butterflies in reefs

[SDguy]

Originally Posted by LemonLemon

and this is my favourite piece in the whole tank. an orange frogspawn that i've had for months! but i've noticed that my angels and butterflies do not give two hoots for euphyllia corals.

Stunning FS! I've only ever seen one other orange one.

[Chooch1]

Peter,

This was in about 1997ish so it's been so long I kinda forget. I definitely remember it nipping/eating the tentacles on Zoanthids and nipping at a prized neon green Trachyphylia. It may have been bothering some other things as well such as actinodiscus mushrooms( which is fine with me) and a Plexaurella gorgonian, which I still have. I just remember that it was destructive enough that I had to remove it. I suspect they would be a much better gamble in an SPS dominated tank.

[houser]

All this made me bust out my angels and butterflies book last night to brush up.

[SDguy]

Originally Posted by aquaph8

Lemon and Peter, can we get a fish list. I just wanna document what tank mates your keeping with your butterflies. Thanks

The major players are a pair of genicanthus melanospilos, a powder blue tang, and a tomini tang. The rest are all small fish, like anthais and wrasses, and a pair of percs.

[jonnybravo22]

Originally Posted by SDguy

SD what's the one anthias on the right and what are the ones on the left?

[SDguy]

Originally Posted by jonnybravo22

SD what's the one anthias on the right and what are the ones on the left?

The one on the right is a lyretail, the two on the left are dispars, with a female flame wrasse below them.

[jonnybravo22]

thanks!

[LemonLemon]

longnose feeding on corals are not entirely impossible, but certainly very rare. i've seen pyramid butterflies eating brain corals. so everything is possible!

on another note, the semeion is feeding on mysis already!

[djkms]

Great thread! Years ago I would have said you guys are nuts for putting butterflies in a reef! Maybe we should get a master list of the butterflies you have in your reef along with some info if you guys are willing to help.

Scientific Name:
Common Name:
Difficulty:
Housed with: (sps, lps, clams, shrimp, etc)
Unsafe with: (sps, lps, clams, shrimp, etc)
Diet: (what you feed it)
Aggression: (towards other fish, other fish towards it)
Notes:
Picture: (Submit a picture of your butterfly!)

If you guys fill in the info I will try to keep a master list going to help others out who might be interested in keeping butterflies in a reef setting.

Thanks!

[LemonLemon]

Scientific Name: Chaetodon (Roaps) mitratus [subgenus roaps)
Common Name: Mitratus butterflyfish/Indian butterflyfish
Difficulty: Easy
Housed with: SPS, LPS, clams, shrimp, soft corals
Unsafe with: -
Diet: Mysis, blended seafood, pellets, flakes
Aggression: generally peaceful, may get aggressive. it's only 2 inch so it's too small to exert any overt aggression
Notes: Loves pecking on SPS, but does not apparent polyp or tissue damange. most probably eating the slime. additional note : this is a potentially harmful species toward LPS corals. they are however, considered one of the safer butterflies and are about as safe as a dwarf angel. but do take caution
Picture:

[LemonLemon]

Scientific Name: Chaetodon (Roaps) declivis [subgenus roaps)
Common Name: Declivis butterflyfish/ Marquesan butterflyfish
Difficulty: Easy
Housed with: SPS, LPS, clams, shrimp, soft corals
Unsafe with: -
Diet: Mysis, blended seafood, pellets, flakes
Aggression: Peaceful, but may be aggressive towards other butterflies, especially from the same subgenus.
Notes: This guy does not even bother any of my corals. However i've had one that ate my favia before. additional note : this is a potentially harmful species toward LPS corals. they are however, considered one of the safer butterflies and are about as safe as a dwarf angel. but do take caution
Picture:

[LemonLemon]

Scientific Name: Forcipiger flavissimus
Common Name: Yellow longnosed butterflyfish
Difficulty: Easy
Housed with: SPS, LPS, clams, shrimp, soft corals
Unsafe with: -
Diet: Mysis, blended seafood
Aggression: Very peaceful
Notes: This guy doesn't even take a second look at anything other than liverock and frozen food. additional note : this is one of the safest butterflyfishes out there. the chances of them taking to corals is extremely unlikely but not impossible.
Picture:

i lack a proper picture but here's one of it with the declivis being fed.

[LemonLemon]

Scientific Name: Chaetodon semeion
Common Name: Semeion butterflyfish/ Dotted butterflyfish
Difficulty: Moderate. Finicky feeder. needs time to train.
Housed with: SPS, LPS, clams, shrimp, soft corals
Unsafe with: so far, nothing.
Diet: Mysis, blended seafood
Aggression: Very peaceful
Notes: Loves nipping on SPS. does not apparent damage, probably nips at slime. At times may nip a tentacle or two from millepora, but unable to extract the entire polyp. SPS is safe. addition note: This is considered to be not reef safe with LPS. However i'm not one to care about reef-safeness and so far, it's behaving itself! don't follow my example unless you really do not mind!
Picture:

this is a juvenile. as adults, they develop a streamer and a brilliant blue forehead.

[LemonLemon]

Scientific Name: Chelmon marginalis
Common Name: margined coralfish, marginalis butterflyfish
Difficulty: easy-moderate
Housed with: SPS, LPS, clams, shrimp, soft corals
Unsafe with: -
Diet: Mysis, blended seafood
Aggression: Very peaceful
Notes: ignores everything except liverock, tubeworms and prepared food. addition note: This is considered to be one of the safest butterflies. but there are exceptions to the rule.
Picture:

unfortunately, not with me anymore.

[aquaph8]

Nice. Thanks for taking the time to do that. Can you guys share your QT process? If you do anything special with butterflies, meds used, etc..........

