Poll: How many reefers have successfully kept a butterfly?

[MrsBugmaster]

520 gallon 10 x 3 x 2.5 ft

Nice size tank!

 

[Steve Fast]

This guy is about 10 years old. I got him as a baby. I can usually keep them about 12 years but I am not sure what their life span is.

If you feed butterflies like @Paul B, they'll be fat, healthy and happy.

 

[Steve Fast]

What I like most about butterflies is that I never worry about keep the same species or genus together. They are "social butterflies!" In fact, to me, because they are so social, they learn from each other. This is super valuable when adding a new one as it will rapidly learn the feeding ritual from the other butterflies in the tank. I kept butterflies in the 80s and they are why I got back into the hobby after 15 years off. I call this one miracle fish. This is how it arrived. It survived and was in the tank eating before the other fish in the shipment were acclimated! A miracle!

 

[OrionN]

Certain butterfly only live as pair. Two CBB will fight unless you can get a pair which is rare and not easy since you cannot sex them.

 

[Devaji]

I'll chime in here.
I have yet to keep any butterfly's however I have a new red sea reefer 750XXL that I was gonna to the classic mix reef but after loosing all my corals in the upgrade in ( coral QT still not sure what happened ) I have decided to you a butterfly dominate tank.
I plan on 5 of them: ( the list as of now )
Aurigna
saddle back
raccoon
Pakistan
copper band
if I am having great success I may add a few more and skip the the other fish I had on the list.

 

[Steve Fast]

Most of my success has been with the genuses Chaetodon and Forcipiger and then only those species mark in Scott Michael’s books with aquarium suitability 3 and higher. I have not had long term success with any Chelmon or Prognathodes, though more success with the latter than the former. I also choose species that tend to be 7 inches or smaller. My experience suggests many Chaetodon and Forcipiger species would be a better choice for reef or FOWL habitats than any Chelmon species.

@Devaji I had success with all those species in the 80s, though do not have an Auriga or Raccoon now as they get larger than I prefer... In the 80s I kept those species (with the exception of the CBB) for 4+ years...

 

[Paul B]

Two CBB will fight unless you can get a pair which is rare and not easy since you cannot sex them.

The females smell better.

 

[Jase4224]

I'll chime in here.
I have yet to keep any butterfly's however I have a new red sea reefer 750XXL that I was gonna to the classic mix reef but after loosing all my corals in the upgrade in ( coral QT still not sure what happened ) I have decided to you a butterfly dominate tank.
I plan on 5 of them: ( the list as of now )
Aurigna
saddle back
raccoon
Pakistan
copper band
if I am having great success I may add a few more and skip the the other fish I had on the list.

I just received that exact tank today (!!!!!!) and will be doing a mixed reef. I’m considering a Pyramid butterfly as they a) don’t look like any other fish and b) are supposed to be hardy and reef safe.

Cool idea to do a butterfly dominated tank I would love to see how that looks.

 

[Devaji]

I just received that exact tank today (!!!!!!) and will be doing a mixed reef. I’m considering a Pyramid butterfly as they a) don’t look like any other fish and b) are supposed to be hardy and reef safe.

Cool idea to do a butterfly dominated tank I would love to see how that looks.

Oh man you are going to Love it! sexy tank. I was planing a mixed reef as weel but lost 1K in coral in the QT process heart breaking and living in wyoming everything is mailed in $40 plus in shipping every time add up pretty quick. so I started thing about other options.
wish me luck!!

Most of my success has been with the genuses Chaetodon and Forcipiger and then only those species mark in Scott Michael’s books with aquarium suitability 3 and higher. I have not had long term success with any Chelmon or Prognathodes, though more success with the latter than the former. I also choose species that tend to be 7 inches or smaller. My experience suggests many Chaetodon and Forcipiger species would be a better choice for reef or FOWL habitats than any Chelmon species.

@Devaji I had success with all those species in the 80s, though do not have an Auriga or Raccoon now as they get larger than I prefer... In the 80s I kept those species (with the exception of the CBB) for 4+ years...

great to know you had success with these. that is just my starter list might change as do more research. looks like there not a ton of info out there on butterfly fish or at least I have yet to find much.
the raccoon does get a litter bigger than I would like but I do enjoy the look of the fish. any suggestions you personally would add to the list? I do thing the yellow long nose is a beautiful fish too.

 

[Steve Fast]

Oh man you are going to Love it! sexy tank. I was planing a mixed reef as weel but lost 1K in coral in the QT process heart breaking and living in wyoming everything is mailed in $40 plus in shipping every time add up pretty quick. so I started thing about other options.
wish me luck!!




great to know you had success with these. that is just my starter list might change as do more research. looks like there not a ton of info out there on butterfly fish or at least I have yet to find much.
the raccoon does get a litter bigger than I would like but I do enjoy the look of the fish. any suggestions you personally would add to the list? I do thing the yellow long nose is a beautiful fish too.

I used these sites

https://orphek.com/butterflyfish-compatibility-with-corals/

https://www.petcha.com/8-ideal-butteryflyfish-for-your-marine-tank/

https://www.ratemyfishtank.com/blog/choosing-the-right-butterflyfish-for-your-reef-tank

https://www.petcha.com/butterflyfish-and-coral-compatibility/

More to follow...

 

[Hal3134]

I've kept a Saddleback butterfly in my tank for the last 8ish months. He loves to eat littleneck clams. He mostly hides in the rockscape.

I've lost most of my nassarius and cerith snails, but am unclear if they were being eaten by the Saddleback of if it was other water issues. The Margarita/nerite snails are doing fine, with no known losses. I don't have any turbo or astrea snails. I'd love to know if anyone else has had any snail predation by a Saddleback.

