Raccoon Butterfly ate my majanos

[ishmael]

After struggling with a plague of majano anemones in my 185 I finally got rid of them by placing a raccoon butterfly in the tank.:lolspin:
I had tried all of the other remedies including Aiptasia x and majano wand to no avail. HOURS of working with those things just lead to mediocre results and in fact might have contributed to them spreading.
I was very fortunate to have a local supplier who kept the fish in his spare tank in the basement and would place the occasional rock that would come in with majanos on it into the tank where the raccoon butterfly had nothing else to eat. So he was very well trained to eat them. He was in my tank for no more than ten seconds when he started to munch on them.
I am talking about HUNDREDS of them. They are mostly all gone. And I wonder if he will start to pick at my softies (he has not yet) or, if he will starve once they are all gone. Just a few left now, maybe 20. It has taken about two weeks.
I was at wit's end with this problem. Now, I am enjoying my tank once again!

[heathlindner25]

That's what they do,glad your getting your tank back.

[slief]

Great to hear. I have a bunch of Majanos in my tank as well. I added a couple Kliens butterfly fish but they started picking at my zoa's which I didn't care about but never gained interest in the Majanos. When the Kliens started picking at other corals, I trapped them and sent them packing to a friends tank.

I've thought about trying a Raccoon but fear it may find a taste for my corals before even looking at the Majanos.

[ishmael]

So far, two weeks, he is a model citizen. I guess you have to weigh the risk versus the reward. In my case, I was SO desperate, I threw caution to the wind. As a matter of fact, I accepted the possibility of losing some valuable stuff in order to solve the problem. :dance:

[scooter31707]

Congrats, in my old tank I had some and I tried 2 different Butterflies and Peppermint Shrimp with no luck.

[heathlindner25]

Congrats, in my old tank I had some and I tried 2 different Butterflies and Peppermint Shrimp with no luck.

You didn't try a racoon did you?

[scar79]

Raccoon is a risky one. Glad it worked out for you! They do get large too.

All butterflies are hit or miss when it comes to pest anemones and corals. Some safer than others.

Majanos are tough to eradicate and sometimes you have to take the risk to boot them. Large Angels (I've had luck with majestics) are also a choice

[scooter31707]

You didn't try a racoon did you?

Raccoon and a Kleins

[heathlindner25]

Raccoon and a Kleins

Did the racoon ever eat? How long did you have him?

[snorvich]

Great to hear. I have a bunch of Majanos in my tank as well. I added a couple Kliens butterfly fish but they started picking at my zoa's which I didn't care about but never gained interest in the Majanos. When the Kliens started picking at other corals, I trapped them and sent them packing to a friends tank.

I've thought about trying a Raccoon but fear it may find a taste for my corals before even looking at the Majanos.

They are great for removing aiptasia and majanoes but they are not coral safe.

[ishmael]

Like I said, I was willing to take the chance. Probably gonna have to deal with the next issue, the butterfly eating other corals, but that is what we always face in this hobby, isn't it........Right now I am in aquarium heaven.:dance:

[Buzz1329]

They are great for removing aiptasia and majanoes but they are not coral safe.

Please forgive me for steering thread in a different direction for one post but, snorvich, are Copperband Butterflys also not coral safe?

Mike

[hogfanreefer]

Please forgive me for steering thread in a different direction for one post but, snorvich, are Copperband Butterflys also not coral safe?

Mike

Not snorvich but I think it varies greatly from specimen to specimen. Mine is absolutely coral safe. Aiptasia & tube worms are on the menu but no other invertes.

I'm going to guess that SPS is pretty much safe with CB's but Steve can probably expand upon that.

[Buzz1329]

Not snorvich but I think it varies greatly from specimen to specimen. Mine is absolutely coral safe. Aiptasia & tube worms are on the menu but no other invertes.

I'm going to guess that SPS is pretty much safe with CB's but Steve can probably expand upon that.

Thanks!

[scar79]

No butterfly is guaranteed reef safe. Copperbands are definitely the safest bet, but do carry the chance of nipping coral polyps. They do also come with the baggage of being more delicate as they are less likely to take to prepared food in captivity. Pyramid and kliens are also pretty good bets but again it's on an individual basis.

It should also be noted that a "model citizen" can turn. I had a friend lose thousands of dollars of acans in a 24 hour period to a regal angel that had been living in the tank for years. She's not sure what happened - maybe it picked some food off of a polyp, got a taste of acan and decided these were too good to pass up.

[anbosu]

Please forgive me for steering thread in a different direction for one post but, snorvich, are Copperband Butterflys also not coral safe?

Mike

Mine ate all of my acans in addition to the aiptasia.

[scooter31707]

Did the racoon ever eat? How long did you have him?

Raccoon only ate Mysis Shrimp when I feed it and he was with me for about 6 months before I decided to get rid of him in place of the Klein.

[tlc]

I have 2 different types of file fish I got that are ora bred. I don't have a trace of aiptasia in the main tank. in my sump I get a few occasionally. the file fish never nip at my corals. I did add a few serpent stars and the file fish thought they were a big steak for them. I had to put them in the sump and haven't seen them since

[ishmael]

Copperbands and filefish might be OK for dealing with aipstasia. Majanos, not so much. At least that is my experience.

[johnike]

I have a Double Saddle in my FOWLR that is insane on Aiptasia and Majanos.
I take them out of the sump to feed it a treat to show people how it goes after them immediately.
I had a Raccoon that did the same.
Great eradicators but NOT coral safe.

[lionfish300]

Like I said, I was willing to take the chance. Probably gonna have to deal with the next issue, the butterfly eating other corals, but that is what we always face in this hobby, isn't it........Right now I am in aquarium heaven.:dance: That is cool specially when you already try other methods. Just be ready to trap/ move him unless you want your tank to be fish only

[snorvich]

Please forgive me for steering thread in a different direction for one post but, snorvich, are Copperband Butterflys also not coral safe?

Mike

Sometimes (about 50%) Many have luck, but it can go the other way too.

[snorvich]

No butterfly is guaranteed reef safe. Copperbands are definitely one of the safer bets, but do carry the chance of nipping coral polyps. They do also come with the baggage of being more delicate as they are less likely to take to prepared food in captivity. Pyramid and kliens are also pretty good bets but again it's on an individual basis.

It should also be noted that a "model citizen" can turn. I had a friend lose thousands of dollars of acans in a 24 hour period to a regal angel that had been living in the tank for years. She's not sure what happened - maybe it picked some food off of a polyp, got a taste of acan and decided these were too good to pass up.

Fixed that for you (bold) and I have seen "model citizen" s turn.