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.

 

[Louis Z]

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

How big is your maculosus? Starting to figure out how to upgrade school aquarium . We have a large approx 8in+ emperor angel. He has outgrown his 125 . Your angel looks large yet your aq looks like it’s ok for him . I don’t think i can put a 240in the hallway so I might have to go 190 . The 190 has a length of 8ft but not as wide as a 240 .

 

[Fishfreak2009]

How big is your maculosus? Starting to figure out how to upgrade school aquarium . We have a large approx 8in+ emperor angel. He has outgrown his 125 . Your angel looks large yet your aq looks like it’s ok for him . I don’t think i can put a 240in the hallway so I might have to go 190 . The 190 has a length of 8ft but not as wide as a 240 .

It's an 8' 240g with a 14-15" maculosus. You'll need the minimum 24" width for an adult large angel, bigger would be better. We plan on building something like a 12x4x4 or 12x6x4 out of acrylic, concrete, and fiberglass in the next few years for all these fish as they continue to grow.

 

[Louis Z]

I too have been entertaining the idea of making my own large tank . Indoor pond. Out of reinforced concrete blocks with a large glass panes . I have seen 300gal tanks for sale that have split seams making them worthless . I am planning to deconstruct them and to use those as windows with an integrated top brace of the glass panel so as to avoid glass distention/bending . I have worked with fiberglass and also building structures with reinforced concrete blocks . I see these as a more secure way of building rather than using plywood . I have seen people use fiberglass inside of plywood but the weakest link is the plywood itself . There is an Australian aquarist on you tube that I love his home built tanks . He uses plywood and has had problems . But he is def my inspiration.

 

[Louis Z]

So my take is to remove the fish as they grow too large and rehome them to my pond tank .

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Copperband ate well but continued to lose weight, as did the yellow longnose, so both were removed from my 240g. Kleini is growing rapidly, and the auriga is still thriving. Both tend to push the other butterflies away, so I normally feed in multiple places throughout the tank, so everyone gets a fair share.

I've added a few new guys since then, all are doing well and eating with gusto. Added a punctatofasciatus, an argentatus, and a pair of trifasciatus. The trifasciatus pair regularly eat frozen clam on the half shell (and only when placed in the rockwork), nori off a clip, masstick on Acropora skeletons, and mermaids delight in a mesh feeder. Mermaids delight and hikari clam on the half shell are definitely the favorites.
They'll also pick at some NLS pellets and frozen mysis both floating and sunk stuck to the rockwork, but are getting their calories met through the former foods.

And I'll probably be adding a few more butterflies, as we're upgrading from a 240g to a 900g in the next couple weeks! The fish currently in the 900g are coming home this weekend, including a show-sized Chaetodon semilarvatus!

 

[code4]

Copperband ate well but continued to lose weight, as did the yellow longnose, so both were removed from my 240g. Kleini is growing rapidly, and the auriga is still thriving. Both tend to push the other butterflies away, so I normally feed in multiple places throughout the tank, so everyone gets a fair share.

I've added a few new guys since then, all are doing well and eating with gusto. Added a punctatofasciatus, an argentatus, and a pair of trifasciatus. The trifasciatus pair regularly eat frozen clam on the half shell (and only when placed in the rockwork), nori off a clip, masstick on Acropora skeletons, and mermaids delight in a mesh feeder. Mermaids delight and hikari clam on the half shell are definitely the favorites.
They'll also pick at some NLS pellets and frozen mysis both floating and sunk stuck to the rockwork, but are getting their calories met through the former foods.

And I'll probably be adding a few more butterflies, as we're upgrading from a 240g to a 900g in the next couple weeks! The fish currently in the 900g are coming home this weekend, including a show-sized Chaetodon semilarvatus!

love the video. What kind of feeder are you using

 

[Fishfreak2009]

love the video. What kind of feeder are you using

https://www.amazon.com/TL-Reefs-Mag...&sprefix=nori+feeder+,pet-supplies,543&sr=1-1

Not designed to hold frozen food, but the material stretches enough to hold the chunky mermaids delight frozen food