flameangel88
New member
Here is the picture of the birthday boy. He has been like this since day 1.:fun4:
Thanks for the picture...looks much better than in the video. Beautiful fish!
Larvatus, Happy Birthday!
- Thread starter seafishfans
- Start date
Thanks for the picture...looks much better than in the video. Beautiful fish!
seafishfans
New member
Congrats on keeping him that long.
Does it only do that when begging for food, or does it do it alot?
Only when the fish was bored I guess.:lmao: It does it at night occasionally....very active, very athletic...
I feed the fish every morning. It will swim straight to the feeding box waiting to be served.... just like a puppy. Really cool.
seafishfans
New member
Thank you.:jester:
Dr Colliebreath
New member
Please show us the feeding box a bit more clearly and explain how you made it or where you bought it.
Do you put it sideways for the fish to go in and then turn it up for the fish to be in it alone to eat?
Do you put it sideways for the fish to go in and then turn it up for the fish to be in it alone to eat?
seafishfans
New member
You can get the box from the local fish store. It is just a normal fry breeder box with a gate on the side. Butterflyfish has a unique body shape like no other. The idea is to make a narrow opening on the side so that the butterflyfish can get in and out freely but not the larger angels. How you do that depends on the design of the fry breeder box.
The video below was taken a while back when I had the smaller fry breeder box. All I did was to turn the gate side ways so it had a narrow opening where the butterflyfish was able to swim in and out. You can see the Larvatus was looking for food in the box and coming back out without trouble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul89FYzeC-s
Before you release the fish from your quarantine tank, you need to train the fish to swim into the box. Otherwise, the fish will think it is a trap and will never swim in when you release it.
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Ooulophilia
New member
Truly impressive - my hat is off to you. It really goes to show how the hobby is advancing - after orange spot filefish, here we have the second of the "impossible" fish to be kept in captivity eating flakes.
Please, keep us updated.
Please, keep us updated.
InsaneClownFish
New member
I just lost all my fish to Irene. That's the first video I've seen that actually made me smile...Thank you! Beautiful fish.
seafishfans
New member
seafishfans
New member
Sorry about your lost. Must be a nightmare to lose all your fish....Hope you can get over it soon.
MidMichiganReef
New member
Very nice fish, I used to have a Xmas wrasse that would swim around my vortech in the exact same way...
Dr Colliebreath
New member
My falcula does a similar loop in my QT, but not around a powerhead or other strong water movement. I will be interested to see if it continues in the DT.
My ulietensis started to swim horizontally (instead of the normal vertical body position) shortly after I put it in the DT, darting in and out of the rockwork with great bursts of speed. The next day, the saddleback started doing it also. After a couple of days, both stopped. Both are less than 3", so they are relatively young. It was like they discovered their ability to swim turned 90 degrees and were showing off, and then got tired of it or learned it didn't get them extra food. I should have rewarded them with a treat for the performance to see if they would have kept it up.
My ulietensis started to swim horizontally (instead of the normal vertical body position) shortly after I put it in the DT, darting in and out of the rockwork with great bursts of speed. The next day, the saddleback started doing it also. After a couple of days, both stopped. Both are less than 3", so they are relatively young. It was like they discovered their ability to swim turned 90 degrees and were showing off, and then got tired of it or learned it didn't get them extra food. I should have rewarded them with a treat for the performance to see if they would have kept it up.
seafishfans
New member
Do you think these behaviour show that the fish is actually doing great and enjoying itself? I thought only dolphine does that in the wild. In my first video, the white face also swam in loop for a short moment. I guess they do have the intellegence to learn from each other...maybe?
Dr Colliebreath
New member
I think they are playing around and enjoying themselves. The loop your white face butterfly was doing is quite similar to the loop my falcula was doing. My falcula has done its loop off and on over a handful of weeks. Also, I have a powerhead on the bottom of my QT pointing at a corner and my longnose butterfly sometimes swims down the corner and rides the current back up, over and over. It also does slo-motion backflips when checking the water's surface for food. All of these actions are controlled and repeated so I think it is deliberate behavior for fun and not a sign of anything wrong.
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seafishfans
New member
Great!. Good to know. Thanks Frank.
SnRFishies
New member
I thought my tang was the only weird fish to do that lol. My tang does it all the time when he's excited just like that
seafishfans
New member
:lmao: Even fish has playtime.
I figured maybe I would just add to this thread, rather than starting my own. I wanted to share my recent experience with C. larvatus.
I received a larvatus from LADD February 16th. It came in looking great, not skinny, perfect health. I tried everything under the sun, including the various methods mentioned in this (or hiw other) thread (shrimp paste, etc). Nothing worked. It would try everything, but swallow nothing. Finally I found he would eat finely minced venus clams form the grocery store. By this time he way starting to look thin. Unfortunately, he passed last night. He never ate the clams off the halfshell, nor would he eat any minced clam that may have sat overnight in water in the fridge. So basically I had to mince the clam each day for feeding. I think maybe I could have made it work had I worked from home, but not being able to feed the fish until I got home from work just wasn't enough.
Again, congrats to the OP on his success with this gorgeous fish!
I received a larvatus from LADD February 16th. It came in looking great, not skinny, perfect health. I tried everything under the sun, including the various methods mentioned in this (or hiw other) thread (shrimp paste, etc). Nothing worked. It would try everything, but swallow nothing. Finally I found he would eat finely minced venus clams form the grocery store. By this time he way starting to look thin. Unfortunately, he passed last night. He never ate the clams off the halfshell, nor would he eat any minced clam that may have sat overnight in water in the fridge. So basically I had to mince the clam each day for feeding. I think maybe I could have made it work had I worked from home, but not being able to feed the fish until I got home from work just wasn't enough.
Again, congrats to the OP on his success with this gorgeous fish!
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