Any butterfly pair keepers here ?

Abhishek · Jun 16, 2020

Hi,

Any butterfly pair keepers here ? Am definitely more interested in people keeping Prognathodes sp. and certain Chaetodon sp.

I have successfully kept Chelmon Rostratus as a pair for over 1.5-2 years until they died out of stress of moving to my new house . Its quite devastating for me but having kept them I have become attached to learning more about keeping butterflies .

Of course am aware of the fact that many are obligate corallivores and will be provided with a dedicated tank for just the pair and food to flourish.

So please share your experience , places you bought them from, feeding habits ...

Regards,
Abhishek

Big G · Jun 16, 2020

following.
I just love them too.
Sorry for your loss. Hate when that happens.

Abhishek · Jun 16, 2020

Big G said:
following.
I just love them too.
Sorry for your loss. Hate when that happens.

It took me so many months of trial and error and finally could make a pair work but heart breaking when they die of stupid reasons like a move

Angel_Anthias lover · Jun 16, 2020

I think Jake Adams at reef builders has a pair of tinkers butterflies, hes maybe put info out there somewhere of where he got them from. Ill have a look later

Big G · Jun 16, 2020

Abhishek said:
It took me so many months of trial and error and finally could make a pair work but heart breaking when they die of stupid reasons like a move

Where have you been sourcing your butterflies? Any recommendations?

Abhishek · Jun 16, 2020

Big G said:
Where have you been sourcing your butterflies? Any recommendations?

I have always tried and get butterflies only locally as they often ship poorly . Kind of like Halichoeres or Anampses wrasses . But I think some places like tsmaquatics , amongthereef and marinecollectors are really amazing in shipping

Regards,
Abhishek

Angel_Anthias lover · Jun 16, 2020

What species of chaetodon are you interested in?
I have a burgess butterfly, and hes been very hardy, supposedly the whole roaops subgenus is, which might be a good group to consider if youre worried about shipping related issues, as mine never seemed phased.

MrsBugmaster · Jun 16, 2020

I have a pair of Indian Vegabond Butterflies that I paired myself. Got a group of 5 small ones and let them pair up naturally. Had to separate them when they paired up to keep them from fighting. Sold off the others.

Had a pair of Pakistan’s but recently lost one of them so going to try a group this time.

I did a lot of research on pairing butterflies before I started. Some do not form pairs and just meet up for mass spawning and then go their separate ways and some will pair for life. And some may live in groups.

Abhishek · Jun 16, 2020

Angel_Anthias lover said:
What species of chaetodon are you interested in?
I have a burgess butterfly, and hes been very hardy, supposedly the whole roaops subgenus is, which might be a good group to consider if youre worried about shipping related issues, as mine never seemed phased.

Oh the list is long but some that pops up in mind are Chaetodon Declivis, Chaetodon Tinkeri , Chaetodon Mitratus but top of my list for Chaetodon will be Chaetodon Frembli :O

Abhishek · Jun 16, 2020

The main reason for the thread is to seek examples of successfully keeping butterflies in pairs for long time, what have you done to make it happen ...

Angel_Anthias lover · Jun 16, 2020

Abhishek said:
Oh the list is long but some that pops up in mind are Chaetodon Declivis, Chaetodon Tinkeri , Chaetodon Mitratus but top of my list for Chaetodon will be Chaetodon Frembli :O

Oh good luck, i love chaetodon fremblii

MrsBugmaster · Jun 16, 2020

Abhishek said:
Oh the list is long but some that pops up in mind are Chaetodon Declivis, Chaetodon Tinkeri , Chaetodon Mitratus but top of my list for Chaetodon will be Chaetodon Frembli :O

If I remember correctly from my research the frembil do not usually l form a bonded pair. Just pair for breeding then separate. I had a single one that was quite mean and harassed my other butterflies.

Abhishek · Jun 16, 2020

MrsBugmaster said:
If I remember correctly from my research the frembil do not usually l form a bonded pair. Just pair for breeding then separate. I had a single one that was quite mean and harassed my other butterflies.

This is extremely useful information. Any link or resources you have to read more ?

puffy127 · Jun 16, 2020

I have a pair of tinkeri and a pair of semilarvatus. I also had a pair of falcula, but the little one died.

MrsBugmaster · Jun 16, 2020

I also have a Mitratus. Although these do form pairs in the wild mine is a single one as it is 13 years old and I figured not sense in pairing one this old

Abhishek · Jun 16, 2020

puffy127 said:
I have a pair of tinkeri and a pair of semilarvatus. I also had a pair of falcula, but the little one died.

Very nice !!! Could you share your process of pairing them, how long you have the pair and so on ?

MrsBugmaster · Jun 16, 2020

Abhishek said:
This is extremely useful information. Any link or resources you have to read more ?

I’m not home at the moment so will look when I get home to see if I can find any links for you. I bought some books on butterflies as well.

MrsBugmaster · Jun 16, 2020

Abhishek said:
Very nice !!! Could you share your process of pairing them, how long you have the pair and so on ?

You can read about this in my build thread
Click on link (build thread contributor)under my name

puffy127 · Jun 16, 2020

Abhishek said:
Very nice !!! Could you share your process of pairing them, how long you have the pair and so on ?

For the tinkeri, I bought them as a "wild caught pair" but I don't think they really were. Plus pairs usually command a higher price than if purchasing individually, and that wasn't the case here. I've had them for about 2.5 years.

The semilarvatus were purchased at different times. To pair, I made sure they were dissimilar sizes. I added a smaller one and they did fine for about a year. Then the smaller one died out of the blue one day. It was not due to aggression or anything. I then added a larger one and they have been fine for about 1.5 years now.