[djkms]

Thanks Lemon! If SDGuy or anyone else for that matter decides to post their specs I will get them on a list ASAP.

I have been looking at the Mitratus and Saddleback, probably 2 of my favorite butterflies.

[aquaph8]

DD's is about to drop a tinkeri pair

[SDguy]

Originally Posted by djkms

Thanks Lemon! If SDGuy or anyone else for that matter decides to post their specs I will get them on a list ASAP.

I have been looking at the Mitratus and Saddleback, probably 2 of my favorite butterflies.

Hopefully this weekend when I have more time to compose the information.

[Amoore311]

What are my chances of success mixing butteflies with a Yellow Tang in a 180 Gallon SPS dominated reef?

Furthermore, I understand these butterflies in question (and many more I'm sure)... will nip at SPS corals but not that actual polyps. This can lead to reduced polyp extension, but is evidently harmless to the colonies itself.

How would sps frags do?


Reason I ask is because I lost 90% of my corals in a tank move, and am working to rebuild. I'd like to go the butterfly route, but am not sure how the Yellow Tang would be, and how sps frags would fair to the nipping from the butterflies.


In regards to the Yellow Tang, he is a very passive fish. He was always "low man on the totem pole" in my set up. I had a Powder Blue tang that I unfortunately lost in the move. The powder blue kept the yellow tang under lock and key for the most part.

Other fish in my tank include lyretail anthias, a small bluejaw trigger, pair of clowns, and a watchman goby.

[ptan]

Hello Lemonlemon and other reefers... just want to ask if anyone of you have experience in taking care of Burgess' Butterfly (Chaetodon burgessi)? if anyone can shed experience with this fish... planning to buy one and put it inside my reef tank... i have lots of lps and zoas... as per liveaquaria it has a taste for anemone and lps... but its a beauty... seen it in one lfs here... thanks again guys... this thread gives me courage to put butterflies inside my reef tank...

[small alien]

Great thread. I appreciate all of you.

[SDguy]

Originally Posted by Amoore311

What are my chances of success mixing butterflies with a Yellow Tang in a 180 Gallon SPS dominated reef?

Furthermore, I understand these butterflies in question (and many more I'm sure)... will nip at SPS corals but not that actual polyps. This can lead to reduced polyp extension, but is evidently harmless to the colonies itself.

How would SPS frags do?


Reason I ask is because I lost 90% of my corals in a tank move, and am working to rebuild. I'd like to go the butterfly route, but am not sure how the Yellow Tang would be, and how SPS frags would fair to the nipping from the butterflies.


In regards to the Yellow Tang, he is a very passive fish. He was always "low man on the totem pole" in my set up. I had a Powder Blue tang that I unfortunately lost in the move. The powder blue kept the yellow tang under lock and key for the most part.

Other fish in my tank include lyretail anthias, a small bluejaw trigger, pair of clowns, and a watchman goby.

I'm not really sure about the whole "not eating the actual polyps = not harming the coral" idea. While I understand the concept, I can't say for certain that fish named for their brush-like teeth rasping at a coral won't hurt it ; Especially new, small, adapting corals. But anyway, that's a whole other thread.

There are many nice butterflies out there that are pretty safe, like Chelmon, Forcipiger, Hemitaurichthys, Prognathodes, even the Roaps species. I'd say definitely QT first, not only for disease, but to get them eating well, prior to adding them to the display. The tang is always a variable...should be fine in that size tank, but have a backup plan just in case (ie get the tang used to eating in a trap in advance in case you need to get him out temporarily, at least).

[SDguy]

Scientific Name: Forcipiger flavissimus
Common Name: Yellow longnose butterflyfish

Difficulty: Relative to butterflies, easy. I actually have another larger one in my FOWLR that even eats pellet and flake.

Housed with: SPS, acans, chalices, favias, gorgonians, euphyllia, goniopora, mushrooms, lobophyllia, sinularia, etc. I have a very mixed reef.

Unsafe with: Nothing to date. Even coco worms were not touched (though they have been great at slowly dying off on their own )

Diet: Frozen meats like shrimp, scallop, mysis, and live blackworms. Won't eat dry or prepared foods.

Aggression: Totally passive. Pays no attention to other fish, and other fish don't even notice it. It's almost strange how well it fit in with the other fish.

Notes: I've had this fish since Dec '09, and it lived in my FOWLR until recently, so it is well established to captivity. Yet, it still has/had a very hard time catching food in my high flow reef.

Pictures:

[SDguy]

Scientific Name: Chaetodon ephippium
Common Name: Saddleback butterflyfish

Difficulty: Relative to butterflies, moderate. Can be troublesome to first start feeding, but IME they'll eventually eat anything you give them. I've kept 3 in the past 20 something years, and all three acclimated the same way.

Housed with: SPS, acans, chalices, favias, gorgonians, Euphyllia, Goniopora, mushrooms, Lobophyllia, Sinularia, etc. I have a very mixed reef.

Unsafe with: Nothing to date, but it hasn't been that long. So far I've seen it try a green branching psammocora and acan lord. Didn't appear to like either, and hasn't tried them since.

Diet: LOVES NLS pellets!!! Can't get enough of them, and getting them to him in a high flow tank isn't easy. Frozen meats like shrimp, scallop, mysis, and live blackworms are also accepted greedily.

Aggression: Moderately aggressive. Holds his own (read dorsal spines UP!) against my two tangs.

Notes: I've had this fish for about a year in my FOWLR so it was well established to captivity prior to being tossed into the reef.

Pictures:


A bit beaten up thanks to the tangs:

[jonnybravo22]

double