The truth about Kleini Butterflyfish?

[Suohhen]

@vetteguy53081 is clearly a proponent of Blue Head Kleini Butterflyfish being a safe an effective option for controlling aiptasia in reef tanks. However I can find very little information on what region this variety comes from or whether that is indeed true.
Of course there are many responses to his assertions that they are not safe but even copperbands have their fair share of complaints. Obviously with any fish there is a big difference with a properly fed and quarantined fish added to a tank full of safely considered tankmates so I take all such claims with a grain of salt.
But what is the truth with this fish? Is there truly a blue head variety or is that some sort of juvinille trait and is the blue head really safer than brown/yellow?

 

[vetteguy53081]

@vetteguy53081 is clearly a proponent of Blue Head Kleini Butterflyfish being a safe an effective option for controlling aiptasia in reef tanks. However I can find very little information on what region this variety comes from or whether that is indeed true.
Of course there are many responses to his assertions that they are not safe but even copperbands have their fair share of complaints. Obviously with any fish there is a big difference with a properly fed and quarantined fish added to a tank full of safely considered tankmates so I take all such claims with a grain of salt.
But what is the truth with this fish? Is there truly a blue head variety or is that some sort of juvinille trait and is the blue head really safer than brown/yellow?

They are Indo-pacific and do exist. Here is an example:

Bluehead Butterfly - Chaetodon kleinii - Small​

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Bluehead Butterflies (Cheatodon kleinii) have a white forebody with a vertical black bar across the eye and a golden yellow body with a faint black and white bar behind the pectoral fins. They are named for the faint blue shadow on their foreheads and are also called Sunburst Butterflies or Klein's Butterflies.

 

[Suohhen]

I'm not trying to challenge your assertion. I just cannot find a clear indication that the blue shade on the eye is a good indication of which variety is safer. This fish spans across the Indo Pacific into the Red Sea all the way across to the Galapagos. Not that we get any fish from the Galapagos but we do/used to from Hawaii which shares much of the same reputation for being very remote and thus having significant regional variation.
Here are some pictures from across the indo-pacific and it would appear by my eyes that the Bluehead is found in every region. They don't look exactly the same but lighting/photography varies far too much to deduce much else than something like the presence of a color. It could be of course that the Bluehead lives amongst the black/brown but all the pictures without blue are far more on the white side of lighting on very mature fish taken at a angle where even when the blue does show up on much bluer pictures it is far more subued than the bluest of the pictures. I know this is rather subjective and a limited set of photos but this is a hobby and not a science and all I am doing is trying to see if a better variant might truly exist and how to know.

Hawaii/Palau

Blacklip Butterflyfish, Chaetodon kleinii

Australia

Chaetodon kleinii

Klein's Butterflyfish

fishesofaustralia.net.au

Tanzania

Sunburst Butterflyfish – Facts and Photographs | Seaunseen

Are you looking for the Sunburst Butterflyfish facts and photographs? Find the perfect high quality images and classification from Seaunseen.

seaunseen.com

So yeah color doesn't do it for me but how about region. Do you happen to know where the fish you have were sourced from? I know it's a longshot as most sellers give a generic region like the Indo Pacific but here are some sources of the actual regions which are being supplied from. I would venture a guess that some also come out of African waters although given its history as a relatively cheap fish I wouldn't think there would be many of these making it to the US but definitely the EU.

Liveaquaria - Hawaii, Indonesia, and Oceania
Petco - Hawaii and Melanesia
Aquarium fish sale - Hawaii

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Did you end up purchasing a fish and if so where did you get it and what were the results? Thought i nabbed one off FB marketplace today but think he was scammin me, still almost took the risk, this hobby is all about throwing money away so figured worth the investment/loss

 

[chipchipbro]

any update?

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

any update?

I tried the bluehead klein and it was a bust. It eats fleshy corals.

Edit: It DID consume the aiptasia.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

just want to circle back to this post. I've had 2 bluehead kleini in my tank now for over 6 months. Aiptasia was destroyed in a day or two. I haven't seen one since. I moved a rock and there was an aiptasia that was uncovered from doing so, and the next morning that aiptasia was gone. This tells me they are eating it just as fast as it shows up. They eat big ones too, like 2-3" in diameter. ALSO which is huge is they love to eat bryopsis. I had a few spots of bryopsis that were coming back after reef flux treatments, and these butterfly fish are the only thing ive seen eat it. My urchins even zoom right past it but these two will pick at it all day.

Negatives? They have taken bites out of my

1) Duncan , so I sold it for 40 and bought a hammer for 40, ended up loving the hammer coral way more. I experimented and placed a mushroom cage over the duncan that had been closed up for a couple of weeks and it opened in a day or two, so i made the connection the fish were eating it.
2) candy cane coral. only witnessed them one time, and saw a literal chunk get taken, but its been the same size since it's been in the tank. not too worried about it
3) believe it or not, sand sifting starfish. still not sure if they were eating it or cleaning algae off it. asked on facebook and got different opinions, but that toxic environment is full of "experts" who sit by their keyboard and have "TANK TOO YOUNG BRO" to make themselves look cool so I've lost any possibility of getting good advice or information. starfish is still alive, hopefully the goofball just stays in his sand bed

I keep tons of soft corals, anemones, torch, pectinia. Less LPS and a good amount of SPS. They haven't touched any of the 4 different chalice i have, zoas, mushrooms all safe. I have NEVER seen them nip at SPS, I have about 10 different types. I've never had PE from SPS in my tank, it grows, encrusts, makes new branches, and i cut the branches and make new frags that also grow. Never had PE, even before introducting the butterflyfish, and not sure if it's because phosphates float around 0.3-0.4 or if they're opportunistic when they eat the SPS and make sure I am not watching.