 

[Hal3134]

doublepost.

 

[ReefTeacher]

What I like most about butterflies is that I never worry about keep the same species or genus together. They are "social butterflies!" In fact, to me, because they are so social, they learn from each other. This is super valuable when adding a new one as it will rapidly learn the feeding ritual from the other butterflies in the tank. I kept butterflies in the 80s and they are why I got back into the hobby after 15 years off. I call this one miracle fish. This is how it arrived. It survived and was in the tank eating before the other fish in the shipment were acclimated! A miracle!

Steve,

this has not always been my experience. I had a Pakistani that was a little mean to other butterflies. I also had a murder: I had a well established Yellow-Head and added my dream fish: a SaddleBack BBF. They are quite closely related in the genus Chaetodon. The Yellow-Head would not let the Saddle back out of his cave to eat. It would absolutely terrorize it. I tried to get it out of the tank but it was nearly impossible. I needed to go away for a weekend, and when I came back...no more Saddleback :-( They are not always social with each other.

 

[Steve Fast]

@ReefTeacher How depressing! I always have a twinge of anxiety when first adding a new fish. For most genera I won't even try. Heck two firefish can't even get along in my 520 gallon. Go figure. Nothing more disturbing than watching something like that play out and the helplessness that goes with knowing the end game and that there is little you can do to stop it. I've just had better success with the butterfly genus than most other.. the notable exception being shrimp gobies and tilefish. If I remember correctly the longnose was the first in and then others followed. Maybe I started with a peaceful species and set up a power dynamic that was favorable and by the time there were several in, there were enough to balance out the hierarchy. When I add in a second of the same species, there is a bit of time for them to settle down, though it seems to work out in a day or two. Geez would hate to have to experience what you did... had enough of that with other genera. I hope your future experiences are more positive.

@Hal3134 I have ceriths and trochus and so far have not witnessed any issues. Had to remove all the blue legged hermit crabs as they seemed too interested in the snails. Also have three urchins that they have left alone. Of course I have no nasty worms or aiptasia.

 

[Steve Fast]

@Devaji this is my list of butterflies. Those in italics I have or have had with positive experience. As noted by @ReefTeacher there are exceptions. Hard to know. Maybe I just overlook the some bad behavior as I'm just a little biased in favor of them.... Hope this helps... some of these are hard to find... patience is a virtue....

Indian Ocean Vagabond Butterflyfish - Chaetodon decussatus
Pebbled Butterflyfish - Chaetodon guttatissimus
Lemon Butterflyfish - Chaetodon miliaris
Threeband Pennant Butterflyfish - Heniochus chrysostomus
Spotband Butterflyfish - Chaetodon punctatofasciatus
Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish - Forcipiger flavissimus
Double Saddle Butterflyfish - Chaetodon ulietensis
Falcula Butterflyfish - Chaetodon falcula
Latticed Butterflyfish - Chaetodon rafflesi
Speckled Butterflyfish - Chaetodon citrinellus
Klein’s Butterflyfish - Chaetodon kleinii
Pearlscale Butterflyfish - Chaetodon xanthuru
Pakistan Butterflyfish - Chaetodon collare
Atlantic Reef Butterfly - Chaetodon sedentarius
Sunset Butterflyfish - Chaetodon pelewensis
Singapore Angelfish - Chaetodontoplus mesoleucus

 

[Devaji]

@stevefast nice list!
I have been thinking of the sunset...love the lighting bolt type lines. hmmm so many beautiful fish so little space.
truth be told if I new I was going to go this and not a mix reef I totally would have gone with a 240+ gal. tank.
but many the 750's sure do look great

 

[Mako56]

I had a copper band for around 5 years and one day it was just gone, really like these fish so I tried 5 or 6 times with no luck and the last time it worked had it about 6 months now it's eating good and lookin happy.

 

[Steve Fast]

@stevefast nice list!
I have been thinking of the sunset...love the lighting bolt type lines. hmmm so many beautiful fish so little space.
truth be told if I new I was going to go this and not a mix reef I totally would have gone with a 240+ gal. tank.
but many the 750's sure do look great

Yes, that one is hard to find. When I've ordered it, a spotband was sent instead. That's how I ended up with two of the spotbands.... I've also received a double saddle instead of falcula... see the post about the miracle fish above. That is how I tried double saddle out on corals... can hardly euthanize a fish in that situation... was breaking my heart already when I saw it in the bag... Not sure that careful attention is always paid when species are identified by those in the supply chain...

 

[Devaji]

Yes, that one is hard to find. When I've ordered it, a spotband was sent instead. That's how I ended up with two of the spotbands.... I've also received a double saddle instead of falcula... see the post about the miracle fish above. That is how I tried double saddle out on corals... can hardly euthanize a fish in that situation... was breaking my heart already when I saw it in the bag... Not sure that careful attention is always paid when species are identified by those in the supply chain...

yeah I say that! wow I was very impressed good job.
well hopefully I'll get what I order when the time comes.

 

[Steve Fast]

So far I experienced the following species mix ups:

Speckled Butterfly - Chaetodon citrinellus for Lemon Butterflyfish - Chaetodon miliaris
Double Saddle Butterflyfish - Chaetodon ulietensis for Falcula Butterflyfish - Chaetodon falcula
Spotband Butterflyfish - Chaetodon punctatofasciatus for Sunset Butterflyfish - Chaetodon pelewensis

always the less expensive instead of the more expensive, though the sellers always took care of it.