margined coralfish in a reef?

[RadReefer]

I'm considering purchasing a margined coralfish for my upgraded system, I have a rose bubble tip hosted by a pair of ocellaris clowns, the female is 5 years old and is fairly aggressive and territorial. Has anyone had any experiences keeping this butterfly with anemones? Do you think the butterfly would prey upon the anem or would it leave it alone since the clowns defend their turf? Also can these be kept with LPS? Thanks.

 

[snorvich]

Well, given that they will eat aiptasia (glass anemones), the odds of it nibbling on yours seems pretty high. Great fish though.

 

[reefsafe]

I bought one for my aiptasia. So far so good.. SPS and LPS in there. It eats everything but corals. A buddy of mine has one as well with same success.

 

[tkeracer619]

As reefsafe said. We have had good results with the fish. I think its best to grab one from divers den. Its a pricey fish but if you get it from dd then you know its already eating mysis and is healthy. Took me a while to convince reefsafe to snag one but with the dismal survival rate of copperbands and hit or miss with most with caution fish I think its a real bargin.

You will want to isolate the fish as it will be very skittish at first and feed it a mix of mysis and plancton until it lets you approach the tank without freeking out. Then feed the aptasia and let the fish pick it out. Eventually when its eating the nems let it go free into the rest of the system. while its reported as a heartier version of a copperband it is still far from durable. Great care should be taken to protect it from angry tangs but a clown should be ok.

I doubt it will pick at your bta. I have dozens and it completly ignores them.

 

[suta4242]

IME this is a very reef safe butterfly and a lot tougher than a copperband. Hard question to answer about a territorial clown - the outcome would also depend on tank size etc...

As an aside, I realise the OP didnt ask this question, but I wouldn't buy one for aiptasia control as they're very hit and miss in that regard. JMO

HTH and good luck!

 

[RadReefer]

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely find one on DD for the toughness factor, no tangs in my system, the butterfly will be the largest fish, I may add a tang further down the line but not until the butterfly is fully established, the tang would most likely be a convict or yellow. Def a beautiful fish...