Tahitian Butterfly Fish?

[cocoaandme]

Oh wow so how do you get a license to collect? What's it like collecting your own corals? Oh and I talked to the guy today and he said he had the butterfly for 6 months. I think that they probably do eat octocorals because I didn't see any in the tank with it.

 

[cocoaandme]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12609518#post12609518 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by philter4
I've only owned 1 tahitian B/F, but I have a atlantic longnose and a banded butterfly that don't bother the octo's. I can't collect corals, so I don't know what the banded would do, they are coral eaters in the wild, in fact most don't survive in tanks, but this one was tiny and I raised him so he grew with no corals and on frozen aquarium foods.

As a general rule, the longsnouted butterflies are the most well behaved in tanks, they usually use their long noses to pick benthic inverts from between the coral branches, that is why they have such long snouts, so they are more reef safe then the others. There are also a group of planktavores such as the heniochus and pyramid butterflies which are more safe then the main group of butterflies.

So the longnose butterfly didn't touch any of your octocorals?

 

[philter4]

No, my atlantic longnose doesn't bother any of my octocorals, they are probably my favorite fish so I have always had at least 1 and they have never bothered any of my inverts or softcorals. Also, cocoaandme, it is illegal to collect corals so I don't collect any, I do collect things like ricordia, zooanthids, and all of my shrimp and ornamental worms. I am a fish guy though so I always figure the inverts, except the shrimp, are secondary, if they get eaten it is ok, as long as the fish are healthy. I have a great collection of shrimp though, especially some very rare Stenopus (coral banded type) species.

 

[cocoaandme]

Wow ok I think I am going to add an atlantic longnose to my tank. I am looking for fish that do not eat corals or macroalgae. I added a klein's today and he is doing fine and not bothering my corals and eating spectrum.