- Location
- Queens, NY
Since there's a discussion on angelfish, I might as well ask about butterflies, specifically non-reef safe ones.
I've been keeping a few chaetodon ocellatus and chaetodon capistratus in my tank (spotfin and 4-eye) in my fully stocked SPS, LPS and softies reef tank from before my tank leaked last October and they were doing well in there, just picking at a few things, mostly zooanthid and other softies of which I have plenty of as you can see in this old photo below. Seemed they couldn't really do any significant damage to anything.
However, now that my tank is pretty bare, (I cleaned/recurred all my rock), the only coral survivors being some ricordia, a hammer and frogspawn, chalace and a couple of other SPS. I've noticed that the butterflies are slowly eating away at a few things. My hammer and frowspawn is actively being picked on at the base and the butterflies seem to be eating it out down there, avoiding the tips, which they spit out. Guess they find the LPS innards tasty. Ricordia and other mushrooms seem too tough for them to do anything to, and my chalice and the little SPS I have seem impervious to them.
Well, I've going to start my corals up again this year, while keeping my butterflies, and am going to avoid fleshy LPS since my giant, seemingly indistructable heads are being eaten to extinction. Also no more soflties except for the sponges and ricordieas I have left, since I don't ever want to deal with palys or zooanthids overgrowing everything.
I don't have any acros, stylos, pocilipora, birdsnest or digitata survive my tank leak/holding time/ recurring of rock, to test out with my fish, so...
Which genus of SPS are resistant to butterflies?
So yea or nay to
Pavona?
Acros nana or other deep water species?
millipora? I know they are fuzzy and picking with keep them from extending but they don't need to extend to grow/survive
slimmers? automatic protection with mucus?
stylos?
thin branching birdsnest?
digitata?
Capricornus?
I think this covers almost every genus I might be considering
I plan on growing some frags out in isolation, then when they get a few inches /big enough, introducing the colony into the tank.
I've been keeping a few chaetodon ocellatus and chaetodon capistratus in my tank (spotfin and 4-eye) in my fully stocked SPS, LPS and softies reef tank from before my tank leaked last October and they were doing well in there, just picking at a few things, mostly zooanthid and other softies of which I have plenty of as you can see in this old photo below. Seemed they couldn't really do any significant damage to anything.
However, now that my tank is pretty bare, (I cleaned/recurred all my rock), the only coral survivors being some ricordia, a hammer and frogspawn, chalace and a couple of other SPS. I've noticed that the butterflies are slowly eating away at a few things. My hammer and frowspawn is actively being picked on at the base and the butterflies seem to be eating it out down there, avoiding the tips, which they spit out. Guess they find the LPS innards tasty. Ricordia and other mushrooms seem too tough for them to do anything to, and my chalice and the little SPS I have seem impervious to them.
Well, I've going to start my corals up again this year, while keeping my butterflies, and am going to avoid fleshy LPS since my giant, seemingly indistructable heads are being eaten to extinction. Also no more soflties except for the sponges and ricordieas I have left, since I don't ever want to deal with palys or zooanthids overgrowing everything.
I don't have any acros, stylos, pocilipora, birdsnest or digitata survive my tank leak/holding time/ recurring of rock, to test out with my fish, so...
Which genus of SPS are resistant to butterflies?
So yea or nay to
Pavona?
Acros nana or other deep water species?
millipora? I know they are fuzzy and picking with keep them from extending but they don't need to extend to grow/survive
slimmers? automatic protection with mucus?
stylos?
thin branching birdsnest?
digitata?
Capricornus?
I think this covers almost every genus I might be considering
I plan on growing some frags out in isolation, then when they get a few inches /big enough, introducing the colony into the tank.
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