Butterflies

[jwtrojan44]

Curious as to who keeps butterfly fish, what species and how they do. I purchased a Merten's BF last week. He shares my 55 with a firefish and a yellow headed jawfish. Very beautiful, eating everything and seems to be doing quite well. I've held off getting one until I felt I had the ability and environment to succesfully maintain it. I know that many of them are quite fragile, and wondered what your experiences are/have been. TIA.

 

[Tony Quinn]

I added my first butterfly fish halfway through last year, a young Copperband. At first he seemed thin but picked on the live rock day in day out. He is very active and healthy now, keeps Aiptasia at bay and even eats frozen food. Most importantly he causes no damage to the corals, both hard or soft and is a beauty to watch. Keep only one.

 

[kimsuit]

I have a Longnosed Butterfly. I've had him for about 8 months now and I've never seen him pick on anything. He does follow me around the tank wanting food though. And if I have to put a hand in the water for any reason, he will come and pick on my hand-guess he wants to check the flavor!

Regards,

Kim

 

[EmilyB]

I keep a blackback bfly (Chaetodon melannotus). He is one of my favorite fish ever.

He will charge me and shake when he feels he needs another feeding...he eats many types of frozen food including homemade, and lots of OSI spirulina flake.

I've had him about a year. I had to remove the substrate, and the occupants went through some real hell, so this is a very hardy bfly, IME.

 

[Anonymous]

Last months AFM had a great section by Scott Michael on butterflies. Also this site has some good information. I would say that between the 2 you will find what you are looking for

 

[naesco]

Good Post Steve
It is good to see that the posters to date all had fish off the good butterfly list.
The other ones are primarily polyp eaters; do not survive, should not even be imported and being polyp eaters not good for reef tanks anyway.

 

[jwtrojan44]

Thanks all for the replies. Good to know folks are having luck with them. I also appreciated the link. I almost went with a nice racoon bf that he had, but it was doing that twitching thing that to me has always been a big red flag. I'm liking this Merten's a lot. JWT

 

[Tanu]

^

 

[AF Founder]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by jwtrojan44:
<strong>Curious as to who keeps butterfly fish, what species and how they do. I purchased a Merten's BF last week. He shares my 55 with a firefish and a yellow headed jawfish. Very beautiful, eating everything and seems to be doing quite well. I've held off getting one until I felt I had the ability and environment to succesfully maintain it. I know that many of them are quite fragile, and wondered what your experiences are/have been. TIA.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Chelmon rostratus is almost always a good addition to a reef tank. While it will eat feather dusters, it usually will keep the reef tank free of Aiptasia pallida or pulchella. Terry

Mine:
[image]http://community.webshots.com/storage/1/v2/5/43/63/30054363tHNwZOExaL_ph.jpg[/image]

Terry

 

[AF Founder]

Sorry, here's the picture,

Terry

 

[rh]

One more vote for BF's w/ hardier reputations. I've got a racoon butterflyfish (chaetodon lunula) who singlehandedly rescued my 75g from what had to be one of the worst aiptasia outbreaks ever. I've had her for about 2 months now and I'm so happy I picked her up. I have to say I'd probably be reluctant to trust one with most coral, however. I've since moved most of the remaining corals (and there weren't many left after the aiptasia terror) over to my 40g reef. But she's a beautiful fish, eats well, and I'm very glad to have her.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a 3 year old Saddled Butterfly (Chaetodon ephippium)in my 125g FOWLR. I got him from a fellow hobbyist who wanted to go reef and just didn't trust this fish to not eat his SPS corals. He eats just about anything including Omega One flakes. He's not a passive fish rarely backing down when challenged.

 

[sillingw]

I have had my copperband for about 3 months, I got an aiptasia outbreak and bought him for that - he never touched the aiptasia but is such a cool addition, I keep him anyway, kinda like hiring a plumber who keeps charging but doesn't do the work, but I'm not sure how to tell him. No trouble to corals, picks at the live rock, got some grief from the yellow tang for the first week or so but everything has settled down, My tank is a 240 gallon, I think they need room. Oh yeah, it took him about 22 seconds to discover the tube worm - the tube work is no longer there....