Marcellae Butterfly in an SPS Reef

skibum9884

skibum9884

Active member
I realize this is a risk and am going to take the chance. He/She will be here tomorrow morning and am wondering if there is anything I should do to maximize my chance of success.

Does anyone have any experience with them? Please let me know if any specific feeding or otherwise will help.
 
I would not hesitate to put one in my SPS reef, provided my water temperature would sustain the fish long term. This butterfly is collected on the west coast of Africa and in deep water. As such, they require cool water to thrive.

~Michael
 
that's great! i'm very excited about this. the only SPS I'm really worried about are a Bird of Paradise, a Red Planet, and a Hydno as the polyps are exposed a bit more than your average acro. think these will also be ok?

i'm debating a chiller purchase, it hovers at about 75-76, which i realize is borderline. i'd guess most would argue this is too warm?
 
I would argue too warm. I had one in my eref (which is 72) until the clarion "objected". Hes in a 30 cube now with lps, zoas, softies, and doent bother anything. I would really consider dropping the temp. They will do better.
 
skibum9884 said:
that's great! i'm very excited about this. the only SPS I'm really worried about are a Bird of Paradise, a Red Planet, and a Hydno as the polyps are exposed a bit more than your average acro. think these will also be ok?

i'm debating a chiller purchase, it hovers at about 75-76, which i realize is borderline. i'd guess most would argue this is too warm?
Click to expand...

They are normally not coral eaters, they eat worms and shrimp and small inverts that they pick out of coral branches and crevices in the rees, but 75 is too warm for them, you need 72 or lower to be successful and like Micheal says below 70 is best.
 
sounds good. guess i'm going to need a chiller. so, i'm thinking around 72 or so since I have a few other non-deepwater fish (chevron tang, etc). Does that sound good or will my non-deepwater fish suffer?
 
Most fish do very well in lower temps.
IME when I started keeping all of my fish in cooler water they grew faster, showed better coloration and in general just seemed healthier.

I now run no heaters in any of my tanks. My warmest reef tank is 74.

~Michael
 
michael_cb_125 said:
Most fish do very well in lower temps.
IME when I started keeping all of my fish in cooler water they grew faster, showed better coloration and in general just seemed healthier.

I now run no heaters in any of my tanks. My warmest reef tank is 74.

~Michael
Click to expand...

Just curious, how will the more tropical species do at 68 F?
 
so, since i need to chill my tank, does anyone think that one ice probe chiller would be enough to chill a Elos System 70 (55 gallon + sump), or would I most likely need 2? I'd run them off of my Reefkeeper, so at least I wouldn't need any kind of controller.
 
interesting, i called LA today (where it's coming from) and they said that the whole coral/diver's den facility is at 78 degrees. i find this hard to believe, but maybe because it's a short time frame they figure deepwater fish are ok at that temp for their short stay.

or maybe the person on the phone filled my ear with BS.....who knows.
 
Their system is kept warm, 78ºF as they said. Since the fish are there for a minimal amount of time, they will be fine. But anything longer than a few weeks is detrimental to the fish.
 
michael i dont know where you're getting your info but they are collected in 25-35ft of water, with 84 degree surface temps. they will do fine long term at 78 degrees. they are not nearly as deep-dwelling as most of the other Prognathodes.
 
Bested by only P. aculeatus, P. marcellae is the most "tropical" of the Prognathodes genus... but it can vary drastically from location to location.

As Joe said, most of these specimens are collected relatively shallow & warm waters. However, in other locations they can also be found at 300ft where water temps are 60-65F.

A temp of 68F should not harm the Marcellae, but it won't help. Just recently I've gotten my hands on this species and a temperature of 75 looks to be a good middle ground.
 
IMO the iceprobe chillers are worthless in a larger system. I ran one in an 18 gallon tank and it could barely get the temp down a couple of degrees.
 
Wow, I'm glad you guys are well informed, Scott Michael list the marcellae as needing 61-66 F, I guess the west african ones are collected warmer.

What about P. brasiliensis?
 
thanks for this, can't wait for the little guy to arrive tomorrow morning. looks like he/she will be good around 75 for a while.

also, i had a feeling the iceprobe chiller would probably be a waste of money in my system, but wanted to prevent having to have something outside of the cabinet. i'll go without for now!
 
MarcellaeButterfly2.jpg


just thought i'd share a picture of my new little baby.
 
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