Hard lesson to learn. I was double dosing prazi with no improvement. This was my hail mary. All my fish get 30 days of hypo, 30 days of cupramine, 3 rounds of prazi, 5 days of fenbendazole, 2 rounds of levamisole, and 7 days of rally pro now.
The Butterfly Lover's Thread
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dennis romano
Valuable Member
I did the Prazi route with no results. Hypo did the trick in halting the carnage. After thirty days, no new fish were added for another month. Broke my heart when I lost my two year old C. burgessi and Tahiti. My problem is that I don't have room for a quarantine tank and am now restricted to buying quarantined fish. The LFS sends me e-mails every Friday with a list of their new stock, but I'm not going to take a chance.
My wife and I argued about it because I always am out looking for fish for about 5 different tanks and I like quarantining everything. We ended up putting a 76" industrial steel shelving rack in the spare bedroom, with a 75 gallon on the bottom shelf, and 4x 20 gallon tanks on the upper shelves for quarantines. Worked out nicely. Also threw a motile invert quarantine under the stand for my 240 gallon, since there was enough space next to the sump to squeeze one in there. It helps keep the "ugly" tanks from being scattered all over our house, which is already packed with tanks, furniture and everything else (the 2 of us with the baby on the way, 2 large dogs, 3 cats, a parrot, a bunch of plants, and all the display tanks packed in a 1200sqft ranch)
dennis romano
Valuable Member
My wife is from Colombia which means that she is hard wired for cleaning. Twenty five years ago, I had a 50 hex salt tank in our dining room. After I spilled about a pint onto the hardwood floor, the tank was exiled to the basement. So now, there is the 50 softie reef tank, 40 breeder reef, 125 butterfly tank, 125 mbuna cichlid tank, 10 gallon fry tank, 70 gallon mixed cichlid tank, and a 40 to hold the goldfish until they go to the pond.
That's how it was at our old place. All the tanks had to be in the basement. Single story ranch now on a concrete slab, and she's slowly fallen in love with having the displays throughout the house. Helps I agreed to her putting a nano reef next to the bed in our room, with all the micro fish and inverts she likes.
Currently we are remodeling the whole house to a beach/reef theme, and are incorporating all the displays accordingly. Went with high gloss paint that is easy to wipe clean and the salt doesn't seem to warp when I spill or have a leak, and waterproof vinyl plank on concrete slab which is extremely easy to clean.
dennis romano
Valuable Member
When I re-did the basement, I used Benjamin Moore Kitchen/Bath paint. It's the best to use in high moisture areas. What is your current roster of butterflies?
Chaetodon xanthurus
Chaetodon ulietensis
Chaetodon punctatofasciatus
Heniochus varius
Chaetodon ornatissimus (which likely won't make it)
My newest Butterfly. I am on the hunt for the right Butterflies that are SPS safe.
Definitely don't get a pearlscale (Chaetodon xanthurus). I added a Pocillopora frag and a Seriatopora frag to the quarantine last night hoping to get the ornate butterfly (Chaetodon ornatissimus) to eat something, and while the ornate ignored the frags, the pearlscale butterfly (and lemonpeel angel) devoured them bothMy newest Butterfly. I am on the hunt for the right Butterflies that are SPS safe.
Snapped some quick pics today. The Rhino bannerfish (Heniochus varius) is becoming one of my favorite butterflies I've ever kept. Eats everything, even pellets, and it has such a cool personality. The pelvic fins remind me of mickey mouse ears.
Beer belly CBB
Well, lost the ornate (Chaetodon ornatissimus) from starvation. Stopped eating any foods offered, even refused live SPS frags (Acropora, Montipora, Pocillopora, and Stylophora offered). I also lost the spotband (Chaetodon punctatofasciatus) to a rapid forming bacterial wound. Didn't seem to spread or show the same way as uronema, but went from 3 scales looking slightly off when I purchased him to a giant 1"x1" hole on the side. No other fish seem affected.
Thankfully the pearlscale (Chaetodon xanthurus), Double Saddle (Chaetodon ulietensis), and Rhino Bannerfish (Heniochus varius) continue to do well, and all are eating pellets now along with frozen, and are taking food from my hand. Eliminating the prazi resistant flukes with hypo is definitely a game changer for butterflies, and the double saddle has gone from super shy and twitchy to in your face and always looking for more food. They are getting nice fat bellies and even begging with the wrasses and lemonpeel angel.
Thankfully the pearlscale (Chaetodon xanthurus), Double Saddle (Chaetodon ulietensis), and Rhino Bannerfish (Heniochus varius) continue to do well, and all are eating pellets now along with frozen, and are taking food from my hand. Eliminating the prazi resistant flukes with hypo is definitely a game changer for butterflies, and the double saddle has gone from super shy and twitchy to in your face and always looking for more food. They are getting nice fat bellies and even begging with the wrasses and lemonpeel angel.
Probably Prognathodes aculeatus. Not horribly priced, pretty hardy, just not as common in the trade since it's a deeper water atlantic fish. Usually around $100 or so at my LFS in SE Michigan when they do happen to get one in. Almost bought one last time I saw it (only $60) but it had a wound on it's side and was gone the next time I went in. Still would really need a 48"x18" minimum footprint to do well, as they like to explore the rockwork for food.
Snapped a few horrible quality pics tonight, as it was past their usual bedtime, the quarantine has permanently scratched and cloudy glass, and the light is a cheapo led freshwater plant light. All 3 of these guys are out and about, eating everything including NLS pellets, and take frozen from my hand. The lemonpeel angel is definitely the boss, you can see where he nipped the butterflies' fins to show who was boss when they first went in together. Thankfully they're healing up nicely. I'm including a particularly bad pic of the lemonpeel angel so you can see how fat a healthy dwarf angel (and butterfly) should be, and I'm steadily working towards that with these 3.
@Fishfreak2009
Are these Butterflies reef safe or are they going into a FOWLR?
Are these Butterflies reef safe or are they going into a FOWLR?
Technically none are considered reef safe, but it's going to be a reef aquarium trial by fire. Gonna add a few different corals as large colonies, aiming for particularly noxious and cheap stuff (GSP, giant xenia, large gorgonians, large leathers, kenya trees). Whatever they don't eat will stay. I'll probably try an Acropora colony or 2 at some point as well. And most likely I'll add a few larger sponges, like red finger, yellow ball, yellow branching, and orange ear sponges. I'd keep a few nice macros (since I have a bunch of gorgeous Caulerpa species and some really nice Dragon's breath with my seahorses), but I have a pair of longspine urchins going in here that will mow it all down to nothing.
So far, I know the pearlscale eats Pocillopora and Seriatopora, and the ulietensis eats Discosoma and Rhodactis. The rhino bannerfish hasn't tried any corals yet, but I haven't really added any since the ornate butterfly died, as they were all in an effort to get him eating. The corals won't survive in this quarantine with hypo and poor lights, but at least the pearlscale and ulietensis didn't let them die in vain.
@OrionN this is a great resource, though not foolproof, for keeping butterflies with corals. Figured I'd share it publicly in case anyone else hasn't seen it.
orphek.com
BUTTERFLYFISH COMPATIBILITY WITH CORALS
BUTTERFLYFISH COMPATIBILITY WITH CORALS The ability to mix butterflyfishes with corals would be a wonderful boon for most reef aquarists ...
orphek.com
dennis romano
Valuable Member
Good luck with the coral tests. Just a heads up on the macro, I tried many types with my butterflies and nothing was safe. I tried Codium, different Caulerpa, and several types of red with everything gone in hours.
Yeah, the urchins are gonna eat it anyways, so I probably won't bother in the display.
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