Longnose Butterfly fish (Forcipiger flavissimus)

[lilchris]

I am looking at adding a long nose butterfly fish (Forcipiger flavissimus)to my aquarium. I would like to know if this species is reef safe or not. By reef safe in mean are they known to pick at SPS, LPS or softies? Everything I have read states it is a great community fish but it doesn't say if they are reef safe or not. If anyone has experience w/ these fish please post your experiences here. Also if you have pictures Let's see them.

 

[Blownsvt]

i have heard that they can be kept in a reef tank with caution. some sites say no and others say keep with caution. thats about all i know. i imagine like most butterflies they will nip at certain corals.

 

[JHemdal]

I've got three in with softies and gorgonians and some Hydnophora and I haven't seen any problems other than they like to pick the eye stalks off of the snails.

Jay

 

[lilchris]

I've got three in with softies and gorgonians and some Hydnophora and I haven't seen any problems other than they like to pick the eye stalks off of the snails.

Jay

What about w/ SPS corals and LPS? Just curious. Do you have a picture of your two?

 

[lilchris]

Anyone else have any inputs

 

[lilchris]

^^^
I ordered one today. I will take pictures when he arrives tomorrow.

 

[lilchris]

Here are a couple pictures of him.

 

[lilchris]

Does anyone know if I can feed him blood worms? Or does it have to be blackworms?

 

[SDguy]

They love blackworms, IME. Also, small mysis and brine. Eventually, all manner of finely minced meaty foods should be accepted, though I'm not sure about dry foods like flake or pellet.

 

[rssjsb]

I stopped feeding bloodworms to any of my fish years ago. They're actually larvae of some insect, and, unlike blackworms, they have an exoskeleton that is hard for fish to digest.

 

[lilchris]

They love blackworms, IME. Also, small mysis and brine. Eventually, all manner of finely minced meaty foods should be accepted, though I'm not sure about dry foods like flake or pellet.

I have some Rod's Food,should I try that before I purchase the blackworms.

 

[SDguy]

I'm not familiar with rods food. Is it a mixture? Usually they go for whole meats before mixtures, but it's worth a try.

 

[lilchris]

Yes it is mixture of meaty foods. You can get it in Herbivore blend, carnivore blend, coral blend. I just tried it and he went for a couple pieces. He spit a couple pieces as well. I can blend some mysis, brine butterfly blend w/ some cyclopleeze. Hopefully I can get him eating today or tomorrow.

 

[Blownsvt]

i don't have a longnose but my double saddle butterfly eats both mysis and pellet food as well as algae. he started eating mysis and algae the first day in the tank and by the 3rd day he was competing with the clowns for dry pellets.

 

[lilchris]

I feed him today and he took a couple small pieces of Mysis. Nothing big yet. I am researching buying Black worms just in case. I hope I can get him eating today and not have to buy the black worms. I will keep this updated. I really dig this fish. He is cool and has a laid back personality.

 

[jimroth]

I have mine (and a CBB) in a tank with many different SPS and LPS. Pretty good citizen, I think he might have tasted a pocillopora once, but maybe he was just sticking his nose in there. Tougher than the CBB, he was one of my first fish to eat dry food (I feed dry food on my way to work in the morning). Holds his own with more agressive fish, puts up his dorsal spines and pokes 'em.

This is from back in April, he's bigger now!

 

[lilchris]

I have mine (and a CBB) in a tank with many different SPS and LPS. Pretty good citizen, I think he might have tasted a pocillopora once, but maybe he was just sticking his nose in there. Tougher than the CBB, he was one of my first fish to eat dry food (I feed dry food on my way to work in the morning). Holds his own with more agressive fish, puts up his dorsal spines and pokes 'em.

This is from back in April, he's bigger now!

All three of your fish are gorgeous. I must say my long nose is a pretty cool fish. How did you get them eating?

 

[jimroth]

The longnose is kind of a pig, he was demonstrated as eating at the store. He was initially too small to easily eat the large PE Mysis I feed, so I picked up Hikari Mysis cubes, which are made of much smaller mysis which he can suck up. The CBB ate at the store, but didn't eat for a day when I got him home, probably becuse the powder blue tang was busy beating him up. The beatings just lasted for a day. No fish in my experience can resist PE Mysis for long, and pretty soon he was sucking that down. They do love the live blackworms, if you can find those, and pieces of squid if you can cut it into thin slivers they can fit in their mouths. If there are any featherdusters on your live rock, that will be the CBB's first meal, they make a point of eating every one of those ASAP.

 

[Chooch1]

I had a smallish Longnose butterfly in a 40 gallon breeder size reef about 11 years ago. The Longnose ate the tentacles of Zoanthids so I removed him. They are a cool species and I'm tempted to try one again some day. If you need to remove one from your tank, they're easy to remove. Just turn the tank lights out, let the fish go to sleep, shine a bright flashlight on the fish and you can scoop him right out.

 

[lilchris]

Today I finally got him to eat. I put different cubes in a blender and grind it into mush. That is what I feed. He was just eating very small particles but now he is eating small mysis. Hopefully he will start eating the Hikari and PE mysis. This is a good sign though. Will keep you all updated if anyone is interested.