Obligate sps polyp eating butterfly ???

[Gangous]

So I've been more and more interested in some the amazing butterflies I'm seeing coming into my Lfs they just had 2 ornate butterfly's just stunning fish...the Lfs flat out told me don't bother with these as although really beautiful no chance of living in captivity! Supplier just ships them sometimes even though they don't order them. I've also been eyeing several other butterfly fish and just really like the sp. was even lucky enough to get a saddleback eating like a pig and once it's ready I will add it to my sps tank fingers crossed!!

Back to the main reason for thread is anyone out there making strides with sps polyp eating butterflies or file fish ? Of so which ones and how are you getting them into prepared foods also even if u get them onto mysis or whatever can these very specific polyp /coral mucus eaters live without there natural food ???

 

[Dmorty217]

I am perfecting my force feeding skills and am going to get a ornate and Meyers butterfly and try my hand a force feeding them. Hopefully this will lead to them accepting prepared foods. There are accounts of some getting eating Lavartus BF but I can't speak to long term success

 

[jjk_reef00]

IME unless you have crazy amounts of time to devote to the fish it is not worth the effort.

 

[MIKE NY]

I tried a Reticulated for the challenge and was only able to keep it it for about month by feeding it SPS frags. I tried everything including putting different frozen foods, black worms etc .. into the coralites of coral skeletons. It would actually eat around the foods for any remaining live polyps. My LFS has an Ornate that is eating foods from coral skeletons and I was tempted, but thought better of it.

 

[Gangous]

I'm wondering if a food developer could mimic the coral mucus somehow and add protein /fat to it just a crazy thought !

Is anyone out there specifically keeping these butterfly's ? Is there any success to speak of?

Mike this is MattL22 from MR made this account on RC as a newbie didn't think to make them all the same lol

 

[Gangous]

Can I change my name here on rc

 

[Dmorty217]

Pm a mod and ask them.

 

[Gangous]

There is sucess with orange spotted file fish if I'm not mistaken

 

[Gangous]

Which mod would be best to PM? Don't know any off top of head

 

[caribfan]

I'm wondering if a food developer could mimic the coral mucus somehow and add protein /fat to it just a crazy thought !

Is anyone out there specifically keeping these butterfly's ? Is there any success to speak of?

Mike this is MattL22 from MR made this account on RC as a newbie didn't think to make them all the same lol

There are a number of threads on the experiences of people keeping the obligate corallivores. You'll find the odd case of someone getting them to eat clams on the half shell, but far and away, most of the time these fish just don't survive in captivity.

I've attempted to keep a melon, ornate and larvatus and not been successful with any of them, though the Larvatus was my best chance and I may visit that again one day.

I think there are varying degrees of difficulty within the OC butterfly group. The meyers, ornate, melons are at the very high end of difficulty in my opinion.

I'm currently keeping a dusky, octofasciatus and rainfordi, some people would label those as Obligate corallivores - they are not.

I had the idea to harvest a mixture of post settlement fish off a reef that you knew had the OC butterfly you were interested in and attempt rearing it onto prepared foods that way. I assume these fish eat plankton at very early stages of their life and then switch to coral later on. My thought was that if you never gave them a chance to get used to coral, perhaps they could be sustained by other foods.

 

[Gangous]

Caribfan dusky is another that I really like beautiful fish was it tough to get eating?
Interesting thoughts on getting them sm b4 they r eating coral
I've found with most difficult fish it's usually sm - med ones that do well for me never had luck with lg ones

 

[Gangous]

Carib what did ur attempts include did u try rubbing food into a sps Skelton ? I read thd the ornate liked poccilopora polyps I used to grow a green one like crazy what about letting a live healty pocci grab a bunch of mysis then letting the ornate go after it eventually moving to dead pocci skeleton with mysis etc rubbed in

 

[caribfan]

Got the dusky from dd, it was eating mysis out of the bag.

The difficulty with getting them very small is that they need to eat a lot, many times per day to sustain life.

 

[Dmorty217]

Which mod would be best to PM? Don't know any off top of head

BrianD, wolverine, or Dino in the marine fish sub forums

 

[MIKE NY]

Hey Matt didn't realize it was you...LOL. I use the same name on all the sites just makes it easier. I can't mention the LFS name here, but you know which one. The Ornate is a beauty and reasonably priced. They had two and sold one already. It was eating from coral skeletons and I was very tempted, but just don't have the time to individually feed a fish like that anymore.

 

[caribfan]

Hey Matt didn't realize it was you...LOL. I use the same name on all the sites just makes it easier. I can't mention the LFS name here, but you know which one. The Ornate is a beauty and reasonably priced. They had two and sold one already. It was eating from coral skeletons and I was very tempted, but just don't have the time to individually feed a fish like that anymore.

Confused, you talking to Gangous or Carib. My name is Matt too.

I know some people have gotten feeding responses from these fish with coral skeletons, I just haven't seen it work as of yet. I'd love to see videos of one being sustained like this.

 

[Dmorty217]

Confused, you talking to Gangous or Carib. My name is Matt too.

I know some people have gotten feeding responses from these fish with coral skeletons, I just haven't seen it work as of yet. I'd love to see videos of one being sustained like this.

Think he was talking to Gangous... Matt...LOL. Mike can you pm me the place that has the ornate? or just list it here? Just because they aren't a sponsor on here doesn't mean you can't mention them

 

[MIKE NY]

Sorry Carib I meant Gangous. That Matt is a buddy of mine and lives locally to me. I just didn't realize that was his screen name here on RC. He uses another name on other sites.
I never seen one kept long term either because of the amount of time it takes to feed that way or get them to eat anything besides SPS which is what happened with my Reticulated.
Dmorty... You got a PM

 

[Gangous]

Carib he was talking to me I know mike from my local Forum !! I'd be interested in seeing videos also but more important to me would be can a sps polyp eater live /thrive if u got it eating mysis ?

Mike I saw the penates and was shocked at how beautiful they are !!

 

[Gangous]

Dmorty r u on LI?