Marginalis butterfly is in!

Aparker2005 · Mar 14, 2024

Finally found a good sized Marginalis butterfly and went with it from divers den this week. I've loved copperbands since we started this hobby, but they always die the second they're bothered.

Finally found these and hear they're quite a bit harder, so I pulled the trigger. Absolutely perfect and gorgeous fish. Lights are still coming on in the picture. hopefully it starts eating soon! Not able to qt this one right now so it had to go straight to the tank.

Jay Hemdal · Mar 15, 2024

Aparker2005 said:
Finally found a good sized Marginalis butterfly and went with it from divers den this week. I've loved copperbands since we started this hobby, but they always die the second they're bothered.

Finally found these and hear they're quite a bit harder, so I pulled the trigger. Absolutely perfect and gorgeous fish. Lights are still coming on in the picture. hopefully it starts eating soon! Not able to qt this one right now so it had to go straight to the tank.

I’ve had a few of these and they always did well, much better than regular CBB. Australian CBB also do ok, but getting a legit one can be difficult due to “renaming” by the importer/wholesalers like they do with harlequin tuskfish.

Aparker2005 · Mar 18, 2024

This little butterfly is amazing! Fairly aggressive during eating now. LOVES PE mysis, clams, and masstick. None of my copperbands did this well. I think I have a winner!

gmon57 · Mar 20, 2024

Aparker2005 said:
This little butterfly is amazing! Fairly aggressive during eating now. LOVES PE mysis, clams, and masstick. None of my copperbands did this well. I think I have a winner!

Congrats!! Very Nice.

crazyfishmom · Mar 20, 2024

Aparker2005 said:
This little butterfly is amazing! Fairly aggressive during eating now. LOVES PE mysis, clams, and masstick. None of my copperbands did this well. I think I have a winner!

How is it doing with your Coral? Any picking?

Aparker2005 · Mar 20, 2024

crazyfishmom said:
How is it doing with your Coral? Any picking?

Not remotely interested in them thankfully

Aparker2005 · Mar 21, 2024

And today I find it swimming erratically and jerking, hitting rocks, and hiding now.

What in the world. It was doing perfect all day today, and now this. This is exactly what all my CBB did before dying. Really upset if this one is going too

Reefkeepers Archive · Mar 21, 2024

Jay Hemdal said:
I’ve had a few of these and they always did well, much better than regular CBB. Australian CBB also do ok, but getting a legit one can be difficult due to “renaming” by the importer/wholesalers like they do with harlequin tuskfish.

Do they have a higher risk of eating coral? Would love one of these but I'm afraid on how it would do in my LPS dominant system

Aparker2005 · Mar 21, 2024

And now it's back looking for food. I was about to have a heart attack. Hopefully it just got spooked

crazyfishmom · Mar 21, 2024

Aparker2005 said:
And now it's back looking for food. I was about to have a heart attack. Hopefully it just got spooked

Glad to hear!

Aparker2005 · Mar 22, 2024

This one is acting weird today. Just looking at food, even it's favorite, clams. I've only seen it pick at a piece of food once today.

Hopefully it's still kinda settling in, but it's been a week now. I'm just cautious and nervous with this fish after 3 failed copperband attempts.

Reefkeepers Archive · Mar 22, 2024

Reefkeepers Archive said:
Do they have a higher risk of eating coral? Would love one of these but I'm afraid on how it would do in my LPS dominant system

@Jay Hemdal any thoughts?

OrionN · Mar 22, 2024

Good luck. Hope he will do well for you.

Jay Hemdal · Mar 23, 2024

Reefkeepers Archive said:
@Jay Hemdal any thoughts?

Sorry no. I’ve only kept marginalis in fish-only tanks. I have kept Australian CBB in large reefs with no apparent damage to the LPS.

Aparker2005 · Mar 23, 2024

Day 2 of it suddenly ignoring food. It is looking through the rocks like normal and acts like it's about to go in to grab something, then swims off. It was going after clams, pe mysis, and masstick every time I fed it. Now, nothing on any of those.

Completely ignoring food now. Awfully similar to what my copperbands did :/

Aparker2005 · Mar 23, 2024

More strange behavior, or is this how these fish react when spooked?

It picked out a piece of food from the feeding pouch, then went to pick a piece from behind it. It touched the pouch, wrapped it's body almost around it, and floated to the top upside down and just breathing, then it snapped back to and went to swimming backwards for a second.

Now it's swimming normally again, but acting skiddish. I thought have a marginalis would make me more at ease, but I'm almost more frustrated with this fish than the CBBs. I knew they had a poor rate kd survival in aquariums, but thought these would be a little easier.

Seeks like it's gonna kill over any minute the way it's acting. My yellow long nose keeps looking at it like what is wrong with you bro? Lol

Aparker2005 · Mar 23, 2024

Now smashing itself into the glass and rocks erratically. Not one thing is messing with it or bullying it

Reefkeepers Archive · Mar 23, 2024

Aparker2005 said:
More strange behavior, or is this how these fish react when spooked?

It picked out a piece of food from the feeding pouch, then went to pick a piece from behind it. It touched the pouch, wrapped it's body almost around it, and floated to the top upside down and just breathing, then it snapped back to and went to swimming backwards for a second.

Now it's swimming normally again, but acting skiddish. I thought have a marginalis would make me more at ease, but I'm almost more frustrated with this fish than the CBBs. I knew they had a poor rate kd survival in aquariums, but thought these would be a little easier.

Seeks like it's gonna kill over any minute the way it's acting. My yellow long nose keeps looking at it like what is wrong with you bro? Lol

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 @i cant think @Slocke isn't this a sign of cyanide poisoning?

Aparker2005 · Mar 23, 2024

Reefkeepers Archive said:
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 @i cant think @Slocke isn't this a sign of cyanide poisoning?

Ugh I hoped not. I thought Australians weren't caught that way, but who knows

Reefkeepers Archive · Mar 23, 2024

Aparker2005 said:
Ugh I hoped not. I thought Australians weren't caught that way, but who knows

Just the symptoms sound like some sort of poison/neurological issue, being an aussie fish that does make it slightly less likely. it also almost sounds like the disease that fairy wrasses will get.... but that's just for wrasses. Might want to get the opinions of the #fishmedic Group though