what butterfly fish?

Lynnmw1208

New member
Is there a butterfly fish that is pretty good with coral and will be ok in a 125g tank? I know some are pretty fragile too, so it'd have to be somewhat hardy for a beginner.
 
A yellow long nose, Forcipiger flavissimus, should be OK with coral. Its pretty hardy for a butterfly....but its still a butterfly. If you're still learning about about maintaining high water quality, I'd wait a while before buying this fish.
 
A yellow long nose, Forcipiger flavissimus, should be OK with coral. Its pretty hardy for a butterfly....but its still a butterfly. If you're still learning about about maintaining high water quality, I'd wait a while before buying this fish.

+1... I've had this fish before in a mixed reef, and it is one of my favorite.
 
Be sure to QT. Butterflies tend to have all sorts of issues when they first come in.
 
Burgess butterfly is nice looking and I think pretty hardy relative to some others (it's in the chaetodon class)

Mine took an interest in the corals when I first put corals in but doesn't spend the day picking at them.


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burgess (Chaetodon burgessi)
mitratus (C. mitratus)
declivis (C. declivis)
tinkeri (C. tinkeri)

the above 4 are some very hardy butterflies as far as butterflies in general go. all feed eagerly. they are said to be reefsafe though. i've kept all before but don't find that so. they still nip on some of my LPS.

Yellow longnose butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus)
Big Yellow longnose butterflyfish (F. longirostris)

the above two are very beautiful, quite hardy and very reef safe. the big longnose is 100% reef safe due to it's ridiculously long mouth, but it's a little tougher to keep than it's shorter nose counterpart. both are equally beautiful and the shorter nosed one is also almost always reefsafe. never heard of them eating corals so far. their mouths are just too tiny.

Margined coral fish (Chelmon marginalis)
Muller's butterlfyfish (Chelmon mulleri)
Copperband butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus)

The above 3 butterflies are also generally quite reef safe. i've kept copperbands and marginalis before with no problems. again, their mouths are better off picking inverts and worms from rocks. not at corals.

Marcell's butterflyfish (Prognathodes marcellae)
Banks butterflyfish (Prognathodes aya)
any other prognathodes.

the above genus includes deeper water butterflies from the genus Prognathodes. Although i've not kept one before, they seem to be pretty reef safe, as far as butterflies go. maybe comparable to some dwarf angels.. they pick on worms and inverts in the wild but occasionally some coral polyps.. whatever grows at those depths anyway.

the final ones will be the pyramid butterflies. (Hemitauchthys)

the yellow and black pyramids (H. polylepis), (H. zoster) are 100% reefsafe. open water planktivores that will not give your liverocks, or your corals, a 2nd look.

hope this helps.
 
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