Chaetodon Auriga in a reef aquarium?

[DJasak]

Hello everyone!

I suspect this thread to get a lot of discussion based on the title, but I am curious. I know chaetodon are not reef safe but I read on orphek.com that if you keep mostly softies that auriga are considered relatively safe. Has anybody tried this? What did u find? I love the butterflies, super pretty fish and would love to have an auriga or others if it may be possible. What corals would u reccomend and what ones should I shy away from? If it is possible what kind of things should I use to feed to help try to keep it from nipping at the corals? Just curious to see if it is indeed possible to have this beautiful fish in my tank or if I should not even consider it. Thank you all for your input!

 

[mcgyvr]

http://www.fishchannel.com/saltwate...sh/butterflyfish-and-coral-compatibility.aspx
http://www.bioaquaria.com/?p=7717

 

[CStrickland]

Have a look at the chaetodon miliaris. When I was deciding on my fish list that one seemed to be less risky than a lot of other butterflies. I think I'm going to risk it, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet so I can't speak from experience. I signed up for the email alerts on liveaquaria and they got them in stock about every other month. So while they aren't always around, they can be gotten pretty easily.

 

[Jonvo324]

I had one before in a softie only tank. Mainly toadstools, green star polyps, Xenia, Kenya tree, mushrooms and zoanthids. The first day I added it, it ate one Xenia polyp, but spit it out and never ate one again.
After a few months, maybe 3-4 my green star polyps started not showing any polyps. I had a few non-reef safe fish: emperor angelfish, moorish idol, Auriga butterflyfish, flame and coral beauty dwarf angel. I finally saw the butterfly eat the coral. The wierd thing was it only ate the GSP that were on the sand bed, not on the rocks.
I placed the butterfly in an acclimation box and polyps returned. I released it after a few weeks to see if it would stop, but as soon as I did it went straight for the GSP.
I also fed four times a day: Frozen (mysis, clam, Angel formula) twice and dry (flakes/pellet) twice. Also nori and new era grazer



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[pyithar]

i would personally not take the risk. i'm too afraid of losing expensive corals. having said that, i have a Hemitaurichthys polylepis in my mixed reef and it's been reef safe so far. i've also tried a Chaetodon xanthurus in another tank and it's not reef safe at all. i had to sell it in the end.

 

[scooter31707]

It's not too many Butterflies that are reef-safe.

 

[DJasak]

Thank you for all the responses, my LFS has 2 baby auriga available right now, I have mostly softies (mushrooms leathers, xenia) with a couple LPS and SPS pieces mixed in. My hammer is my prized possession so I don't think I'll risk it. Would have been to try but I'm not willing to risk upsetting my entire set up for this 1 fish. Maybe some day I'll set up a separate butterfly tank