Biota Milletseed butterfly
- Thread starter cartery
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Found this at a vendor site. Maybe you know this already.
Compatible with caution:
Butterflies
Eels
Groupers
Lions/Scorpions
Squirrelfish
Triggerfish
Wrasse- Fish Only
Live Corals
Invertebrates
Cheese Griller
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I believe @areefer01 has one!
areefer01
5000 Club Member
I do have one, yes. Thank you for tagging me. I am happy to answer any questions for anyone.
Sorry I did not see either asking about or for an answer. I added it on 8/23/2023 and it was purchased directly from Biota. It arrived pretty small maybe the size of a US $0.50 piece. Light in color but full belly with the start of the seed pattern on its body. No sooner than I placed it in the display it was out and about hugging the reef rock structure. My Pink Square Anthias, the dominate one, would constantly dive bomb it so it would use the reef structure to shield it. Later it would shadow my Copperband Butterfly for protection. Pretty neat to observe really.
Here it is as after arrival:
It is in a 210 gallon mixed reef that is about 8 years old. Larger colonies of LPS and SPS but not many soft corals. I have two small patches of zoas and some green paly things but everything else is larger sized colonies such as hammers, frogspawn, torches, mushrooms, and acropora. I had a 4" maxima clam for a while with it and it didn't bother that either. Unfortunately for an unknown reason I lost it overnight a couple months back. I think carbon/gfo related but just my opinion.
It eats all of the food I put in the display. Dry pellet mix, frozen, and I feed heavy houly dry between the hours of 0830 and 1830 with one or two frozen. Frozen I rotate through LRS reef, fish, prime reef, and a few others. All small portions. Feeding more to me makes me feel good, leads me to believe they are less likely to nip at things they shouldn't, and less aggression. I have nothing to back this up just how I view it.
Again I don't have many if any soft corals. I used to have Xenia in my display to plague proportions but it has since been cleared out by both my Zoster and Pyramid butterflies. I am guessing here but if I had any left I would say it would nip at it. I'm not sure but just what my gut tells me.
I am biased as this is one of my favorite fish. On my daughters first scuba dive after certification we entered a lower part of a reef in Hawaii and a bunch of these swam towards us. After the dive back on the boat she couldn't stop talking about them. So to be honest it could nip or eat all of the corals in my display and I wouldn't care two ways to Tuesday. However I am lucky in that it is, for the most part, a model citizen in our reef.
I'm sort of all over the place here but let me know if there is anything more specific I can help. I can try to get a more current video or picture tomorrow if it helps. I know three other reefers I talk to regularlly and they are also owners of the fish and enjoy them. In my opinion they are a hidden gem.
Here it is again looking for aiptasia and other things in the macro algae I feed the tang and rabbit:
Another one of it looking for aiptasia
Lastly here is a short display shot of it to give you an idea of the other corals. 2024 - not sure I have anything current. My apology.
cartery
Active Member
Oh wow, thank you so much for the detailed reply. My other concern, beyond it nipping corals, is the tank size. I only have a 75 gallon and I'd really like a Tomini tang. That and a small butterfly would really be the only "big" fish. Do you have thoughts on the tank size and housing with a Tomini?
I suppose all of the issues related to nipping could be mitigated by keeping it well fed, and the captive bred aspect is pretty awesome on that front. I have two biota court jester gobies and a biota Buan's sleeper goby and they eat perfectly.
areefer01
5000 Club Member
With regards to the tank size I am probably not the right person to ask. I can only speak to my experience which is a 210 gallon tank with a lot of rock and substrate. Having said that Biota I think listed it as 70 gallons. I can confirm two things:
First I've observed a slow growth. I believe the web suggests they reach 6" inches or so in the wild. Mine is probably 4" today. Maybe 4 1/2. I purchased it in August of 2023 for reference. It is smaller than both my Pyramid and Zoster but larger than my Copperband. My Copperband is not that large so not sure that counts.
Second is that it uses the displays available space. It forages throughout the day and then circles the front pane of the glass. I'm not sure if this makes a difference or not to be honest but if there is a reef structure it will hover over it looking at things to eat. I think this is a natural for them. If you have rock or a good reef structure it will be happy. NSA or negative aquascape fad it will not be happy. In my opinion.
I do not believe the Milletseed will reach the size of the larger Butterflies such as the Pyramid or Zoster but I very well could be wrong. I guess in my opinion it would be fine in the size tank you have. Mine did not appear to be a fast grower like the Gold Lined Rabbit for example.
I think, in your situation, that it would be a good fit.
cartery
Active Member
Awesome. That's super helpful. I have a good amount of rock and plan to have lots of coral, so there should be plenty to explore. I'm also loading up on pods, which I imagine they'd eat
Silly clownfish
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Any updates on how your milletseed is working out? I also have a 75g and am interested in getting 1. Or I’d be really interested in trying a pair. I currently have a pair of yellow watchmen, pair of striped gobies, on cherub Angel, but looking for a mate since I lost its previous mate to a heater malfunction, and biota mandarin. The milletseed(s) would be the big fish.
cartery
Active Member
Doing great! I have a Tomini tang that I got first and the milletseed started smaller and is now bigger than the tang. Great eater, fun to watch, not afraid of anything. The only negative is that it murdered an acan. Otherwise it has left alone a variety of softies, LPS, crabs, and urchins. Biota told me a pair would be OK with no other big fish. I say go for it!
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