Feeding Suggestions for a Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus)

[Mono]

Just wondering if anyone has feeding suggestions for a Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus)?

Types of food?

Any DIY device tips?

Store bought solutions?

Thanks.

 

[Beau_B]

I used frozen brine at first in QT with no competition, he learned to take it from a coral feeder (long eye dropper). After it was established he was able to take other frozen as long as it’s quite small. Minced shrimps, scallop, blood worms. If the pieces are too big he’ll take it and I can hear snapping jaw sounds has he struggles with it. He’ll take flake too, but thus far even small pellets are a no. Grazes copepods throughout the day.

 

[Mono]

Thanks. It kills me that their mouths are so freakin' small. Even my copperband can get a hold of some larger chunks but the longnose just struggles to hang on to the smallest pieces.

 

[Zionas]

Maybe try clam on a half shell / small bits of mysis and brine.

 

[Zionas]

Yeah these aren’t the easiest even among butterflies. They’re very pretty fish but if their mouths suffer just a bit of damage they’re a goner.

 

[Paul B]

Live white worms are their favorite food but I also give them small pieces of clam and mysis.

 

[piranhaman00]

Mine eats anything frozen or freeze dried and competes well with tangs, once it gets going you should be good

 

[Mono]

Live white worms are their favorite food but I also give them small pieces of clam and mysis.

Pardon my ignorance but what are white worms? You got a link???

 

[jaganshi066]

Pardon my ignorance but what are white worms? You got a link???

Same nowhere in my area sells them, I’ve seen black worms though

 

[Paul B]

Whiteworms are slightly larger than blackworms but live in soil. Whiteworms also live about 5 days in salt water where as black worms live about 10 seconds in salt water. You can add them to your tank and whatever is not eaten will just wiggle around on the bottom without burrowing in. Mandarins will hunt for them forever.

If it were not for these worms I would not be in this hobby and have been using blackworms since the 60s. (they didn't have whiteworms then)

You buy a culture for like $15.00. put them in potting soil and feed them bread with yogurt on it. In a month or a little more, you have thousands of them and all fish except pipefish and seahorses go nuts over them and probably the reason that almost all of my fish spawn and I never have to quarantine.

They don't sell them in anyone's area, you get them online. I have been using the same culture for probably 12 or 15 years.

Here are my fish eating a few worms. That red fireclown is 30 years old and spawning like many of my fish. I attribute that to worms.

White Worm Culture (Enchytraeus albidus) | Live Fish Food - Fish Laboratory

White Worms, Enchytraeus albidus, are commonly cultured by aquarists as a form of fish food, more specifically, live fish food. A white worm culture can be

www.fishlaboratory.com

 

[Mono]

Whiteworms are slightly larger than blackworms but live in soil. Whiteworms also live about 5 days in salt water where as black worms live about 10 seconds in salt water. You can add them to your tank and whatever is not eaten will just wiggle around on the bottom without burrowing in. Mandarins will hunt for them forever.

If it were not for these worms I would not be in this hobby and have been using blackworms since the 60s. (they didn't have whiteworms then)

You buy a culture for like $15.00. put them in potting soil and feed them bread with yogurt on it. In a month or a little more, you have thousands of them and all fish except pipefish and seahorses go nuts over them and probably the reason that almost all of my fish spawn and I never have to quarantine.

They don't sell them in anyone's area, you get them online. I have been using the same culture for probably 12 or 15 years.

Here are my fish eating a few worms. That red fireclown is 30 years old and spawning like many of my fish. I attribute that to worms.

White Worm Culture (Enchytraeus albidus) | Live Fish Food - Fish Laboratory

White Worms, Enchytraeus albidus, are commonly cultured by aquarists as a form of fish food, more specifically, live fish food. A white worm culture can be

www.fishlaboratory.com

Paul, is there any comparison between grindal worms and white worms?

 

[Paul B]

I never used grindal worms so I don't know.

 

[Mono]

I never used grindal worms so I don't know.

OK, thanks.

 

[Steve and his Animals]

My advice having dealt with dozens of them: get them small, around the 2 to 2.5 inch range (from base of snout to base of tail). I find with butterflies, the larger you get them (unless from an established tank), the more "stuck in their ways" they are. I've seen plenty of perfectly healthy, larger butterflies of several species just refuse to look at anything in the water column as food, since the majority of them don't eat that way in the wild.

I've had plenty of longnose eat the day after I got them when they were in that size range. Mysis is typically my go to starting food. Even though their mouths look small, they open surprisingly wide. Sometimes it just takes time for them to feel comfortable in the tank; I do find non-aggressive fish being around also makes them feel more confident. It's not uncommon for fish to feel like something is off when there's nobody else around.