Considering removing my tangs

[SDguy]

Likewise. I much prefer butterfly fish to tangs. My relatively new usage of blackworms has made my interest increase considerably. Now if I can just get up the energy to breed and enhance brine shrimp . . .

I too have found the addition of live blackworms as a critical step in keeping butterflies fat.

From what I have heard mitratus are pretty aggressive. You might have to add it last is you decide to go with one.

Good to know, thank you.

So far day 2 with my copperband and it's out and about. the only one paying any attenion to it is my yellow tang ,but even that is half hearted. the butterfly is about half the size of the yellow and that seems to help with the butterfly ducking in to cracks the yellow can't fit in.. so far so good. keeping my fingers crossed

Glad to hear!

First option is to quarantine butterflies until you have them eating profusely and are fat, this may take 4-8 weeks.

Second option which is what I do, have done, and would do. Get the butterflies eating through quarantine, when they are ready to go to the DT switch them with the tangs. In other words put the tangs in the quarantine and the butterflies in DT. Wait 2-4 weeks for the butterflies to get settled. Re-add the tangs to the DT at exactly the same time. Tang aggression is almost always due to territory, removing them from the tank for a time period resets their territorial aggression (most of the time). Works well for me.

I always QT butterflies for 2 months. Removing the tangs temporarily is a good idea.

oh no you didnt!!

marginalis is my fav chelmon sp and only 2 have ever came. i bought one of the two but it died mysteriously after almost 1 year of keeping!

never came ever since and everyday those that are unsold at LADD makes me want to cry!!!

i love your scrapbook btw! old style marine tank. so retro!

Yeah, I'm thrilled to get the marginalis. I've always liked them more than standard CBB... not sure why, I just do.

What? I have been away from the hobby for too long. You are keeping Butterflyfish in reefs now? How? Are they safe for the most part?

Only a very few particular species, IMO. Majority are still big no-no's

 

[SDguy]

 

[bradleyj]

Nice Peter. Is it from Divers Den? And will you still Qt for this one also?
I thought about one from DD before I bought my Kleins for pest control.

 

[LemonLemon]

marginalis is a super gorgeous fish that's very hard to come by where i'm from.

you will love it. it's extremely greedy and pig like. it's like a copperband on steroids. can't go wrong with it. lovely lovely fish.

 

[SDguy]

I will QT. Not sure I'll go through the full two months. Feeding acclimation will probably take longer than any disease issues with a DD specimen.

 

[Laddy]

Yeah, I'm thrilled to get the marginalis. I've always liked them more than standard CBB... not sure why, I just do.

Thank god he's still sleeping this morning and cant read the screen from the living room......just ask the flasher wrasse when you get on his bad side :lol:

2years old next month.

Tons of info as you know about feeding butterflys on the forums, however, the single biggest step forward after two prior attempts to keep the copper was this (which I stole from the CBB Primer page):

I used this during the QT process, for three weeks. I should have gone a few weeks more, but if I remember correctly, I had a business trip to the east coast, and the wife doing water changes on the Q tank would have been a nightmare After I placed him in the DT I glued this to an old cleaning magnet.....I really believe it helped having a dedicated feeding "bowl" for him.

Can't wait to see pics of your M!

 

[SDguy]

That's a GREAT idea. Even if this marginalis eats well, he will have a hard time competing with a;ll the other fish. Having a little feeding "station" that only he can poke into is a really neat trick!

 

[SDguy]

OK, he's in QT, and already ate some minced sliced diver scallop

 

[aquaph8]

Awesome fish, I hope he does great for you.

 

[SDguy]

Well, so far so good. The diver scallop isn't really his favorite... he'll choke down a couple pieces if it's the first thing I feed him when I get home from work, but he's not thrilled about it, and chews on it for a while before finally swallowing it.

Raw shrimp, on the other hand, he really enjoys. He'll suck down quite a bit, resulting in a round belly (which unfortunately doesn't take much). It's sort of amazing to me how THIN these fish are. This guy is nice and rounded, but still, compared to a tang, or even, say, my C. collare, quite thin.

So far the most shocking thing - he doesn't care for live blackworms


On another front, those of you familiar with my yellow longnose butterfly pairing experiment will be interested to hear that I removed the small one from the FOWLR and added it to my reef. The tangs don't even look at it. I'm happily surprised It was clear that they were not a pair, constantly fighting during feeding time. heck, even if they were a pair, it just wasn't comfortable to watch, so splitting them up I think was the best move. I am a bit concerned with the amount of flow in my reef. The YLN seems to have a bit of trouble dealing with it, especially when it comes to grabbing food. Obviously the anthias are much quicker. Considering this, I'm wondering if the reef will be the best place for the marginalis, or if it will be better off in the FOWLR...

 

[SDguy]

 

[Big E]

I am a bit concerned with the amount of flow in my reef. The YLN seems to have a bit of trouble dealing with it, especially when it comes to grabbing food. Obviously the anthias are much quicker. Considering this, I'm wondering if the reef will be the best place for the marginalis, or if it will be better off in the FOWLR...

I had issues with anthias & a tang being too fast & trained my Mueller to take food at the front of the tank right in front of him. He'll also take food from my fingers if you want to train for that. With the marginalis still in QT it should be easy to train him. You can probably still train the longnose the same way.

Where ever the fish goes along to front glass near the top throw a chunk of food in front of his head. It's easiest to do it downstream. It won't take long for him to figure out the routine.

 

[SDguy]

I'm also considering using that feeding "station" made of PVC with holes for the butterflies.