butterflies in reefs

[LemonLemon]

my marginalis is feeding more today and readily eats mysis of all sizes.

i hope it sustains it's appetite and continue to eat more.

[SDguy]

Originally Posted by bamf25

does anyone have these in stock? The few online places I have looked are not available (at least for the pyramid or zoster). Beside live aquaria and blue zoo where are other good places to get fish?

Not really sure... I see them listed on LA's site pretty frequently. I just found a small zoster locally

Originally Posted by LemonLemon

my marginalis is feeding more today and readily eats mysis of all sizes.

i hope it sustains it's appetite and continue to eat more.

Sounds good! Mine continues to eat during prazi treatment in QT. Hopefully that'll fix whatever the problem was...

[Yurivd]

Originally Posted by SDguy

Not really sure... I see them listed on LA's site pretty frequently. I just found a small zoster locally



Sounds good! Mine continues to eat during prazi treatment in QT. Hopefully that'll fix whatever the problem was...

I am glad to hear it is still doing good

[Dr Colliebreath]

Originally Posted by Dr Colliebreath

1 for 2. I just put my falcula and saddleback into my DT from 6 weeks of quarantine. It took the falcula about 20 minutes to go after the corals. I have 5 soft corals and he went after 3, including the green star polyps and the toadstool green polyps. The saddleback ignored them so far. I fed both heavily before the transfer from QT to DT but I guess it wasn't enough.

I will see whether it continues to be a problem tomorrow, but I guess I have no reason to expect it to get better. With my luck, the falcula will teach the saddleback to eat the corals also.

To correct this post, it turns out my "falcula" was a ulietensis (double saddle) instead. They are not listed as reef safe. After the initial couple of days of the ulietensis niping at ployps, neither butterflyfish has bothered them again when I was watching.

[Dr Colliebreath]

The seller has acknowledged they mistakenly sent a ulietensis rather than a falcula and are going to ship me a falcula to make up for it. Has anyone had experience keeping a falcula and a ulietensis of roughly the same size together? They are fairly similar in appearance although there are clear differences. The ulietensis is supposed to be peaceful and the falcula semi-aggressive, so it would seem that I have the right order adding the falcula second. I don't want to go bigger on the falcula as I like the medium size fish (1.5-3").

[Dr Colliebreath]

Originally Posted by Yurivd

I am glad to hear it is still doing good

Me too. Everytime I saw you post I was worried it was to relay bad news. With it continuing to eat this long, you probably have a good shot at it pulling through.

[studentdriver]

I purchased a 5" Longnosed Butteryfly from Liveaquaria a little over a week ago. The first few days, all it did was swim up and down against the glass.

Do can you tell if it's eating or not, with it's longnose? When I feed frozen food, it'll swim around the food, it's definitely not eating the big pieces. But, how do you tell if it's eating the very small pieces?

[studentdriver]

It doesn't have a pinched stomach or anything.

[SDguy]

Originally Posted by Dr Colliebreath

The seller has acknowledged they mistakenly sent a ulietensis rather than a falcula and are going to ship me a falcula to make up for it. Has anyone had experience keeping a falcula and a ulietensis of roughly the same size together? They are fairly similar in appearance although there are clear differences. The ulietensis is supposed to be peaceful and the falcula semi-aggressive, so it would seem that I have the right order adding the falcula second. I don't want to go bigger on the falcula as I like the medium size fish (1.5-3").

How big is the tank? IME ulietensis is aggressive to simlar colored butterflies.

[Dr Colliebreath]

The tank is a 110, the 60 x 18 x 24. It is well broken up with the rock providing many different territories. I plan on quarrantining a yellow long nose and introducing both the new falcula and the yln to the dt at the same time.

[SDguy]

Be prepared for it to not work out, either at first, or later on, would be my recommendation.

[SDguy]

And the fish trap is in the reef. The saddleback started munching on my Aussie golden hammer, so it's time for him to go. He's just too destructive in a mixed reef. I'd be interested to see if someone tries one in a SPS tank, since he doesn't really touch my SPS, but that may only be because he has tastier things to sample.

[SDguy]

Damn I'm good with that trap! Makes me 9 and 0

[Dr Colliebreath]

Just in case, which trap do you use and what are your methods?

[small alien]

post to post, that's 37 minutes. Not too shabby.

[SDguy]

I got it from Marine Depot. It's actually pretty crappy workmanship, but it's a good design. Also, the door is too light in weight. I snap a couple magnets onto it to make it slide down quicker.

[LemonLemon]

update time!

a FTS first.

[LemonLemon]

to join my arsenal of butterflies is a 1 inch argentatus butterfly which i added

not very rare, but the tiny juvenile is very cute!

no photos of it yet.

[clowndude]

Very unique copperband. Your tank is beautiful btw. Do you happen to have a build thread?

[LemonLemon]

after my first marginalis died, i manage to get this guy some time ago.

this is the 2nd time they are coming here and finally we have regular supply of them!

it initially was feeding but not enough to sustain it's weight. thankfully it began eating more and now is more greedy and slowly putting on more weight. its really, one of the safest butterflies and one of my favs!

[LemonLemon]

Originally Posted by clowndude

Very unique copperband. Your tank is beautiful btw. Do you happen to have a build thread?

hi thanks!

that's not a copperband but a close relative from australia.

Chelmon marginalis, or the marginalis butterflyfish.

i did have a build thread eons ago but i don't update. so sorry bout that.

the tank's dimension is 3.5 x 3.5 x 2 feet.

[LemonLemon]

here's a bonus.

this fish has been almost unobtainable for the past few years! after almost 3 years, 2 resurfaced again in my country. the males are even rarer!

it's Genicanthus semifasciatus. the female form is the one i obtained.

extremely difficult to survive because almost always arrived in horrible condition. this one came with an injured mouth, torn fins, ammonia burns and some signs of breaking down like body sores etc.

but it has since recovered VERY nicely (TO MY ABSOLUTE SURPRISE) and is not suffering from decompression problems. not to mention feeding well!




really, this fish is so rare that it's worth more than what it's worth in paper value. (only 30 USD).

it's rarer than any bandit, conspic or personifer!

[clowndude]

Thanks for the info Lemon, you have quite an amazing selection of fish. My next tank will be a cube tank for sure. Love how yours is laid out.

[auem]

Originally Posted by LemonLemon

after my first marginalis died, i manage to get this guy some time ago.

this is the 2nd time they are coming here and finally we have regular supply of them!

it initially was feeding but not enough to sustain it's weight. thankfully it began eating more and now is more greedy and slowly putting on more weight. its really, one of the safest butterflies and one of my favs!

how your paucifasciatus doing..?

[LemonLemon]

Originally Posted by auem

how your paucifasciatus doing..?

one died

the other one is still fine.

just did not eat as much as it used to.