The Butterfly Lover's Thread

[exnisstech]

TLDR pics and vid of the new CBB below the ramble

Several months ago I lost my pair of CBBs to mystery deaths a month apart. One had been in 2 years the other 14 months. All fish were fine at night and I found male dead on the sand the next morning. A month later found the female the same way. No recent losses and no deaths since. Rigor hadn't even set in.
I'm giving it one more try. This one has been in observation for 5 weeks now. It wasn't eating when I bought it. It had only been at the store for 2 days. It looked healthy and out of three they had it approached the glass when I walked up and we checked each other out and the decision was made.
It took a few days before it showed interest in food. The observation tank is basically a reef tank with nothing fancy but it's mature and has pods and worms and such and the fish was hunting from day one. I keep a clown and a Springer damsel in the tank as full time inhabitants. They are peaceful and I think having them in the tank helps the CBB learn how to feed from the water column which is critical if they are to survive in a DT with other fish. I started it on live black worms. I tried clams on the half shell and strips attached to a piece of rubble but it showed no interest. It ate frozen blood worms a few times then stopped. All along I fed the tank what I feed my other tanks which is frozen PE mysis and rods with several different pellets and flakes mixed together with selcon and vitachem. It's targeting the mysis and some pieces if rods now which is what I expected. My previous female took to flake but the male wouldn't touch it. It's already getting excited when it sees me and follows when I leave the room. This is behavior I like to see. I think a fish that hides isn't going to do well if added to a tank with aggressive feeders.

Chow time

 

[spiffynidd]

I did the irresponsible thing: I looked at a picture of a fish and fell in 'fishy love'. The criminal? A racoon butterfly fish. I've read conflicting things about their reef safety, and my primary concern are inverts. I don't mind nipping the occasional softy, but taking a shot at the clean up crew is a no go in my books. Is there a reasonably easy to keep butterfly that won't take out the cleaner shrimp? Thanks!

 

[Michael Hughes]

I did the irresponsible thing: I looked at a picture of a fish and fell in 'fishy love'. The criminal? A racoon butterfly fish. I've read conflicting things about their reef safety, and my primary concern are inverts. I don't mind nipping the occasional softy, but taking a shot at the clean up crew is a no go in my books. Is there a reasonably easy to keep butterfly that won't take out the cleaner shrimp? Thanks!

I'm no expert but from what I've read in the literature, larger cleaner shrimp shouldn't be at much of a risk from most butterflies. Forcipiger longirostris has a very narrow diet in the wild (mostly caridean shrimps) but I'd be less concerned with most other butterflies.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I did the irresponsible thing: I looked at a picture of a fish and fell in 'fishy love'. The criminal? A racoon butterfly fish. I've read conflicting things about their reef safety, and my primary concern are inverts. I don't mind nipping the occasional softy, but taking a shot at the clean up crew is a no go in my books. Is there a reasonably easy to keep butterfly that won't take out the cleaner shrimp? Thanks!

It'll be fine. Butterflies will leave cleaner shrimp and other larger shrimp alone, along with hermits, most snails, etc. Tubefeet on Starfish and urchins, as well as possibly nipping at fleshy parts on things like Nassarius are quite possible. Softies like Xenia will be eaten, as will small anemones like rock flowers, mushroom corals, and fleshy stuff like Micromussa, Blastomussa, Lobos, etc. Acropora will probably be ok with a raccoon butterfly, but your individual may decide it's fair game.

I have a breeding pair of skunk cleaner shrimp and a breeding pair of coral banded shrimp in my 8' 240g and the butterflies (threadfin, copperband, yellow longnose, and kleini) actually line up for the cleaning station, especially the one for the skunk cleaners. The coral bandeds usually only clean the big maculosus angel.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Here's a quick video of my 240g with my butterflies all visible

 

[code4]

Here's a quick video of my 240g with my butterflies all visible

Beautiful

 

[MarcoReef]

Beautiful

Beautiful

I’m

Honestly, some of the most beautiful reef fish come from this family of fish. Now show us those

Honestly, some of the most beautiful reef fish come from this family of fish. Now show us those butterfly fish!

Sharing a slow‑motion hand‑feed from my Auriga. I have other exciting clips of this fish on my channel.

 

[Louis Z]

So a question I have . I often see many have single number of multiple species of butterflies in a tank . Do most of y’all shy away from multiples of the same butterflies species because of past experience? I Would love to have a group of banner Heniochus . Any one have difficulty in doing that . ? Are they aggressive to each other in an aquarium ? I see videos of them in large schools . I have a pair of black backed . Would love to have more than one pakistani . But I can see that adding another Pakistani might be an issue in a 125 . So I am thinking a different specie of butterfly to try a grouping .

 

[JumboShrimp]

You can do multiple Banner Fish, but make sure they are the exact same type; same size; introduced at once. If you go beyond that, I predict trouble.