already scouring the reef looking for food, had a little taste of quite a few things only to spit them out, these included a Stylophora, Duncan, but went straight for one of my aptasia as well, so a bit of give and take I think. They certainly live up to the title omnivore so far. I will post pics up later.
 
Oh you found falcula eh? Ok, I am interested to see how they do for you. Please keep posting updates on them (since the whole original topic is ulietensis versus falcula anyhow. :) ) It would be hilarious (well, maybe not "hilarious") if they proved to be the safer option for majano control in a reef than the ulietensis (seeing as all this, at least to me, was begat by Terry Siegel's mis-ID'd falcula. Boo to that. I still feel silly that after all this time I went by just the written words without closely scrutinizing the photos. :hmm4: ) Anyhow can't wait to see the pics!
 
agreed

agreed

please keep us updated on your juv falculas right here in this thread. It sounds like you have a nice reef aquarium. Care to elaborate on what it contains? Got any pics? Are you located in the U.K.?
 
As promised

falcula1.jpg


falcula3.jpg


My tank is 4x2x2 mixed reef, so lots of polyps, zoas, etc, a few nice clams, some LPS, SPS and now NPS...
 
Wow, great aquascaping! Beautiful fish too. Got my fingers crossed for you that they behave over the long term. :)

PS. Pardon my dumbness, but what's "NPS" ?
 
delphinus said:
Wow, great aquascaping! Beautiful fish too. Got my fingers crossed for you that they behave over the long term. :)

PS. Pardon my dumbness, but what's "NPS" ?
Click to expand...

Thanks. As has been said, NPS are non-photosynthetic corals like gorgonians and Scleronephthya
 
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