Pyramid Butterfly

I put in a request to be notified when LA got them in and have received notice three times that they indeed came in. They don't last long and I keep waiting too long to place my order.

I have seen them locally a few times but always looked a bit rough, and based on my recent experiences I think it is really important with these fish to acquire healthy specimens.
 
I have a buddy of mine locally that still places whole sale orders from time to time. I can tell you they don't appear on his list very often. Two of my initial three made it, but I'll be looking for three more before all is said and done.

Sorry, not much help. If I wasnt using my buddy, I'd watch LA like a hawk and just use them.
 
pyramids are finicky fish. Once established they are rock solid, but getting them to that point is harder than most people think. I get them small from time to time, usually not in numbers (under 10) and i only like them under 5", as big ones get burnt very easy and never do well.

Try for 4-5" ones. Its almost impossible to find them under 4" unless it was a phenomenal drop season which doesn't happen often for pyramids.
 
FWIW, the four I have remaining are all in the 3" range. Ones that died were a bit bigger, but not by much.
 
I miss my old butterfly i need to find a pyramid because they are reef safe but can't put myself to it because last time I had a butterfly it died of ich even though it had been established for six months I think those fish tell the ich to kill them!! They are worse than tangs with ich. And btw beautiful fish!!
 
I miss my old butterfly i need to find a pyramid because they are reef safe but can't put myself to it because last time I had a butterfly it died of ich even though it had been established for six months I think those fish tell the ich to kill them!! They are worse than tangs with ich. And btw beautiful fish!!

I actually haven't seen any signs of ich, or any other parasite (including flukes) on any of the pyramids I originally bought. My problems stemmed from mouth-related bacterial infections or in one case, an intestinal blockage. The four I have remaining all look pretty good (they have gone through nitrofuracin green power, and now chloroquine phosphate for almost three weeks) and are eating just about anything I put into their QT tank, so I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to get all four into my display by the end of this month (still need to do a couple of rounds of prazi, or maybe metro).
 
I really do need to start keeping better notes. Losing track of what fish have been treated by what :lol:
 
Well, the four surviving pyramids went into the acclimation box on Friday, were completely ignored by the resident fish, and were released yesterday. So far, I am happy to report all is going swimmingly .....



Haven't had any subsequent aggression and all four have integrated themselves into the feeding frenzy quite nicely.

Wasn't as successful as I had hoped in getting these fish through the QT process, and I actually moved them into the DT after something less than the normal 12 weeks I do QT as they were starting to appear a bit stressed in the 20L. They don't appear to handle shipping particularly well and are susceptible to mouth damage and bacterial infections. Using NGP seems to have done the trick for me and has become my defacto first QT med for all fish (except perhaps for wrasses).
 
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Thought I'd post to this thread one last time. Four pyramids have settled into my display nicely. They do swim together a lot of the time, though 'schooling' might be a bit of an exaggeration. Very pleased with how they look and I would concur that they are generally reef safe. They have mowed down a stand of xenia, but LA notes this as a possibility if they are 'underfed'. On a practical level, not sure how I could be feeding my tank more, so munching on xenia may be the price I pay for these fish (frankly xenia ends up being a bit of a weed in the tank, so an acceptable tradeoff). One of the fish did try to sample my Magnifica anemone, but the female clown fish quickly put a stop to that.
 
How I Got Mine Through QT ...

How I Got Mine Through QT ...

I have add a couple of folks ask me how to get pyramid butterfly fish through QT. I'm hardly an expert, unless having 4 out of 7 survive so empowers me, but my own experience and in talking to others, these fish seem to be particularly susceptible to mouth infections. Consequently, the last four that I got all went into a QT with nitrofuracin green powder, and although I saw evidence of mouth problems on one of the four, it quickly healed. I'm eyeing a pair of zosters at my LFS, so perhaps I will put this approach to the test one more time.
 
I have add a couple of folks ask me how to get pyramid butterfly fish through QT. I'm hardly an expert, unless having 4 out of 7 survive so empowers me, but my own experience and in talking to others, these fish seem to be particularly susceptible to mouth infections. Consequently, the last four that I got all went into a QT with nitrofuracin green powder, and although I saw evidence of mouth problems on one of the four, it quickly healed. I'm eyeing a pair of zosters at my LFS, so perhaps I will put this approach to the test one more time.

Did they develop the mouth sores or did they come in with them?
 
They all came in with whitish edges to their mouths, but to varying degrees. The first one I got looked clean, but it developed the lump that did it in. The subsequent two had mouth infections almost immediately but I was too slow to recognize it. The final four all had slight whitish patches on their mouths, and the one that was the worse actually looked like there was erosion of the lower jaw. All recovered though by using NGP from day 1. This is what they looked like after about one month in QT. They still had a bit of the white mouth; that is now completely gone,

 
That's strange that they developed the mouth issue. Do you have any pics of the mouth sores? I'm thinking about getting some pyramids but am hesitant now
 
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