Any luck mixing butterlfies w/softies?

[swegyptian]

Hey all,

I am thinking of getting a new fish for my 125 FOWLER, which also has some soft corals. I have a few different leathers, and some GSP. I am interested in a Heniochus butterfly, but wanted to get some feedback about how safe they are with these corals before jumping in.

Any experience or stories would be great.

Thanks,
Alex

[JamesJR]

There are several different butterflies that actually would go great with the softies.
Be careful, as their are several different species of heniochus and they all have varying suitability for the reef tank. Get the schooling bannerfish, heniochus diphraetus and not the heniochus accuminatus.
The former is very reef safe while the later is not.

[RudyCDX1]

I have Heniochus D. and they cause no problems in my tank. Great to watch as they school. I would get 3-5 if your tank size will allow.

[swegyptian]

Hmm... Now I need to worry about distinguishing the two, as I don't really have faith in my LFS to know the difference. Maybe I should just look at a tang instead.

Are there any other reef safe butterflies?

[snorvich]

Well if you want a nice, hardy butterfly, try a mitratus.

[lakehorse61]

i bought 3 longfin heniochus last nite for my non reef pond. they are awesome & add so much life. they immediately started trying to clean the other fish.

i also bought a copperband bf for aiptasia/majano control in the reef. the first thing she went for was a tiny feather duster worm. she ate it up & spit out the feather............great........not what i was hoping for.......

[RudyCDX1]

My Heniochus D. ate all my aptasias. Cool how they clean the other fish too.

[lakehorse61]

i guess i put the wrong fish in the wrong tanks:rolleye1:

no choice now. the copperband is too small to be in the pond&would be scarred to death with all the big puffers.