Info on breeding Assessors and Pyramid Butterflies

[Zionas]

Hi all, I have two friends that are trying to breed Assessors and Yellow Pyramid Butterflies. The one who’s trying to breed butterflies is doing it as a hobby (but hopes to produce then commercially if he can succeed) and collects their eggs. He’s an employee at a local aquarium. If anyone has resources or any info on breeding and rearing these two types of fish, please let me know / post the links here. Thanks a lot!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hopefully someone will have better info for this than I do currently and chime in for you.

I can’t find any records of captive breeding for the butterflyfish (Hemitaurichthys polylepis) or other species from the genus which are usually the best to learn/guess from when trying to breed a new species, but I do know that several other butterflyfish have been bred from different genuses. Hopefully these could provide a good starting point for your friend:

COPPERBAND BUTTERFLYFISH, CHELMON ROSTRATUS | UF/IFAS IRREC – Rising Tide Conservation

www.risingtideconservation.org

BANDED BUTTERFLYFISH, CHAETODON STRIATUS | UF/IFAS IRREC – Rising Tide Conservation

www.risingtideconservation.org

REEF BUTTERFLYFISH, CHAETODON SEDENTARIUS | UF/IFAS IRREC – Rising Tide Conservation

www.risingtideconservation.org

MILLETSEED BUTTERFLYFISH | Chaetodon miliaris – Rising Tide Conservation

www.risingtideconservation.org

Auriga Butterflyfish Culture - Fish Culture Research

Auriga Butterflyfish larvae were raised on copepods and artemia. The larval duration was 82 days. First record of Auriga Butterflyfish culture.

www.frankbaensch.com

Pennant Butterflyfish Culture - Fish Culture Research

First record of Butterflyfish culture. Pennantfish larvae (Heniochus diphreutes) were raised from wild-spawned eggs at 77-79F on wild copepods and artemia. The larval duration was 100 days.

www.frankbaensch.com

Black-lipped Butterflyfish Culture - Fish Culture Research

First record of Butterflyfish breeding from captive-spawned eggs. Black-lipped butterflyfish larvae (Chaetodon kleinii) were raised from captive-spawned eggs at 77-79F on wild and cultured copepods, rotifers, artemia and micro pellets.The larval duration was 94 days.

www.frankbaensch.com

They’ll likely need S-Strain Rotifers and Parvocalanus crassirostris pods (amongst other things) for larval rearing/first foods, I’d make sure they have cultures going before they get too far along.

The assessors are a different matter. Do you know what species they want to breed? The three in the genus have all been captive bred: the yellow/gold (Assessor flavissimus), the blue (Assessor macneilli), and the Randall’s (Assessor randalli), and they should have relatively similar requirements. However, the yellow and Randall’s are nest spawners, while the blue is a mouthbrooder. These guys were all bred by ORA, so I’d imagine the breeding info is proprietary, so I’m afraid I’m not much help here. That said, I’d assume starting with S-Strain Rotifers and Parvocalanus crassirostris pods would be a good idea for these species too.

Generally speaking, when rearing larvae you want round tanks, low flow and turbulence while maintaining good oxygenation, lower lighting, lots of smallish quantity feedings daily, and to keep the food suspended for them - kreisel tanks are the gold standard for this sort of thing. Once the larvae settle you should be able to up the lights and flow. You can probably introduce some foods like TDO Chromaboost Type A pellets a few days after they hatch for pretty much any species, but they may or may not go for it until they’re older and trained onto more regular foods.

Again, hopefully someone with more specific info can chime in here, but that’s the best I’ve got.

 

[Zionas]

Thanks for all the info! I’ll have a look.

 

[ThRoewer]

Assessors are like Marine Betta. A. flavissimus and A. randalli may form hybrids - I had one of each together and they acted as if they might have been a pair. Unfortunately, I lost them in a power outage.

 

[Zionas]

That’s unfortunate. How were the fry in terms of raising them? Environment, temperature, and feeding schedules would you consider them difficult to breed? What about Grammas?

Have you worked with butterflies before?