Pairing longnose butterflies

[jtf74]

So I ordered a longnose and it arrived with huge white lump so they sent another. The first fish is improving quickly though and I think its just lympho. After another 60 days when QT is done and if the first is symptom free by then, I thought about putting them together instead of rehoming it before the DT to see if they would fight or get along. Both are about the same size. Wondering if I'd know pretty quickly how things will go since I guess theres no way to tell male from female?

 

[Zionas]

Butterflies are gonochoristic / they don’t change sex like Angels or Clowns. Your only way is to see how they get along over a period of time. They form bonded pairs (at least Longnoses do) but you can’t really get a true pair by assuming one changes sex.

 

[jtf74]

Butterflies are gonochoristic / they don’t change sex like Angels or Clowns. Your only way is to see how they get along over a period of time. They form bonded pairs (at least Longnoses do) but you can’t really get a true pair by assuming one changes sex.

So having two males or two females or even a male and female might not be apparent for a while I assume because juveniles haven't developed into territorial adults?

 

[Zionas]

I guess it will take a while although I haven’t tried it myself. In the wild there are cases of butterflies and some other fish forming same sex pairs but that’s usually for having each other’s back while looking for food. I don’t know if that would happen in captivity as usually the butterflies keep in multiples are ones like Yellow and Black Pyramids. I can’t tell you much except observe for a while.