I would recommend this fish for aiptasia control to anyone who would ask. Do we not risk our LPS/SPS corals when we introduce flame angel fish or many other types of "reef safe with caution" ? This is a similar risk, but with the added benefit of aiptasia eradication and control.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Same experience as you had except they munched on certain zoas, which I wasnt ok with.

But with my current tank layout it may be my only option to try one again.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Same experience as you had except they munched on certain zoas, which I wasnt ok with.

But with my current tank layout it may be my only option to try one again.

which zoas did they munch on and did you ever see them do it ?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have added to recommendation based on feedback, I will note that a couple of persons who got the blue had their kleini nip zoa. if so- easy sell, or place in sump as aptasia have likely made it down there already
At least a dozen have stated no issues with them at all.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

which zoas did they munch on and did you ever see them do it ?

Yup, several varietys. I'm not hip and dont bother with fancy names.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Yup, several varietys. I'm not hip and dont bother with fancy names.

that is wild . i dont like the fancy names either but i sure love the fancy colors. if these fish start eating my fancy color zoas they goin in the 55 gallon sump and staying there. if i can ever catch them.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I justed added a butterfly Klein to my 400 gallon tank. I got desperate since trying peppermint shrimp (which worked but they all mysteriously died when trying to kill aiptasia with sodium hydroxide, thanks reefbuilders). Anyways I got two filefish and they are not doing nothing yet and one died so came across a QT Klein locally and went and picked it up yesterday from TSM.

I added the fish last night at 6PM. First impression it was extremely happy to be in a reef tank. I have 6 really large tangs and the purple and orange shouldered showed some agression when the fish swam near their area but the buttefly fish just swam away and swam back to their area. Its highly confident and doesnt appear to be scared or timmid one bit.

It was nipping at everything last night other than the aiptasia. The rock, the algae, maybe Pods, the SPS tips (ahHHHH), but not touching the zoas, hammer or 1 acan (yet). I am hoping its just exploring to see what its prefered choice is. I figured it would go after the few softies and I am good. However, if it goes after all the SPS than this would be a fail. Hopefully it discovers the aiptasia, so far i have not see it even look at them as food.

 

[saltyfins]

I justed added a butterfly Klein to my 400 gallon tank. I got desperate since trying peppermint shrimp (which worked but they all mysteriously died when trying to kill aiptasia with sodium hydroxide, thanks reefbuilders). Anyways I got two filefish and they are not doing nothing yet and one died so came across a QT Klein locally and went and picked it up yesterday from TSM.

I added the fish last night at 6PM. First impression it was extremely happy to be in a reef tank. I have 6 really large tangs and the purple and orange shouldered showed some agression when the fish swam near their area but the buttefly fish just swam away and swam back to their area. Its highly confident and doesnt appear to be scared or timmid one bit.

It was nipping at everything last night other than the aiptasia. The rock, the algae, maybe Pods, the SPS tips (ahHHHH), but not touching the zoas, hammer or 1 acan (yet). I am hoping its just exploring to see what its prefered choice is. I figured it would go after the few softies and I am good. However, if it goes after all the SPS than this would be a fail. Hopefully it discovers the aiptasia, so far i have not see it even look at them as food.

it will. I had 1 it destroyed them within days. then rehomed it, only to have aptasia come back. so...got another one lol. the blue head ones I cannot seem to get my hands on, so it's the normal one here. so far, so good a month in.

 

[Ashish Patel]

it will. I had 1 it destroyed them within days. then rehomed it, only to have aptasia come back. so...got another one lol. the blue head ones I cannot seem to get my hands on, so it's the normal one here. so far, so good a month in.

Thanks, I hope so these aiptasias make the tank so ugly! The tangs are chasing the fish away but he just seems to not care so I kind of appreciate his attitude.

 

[littlefoxx]

I justed added a butterfly Klein to my 400 gallon tank. I got desperate since trying peppermint shrimp (which worked but they all mysteriously died when trying to kill aiptasia with sodium hydroxide, thanks reefbuilders). Anyways I got two filefish and they are not doing nothing yet and one died so came across a QT Klein locally and went and picked it up yesterday from TSM.

I added the fish last night at 6PM. First impression it was extremely happy to be in a reef tank. I have 6 really large tangs and the purple and orange shouldered showed some agression when the fish swam near their area but the buttefly fish just swam away and swam back to their area. Its highly confident and doesnt appear to be scared or timmid one bit.

It was nipping at everything last night other than the aiptasia. The rock, the algae, maybe Pods, the SPS tips (ahHHHH), but not touching the zoas, hammer or 1 acan (yet). I am hoping its just exploring to see what its prefered choice is. I figured it would go after the few softies and I am good. However, if it goes after all the SPS than this would be a fail. Hopefully it discovers the aiptasia, so far i have not see it even look at them as food.

I cant stand this fish!!!! Mine was a terror. Couldnt get it out of my 125 when I had it. Always able to catch tangs but this booger nope. He also was ornery, ticked every fish off in my tank all the time. Made my marine betta chase him even, and he was the most chill fish! His name was poop head. And he murdered all my corals on top of that!!

 

[Ashish Patel]

I cant stand this fish!!!! Mine was a terror. Couldnt get it out of my 125 when I had it. Always able to catch tangs but this booger nope. He also was ornery, ticked every fish off in my tank all the time. Made my marine betta chase him even, and he was the most chill fish! His name was poop head. And he murdered all my corals on top of that!!

Yeah that's what I am afraid of...what corals did he kill?

 

[Ashish Patel]

 

[Ashish Patel]

So far the file fish has been useless at eating aiptasia. As soon as I get confirmation they are eating them I can start going to work on the larger aiptasia.

 

[littlefoxx]

That orange shoulder is beautiful! How big is it? Makes the butterfly look like a penny lol