Reef Butterfly
- Thread starter jelwyoming
- Start date
Dakota Reef
New member
I've had a yellow long-nosed butterfly in my mixed reef tank for several years now. I keep sps, zoanthids, ricordia, star polyps even some xenia with no problems from him. There are also a few green bubble tipped anemones in the tank.
He's never looked twice at any coral in the tank. As I recall there was a thread where someone claimed to have problems keeping a clam with their long-nose butterfly and any type of fanworm would probably be at risk.
Maoie Wowie - what a beautiful pair of semilarvatus!! Didn't realize they were reef safe. Can you share a little bit of info about how they've fared in your tank and any tips?
He's never looked twice at any coral in the tank. As I recall there was a thread where someone claimed to have problems keeping a clam with their long-nose butterfly and any type of fanworm would probably be at risk.
Maoie Wowie - what a beautiful pair of semilarvatus!! Didn't realize they were reef safe. Can you share a little bit of info about how they've fared in your tank and any tips?
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8506413#post8506413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maoiwowie
C. semilarvatus in my sps dominated reef.
DROOOOL!! Just so cool!
BTW, I recall someone on RC that put either one or a pair of zoster's B/F in his reef. Hopefully he will chime in
maoiwowie
New member
Well how should i put this...These butterflies are not for those reefers that panic at the first sign of trouble. I wouldnt say they are entirely "reef-safe", they will pick and forage randomly just like most other fish...much like your angels i suppose. I have put the real deal obligate coral eaters (Ornate Butterfly) in my tank too, and those are entirely different than the Semilarvatus. The obligate coral eaters suck the tissue and polyps leaving small white areas that look like little dots all over the coral. But before I placed the Semilarvatus in the tank i had them in QT. The qt was not for disease or parasite prevention, but to get these guys to recognize what they were going to eat. Thusly i had them in there for a period of maybe 2 months where they learned to recognize the mysis shrimp or whatever i fed them. This continued until i was able to hand feed them. Then they went into general population. One drawback is that i tended to overfeed because i always wanted to be sure they ate enough.
bureau13
New member
That's really cool. Hmmm....I'm a big fan of not listening to conventional wisdom (which is why I have angels in my reef, and why I really want a trigger or two, but I'm getting scared of most of them). I read comments about the golden butterflies such as "decimated my SPS" etc. Of course, on rare occasions I've even read that about a few tangs, so you never know.
jds
jds
Dakota Reef
New member
Thanks Maoiewowie,
They're beautiful, graceful fish and I'll bet having a pair roaming around a nice large tank is stunning.
I think you've hit on something by using your quarantine as a training ground to teach your BF's to eat prepared foods. I did something similar with my Longnose Butterfly.....he was the only fish in my 40 gallon tank for several months until he took prepared foods aggressively enough to hold his own in the main tank.
Butterflys generally seem to lose out in the rush at feeding time so anything you can do to give them an advantage is worth trying.
I even made a "butterfly feeder" from a 3" powerhead intake tube with holes drilled in it that lets him find mysis and cube food inside. I use the feeder in the main tank now and I think it helps give him first crack at food, so I don't have to overfeed the rest of the tank as much.
Hmmmm, this makes me want to add another butterfly to my tank!! Wish I didn't have such a PIA Purple Tang. He complicates every new addition.
They're beautiful, graceful fish and I'll bet having a pair roaming around a nice large tank is stunning.
I think you've hit on something by using your quarantine as a training ground to teach your BF's to eat prepared foods. I did something similar with my Longnose Butterfly.....he was the only fish in my 40 gallon tank for several months until he took prepared foods aggressively enough to hold his own in the main tank.
Butterflys generally seem to lose out in the rush at feeding time so anything you can do to give them an advantage is worth trying.
I even made a "butterfly feeder" from a 3" powerhead intake tube with holes drilled in it that lets him find mysis and cube food inside. I use the feeder in the main tank now and I think it helps give him first crack at food, so I don't have to overfeed the rest of the tank as much.
Hmmmm, this makes me want to add another butterfly to my tank!! Wish I didn't have such a PIA Purple Tang. He complicates every new addition.
suliaman007
Tap Water Only Club
i had a CBB in my 46 bow reef. it never touched my corals or my aiptasia, but it took out almost all the feather dusters on my LR; when it could catch them.
maoiwowie
New member
Dakota...yeah these fish are nice...i really like butterflies especially the "C." variety. I settled on the Semilarvatus because of their grace and the fact that research told me that they would do well in fish only systems. With my success, i decided to try the obligate coral eating butterflies (those are my absolute favourite), but failed. I couldnt get it to eat in QT, so i just decided to throw her in general population. She was starving because within minutes she was pecking like a woodpecker on my sps. Unfortunately i was forced to cull this fish. Lesson learned. This type of fish needs to stay in the ocean.
jelwyoming
JELWYOMING
I am definitely going to look at the C. semilarvatus. Do you think that they are more hardy than a Copperband?
jelwyoming
JELWYOMING
Well, I've got a small copperband showing up today. The shop had it quarintined for a few weeks and it was eating well. So, I thought that I'd give it a try! I bought a school of Carpenter Wrasse as well.
