Long Nose Butterfly in a Reef?

[Asuran]

dakota thats a great suggestion!

I am more target feeding it now with brine shimp while the tangs are busy chasing down the mysis shimp so i am sure that the butterfly is eating. it did nip my bubble the first day but hasn't given any of my corals a 2nd look

 

[Dakota Reef]

Its a pretty simple solution and I'm sure you can come up with something a little more elegant but it works for me and I'm convinced its been one of the reasons I've been able to keep my Longnose Butterfly for so long.

Here are a couple of pictures:

My Maestic Angelfish quickly learned to follow my Longnose to find the food!

One caveat if you do this, don't make the fishing line too long. I had to rescue a very distraught butterflyfish one night when he managed to get his gill cover caught on the fishing line and promptly wrapped it around a couple of rocks.

That was a bad scene!

I'll probably silicone the feeder to some airline tubing in the future.

Good Luck

 

[Asuran]

awesome pics! i will try to make something like that this weekend

i've seen my butterfly get its fair share of food last night and has also sampled some flake foods as well.

 

[Paul B]

I have always had long nose and copperband butterflies (almost 40 years) and never once had a problem with them nipping at corals. Long nose butterflies come from the South Pacific with predominately SPS corals. I have them in with my LPS and clams with no problems. Although you can usually get them to eat, they prefer worms. I give mine live black worms that have been fed Selcon every day along with the usual plankton and mysis. The one I have now also loves bananas.
Long noses live alongside moorish Idols and I have photographed them together in Tahiti.
Have a great day.
Paul

Sorry about including "Clemintine" the hawksbill turtle. I scanned the pictures together.

 

[ethompson]

I just bought a yellow longnose butterfly fish today. So far it has acclimated nicely and is investigating the tank. I haven't seen it eat yet but it ate flakes at the LFS so I'll just give him some time.

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