Getting Blue Spot Butterfly to eat.

[davez104]

I have a Blue Spot Buterfly fish, Chaetodon plebeius, that is proving difficult to get started eating. I feed a home made seafood mix mostly. There is one small LPS coral on the side of a clam that the butterfly has been munching on, so I stuck some of my food over the coral in the hopes that the butterfly would pick the food, but no good. Are there any tricks to getting these little buggers to feed?

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[JamesJR]

Unfortunately this all to common for Chaetodon. Plebius.

 

[LemonLemon]

plebeius are obligate coral eating butterflies.

doomed to die.

its too thin too

 

[SDguy]

While older, the WWM breakdown of butterflies for captivity is arguably still pretty good. Might want to go through it prior to buying another butterfly, so as to avoid problematic species. GL!

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BFsBestWrst.htm

 

[davez104]

Thanks guys. The outlook doesn't look good. That link will come in handy, thanks Peter. I could blame the LFS for poor advice, but at the end of the day I am responsible for my purchases. I wrongly assumed that most Cheatodons would have similar feeding habits, given the ease with which my C mertensii began eating, I thought this one wouldn't be much more difficult. Wrong. Chalk it up to experience and a lesson in poorly researched purchases.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[snorvich]

Thanks guys. The outlook doesn't look good. That link will come in handy, thanks Peter. I could blame the LFS for poor advice, but at the end of the day I am responsible for my purchases. I wrongly assumed that most Cheatodons would have similar feeding habits, given the ease with which my C mertensii began eating, I thought this one wouldn't be much more difficult. Wrong. Chalk it up to experience and a lesson in poorly researched purchases.

Cheers,
Dave.

Peter's link is excellent. But the real issue is your LFS bringing in the fish at all. THAT in itself would make me distrust them for selling an animal they know cannot survive just because it is pretty and will likely sell to someone who does not know the true situation.

 

[Bret61081]

Peter's link is excellent. But the real issue is your LFS bringing in the fish at all. THAT in itself would make me distrust them for selling an animal they know cannot survive just because it is pretty and will likely sell to someone who does not know the true situation.

Sometimes when you order fish direct from over sea's, you get fish you don't want. They used to add fish to our orders and label them misc. Some times when going over the invoices, they would send the wrong fish as well, so you cant always blame the stores for ordering these fish. Some stores do just to bring in pretty fish, but I know first hand that you often get fish you do not order.

 

[Big E]

Sometimes when you order fish direct from over sea's, you get fish you don't want. They used to add fish to our orders and label them misc. Some times when going over the invoices, they would send the wrong fish as well, so you cant always blame the stores for ordering these fish. Some stores do just to bring in pretty fish, but I know first hand that you often get fish you do not order.

It's still the stores fault............they need to order from better suppliers or threaten to buy elsewhere. Most of those stores know they can sell those swimming dead fish to newbies...........they usually label them as assorted butterflies for $20 or under.


Most often this comes from those cheap Indonesian junk suppliers.


davez104,
As far as getting the fish to eat there was one guy with a pair of these that were eating, but he got them very tiny. I don't think he was doing anything special feeding wise but you may want to do a search on plebius, get his handle, & pm him on care.

 

[Big E]

Look in this thread......he has some pics too. I don't know the current status of these fish. "Umm, fish" is his handle.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1638647&highlight=butterflyfish&page=2

 

[rpjaws74]

this might sound silly but I usually carry my fish guide book any time I go to my LFS.. it saves me money and more importantly I discourage lfs from bringing these types of fish..of course assuming they are bringing them in cause they are cheap