Acropora + Butterfly Fish

[Aaron-A2]

I'm looking at picking up the following butterflies:

• Yellow Longnose (Forcipiger flavissimus)
• Yellow Pyramid
• Black Pyramid

How do these fish fair in an SPS-only system? My tank contains mostly acropora with some monti/seriatapora/stylo.

Are there any other SPS safe butterflies you all recommend?

 

[Star reefer3]

I'm looking at picking up the following butterflies:

• Yellow Longnose (Forcipiger flavissimus)
• Yellow Pyramid
• Black Pyramid

How do these fish fair in an SPS-only system? My tank contains mostly acropora with some monti/seriatapora/stylo.

Are there any other SPS safe butterflies you all recommend?

I'd recommend the copper band butterflyfish because they eat aptasia and world wide corals has one in there 900 gallon brood stock tank

 

[Waters]

The Pyramids are pretty safe as far as Butterfly fish go....they feed on plankton in the wild rather than coral polyps like most Butterfly fish.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Those three should be fine

 

[Jesterrace]

Pyramids are definitely the safest with corals. As long as they are well fed they should leave them alone. Copperbands aren't too far behind them (a little more prone to nipping) but many of them do not ship well, so you need to be very picky about selecting an individual specimen that is active and eating well. Live Worms are a good choice to get them to feed. Longnose Yellow Butterflyfish are also MOSTLY reef safe if well fed, but unlike the Copperband they tend to be a bit more hardy. If you are looking for your best bet for a butterfly that won't nip corals though stick to a Pyramid.

 

[mattzang]

My lfs claims klein's are somewhat reef safe. My tank is too small for a butterfly so I wasn't overly interested in reef safe with what, but looks like liveaquaria has them straight up not reef safe and they're a chaetodon so idk.

I did see a video of someone's SPS tank that had black and white heniochus in it, they said they put it in there to mow down the euphyllia and then left it because it hasn't touched the SPS. There's also the reef safe heniochus diphreutes, but they seem super rare. You could try that marinecollectors site and ask them if they could get you some.

 

[Jesterrace]

I can't remember for sure but if memory serves me correctly the Klein's generally go after softies and generally leave other stuff alone, so if you have a softy free tank it might be worth the gamble. I considered one for mine, but ultimately decided not to to risk it.

 

[pcon]

Those you listed should be among the safest. A Roaps butterflys might be an interesting option. I have a Burgess that consumes aptasia, leaves almost all my coral alone so far. They have a reputation for being more reef safe ish ex1, ex2. They are generally reputed to be safe with SPS.