I have one in my 100gal reef. It seems hardy and easy to feed (I saw it eating in the store before I bought), I feed chopped seafood. It can handle bigger chunks of food than you might expect - it sucks up larger chunks and spits them out repeatedly, which shreds them, and then eats the shreds.
It sticks its nose everywhere in the tank. It has eaten most of the mysis shrimp in the tank, as well as the small featherduster worms on my rock (it has not touched the featherdusters that live in my sand). It has not picked at the tube feet on my urchin.
It is very difficult to target feed my LPS with this fish in the tank because he insists on tasting every food scrap, even when he's not hungry. I'll put a bit of shrimp on my trachyphillia, and a minute later (before the coral has completely engulfed it) the butterfly will yank the shrimp out, and either eat it (if he is hungry) or spit it out. He just can't leave any food bits alone.
He doesn't bother my ocellaris clownfish or banggai cardinalfish and I've never seen him pick at any corals.
Thanks for the info. I'll be taking a serious look at the one in the store and see if it's healthy and eating, and if they'll keep it for a few more weeks to see how well it does.
If you're near Portland, OR, you can have mine. I'm transitioning to a new (bigger) tank in which I want to keep a mandarin, whom the butterfly would outcompete for mysis and amhpipods.
Hey Jayo-
I live in Portland and would love to talk to you about your butterfly. I tried emailing but your address was blocked. Please e-mail me back.
Thanks- Bryan