Long Nose Butterfly in a Reef?

Reefing102

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
Premium Member
Would this be possible to put in a soft coral reef with a hammer coral?

Tia
 
I have one in my reef for almost 1 month now. He bothered nothing but feather dusters (all gone) and my open brain. Not like he's killing the open brain. He occasionally stick his longnose into the coral's mouth and pull some tiny bits of mucus out. Other than that, very cool fish.
 
I have a long-nose with Xenia, open brain, hammers, mushrooms, ricordias, frogspawn, candy canes, SPS and clams.

No problems. Beautiful fish. I got one because another reefer also has one in a mixed reef tank and it worked out for him.

Sometimes, the YBF and the RS sailfin spar off, and it is funny to watch. Only last a few seconds and no harm is done to either fish.
 
great bump for no problems...however....if they nip it will be at fleshy things like clams and zoa's but usually after nipping zoa's they decided they dont like the taste
 
that will aslo work fine cause i don't have any clams or zoa's, all i got s xenia, sinularia, purple gorg, hairy shrooms, pale green/yellow rics, and hammercoral
 
Im still not sure if mine is compatible with clams. I really want to try a clam but... i don't have $30 to throw away to a BF XD

Also, good news, my longnose stopped bothering my open brain. I guess he figured out that corals aren't his food :)
 
Never had a problem with ours. At first it appeared to be nipping at one of our zooanthid colonies, but after watching it for a little while it turns out it was aiming between the polyps for whatever pods were trying to among them.

Awesome fish!
 
They're separate species. Never had a longnose, but Copperbands are cursed. First one I had never ate anything and died. Second one I had seemed nice and lively, but developed some kind of mouth injury, stopped eating and died. The last one was the best ever, he ate mysis, he was very active, and didn't bother anything (not even my feather duster) but something else nuked my tank with marine velvet and...he died. Hey maybe I'm the one who is cursed.

jds

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7951044#post7951044 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pete123
Does longnose include Copperband BF? I am considering one, but was told at my LFS that they do pick on soft.
 
after reading this thread i went out and got me a long nose butterfly as well.

nice addition i finally have some yellow to go in the tank. its settled in nicely... my purple and powder blue tangs were following the new comer around for a while then lost interest.

after the first night all the feather dusters were gone :lol: i havent seen it eat any mysis shrimp when i feed the tank (too big?) but it is readily accepting brine shrimp.

any suggestions as to what else i should be feeding it?
 
There are two different species of longnose butterfly (I do not have the scientifics on hand) but they call on "the big long nose". They are hard to tell apart (something to do with dorsal rays), but one is supposed to more "reef safe" than the other. Anyways, I kept them in my reef with Heniochus and yes, they decimate feather dusters and stole food from LPS, but left most everything else alone.
 
The Longnose BF is my favorite fish. I've had one for over 4 years now and he's a model citizen in my mixed reef. He eats mysis, any of the frozen formula foods and even flake food now, although that took quite a while.

One thing you may want to consider if you have aggressive feeders (including tangs) in the tank is finding a way to get food to him that ensures he doesn't lose out in the dash for food. Seems like they take such small bites that over time they lose out to faster feeding fish and eventually succumb.

I've had great luck using a clear plastic cylinder with small holes drilled in it (actually the intake tube from a Powersweep powerhead). I put a cube of formula food or mysis in and suspend it with fishing line in the tank and my Longnose quickly discovered the joy of plucking food out of the tube. Everyone else cleans up the extra pieces as he pulls them out!


Good luck with a great fish! I've
 
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