Golden Semilarvatus Butterflyfish Reef safe?

joshyross70 · Sep 3, 2020

Anyone have any experience with these butterflyfish? I recently saw these and I’m in love

BeltedCoyote · Sep 3, 2020

Bump!

IKD · Sep 3, 2020

I had one but it went after my soft coral quickly. Everything I’ve read seems consistent with my experience that they are not Reef safe. They are my favorite butterfly and bummed about not having one. Maybe when my corals are colonies and I won’t care about a single nipping fish I’ll take the risk again.

eatbreakfast · Sep 4, 2020

Beautiful fish, but will definitely pick on corals.

joshyross70 · Sep 4, 2020

Well looks like I’ll be setting up a FOWLR in the future

pcon · Sep 5, 2020

I have seen them in several mixed reefs. Tanne Hoff has them in his amazing reef tank. They are high on my list if I do a larger reef in the future, get a little big for my current tank. Seem to follow the rules for risky coral fish, and don't seem to be on the super destructive side of butterflyfish. Fleshy LPS like acans, trachy, lobo, favia, ect are probably high on the menu. Zoanthids seem hit or miss. Softies seems to depend on the type, seems some gorgonians are left alone. Seems like SPS and Euphyllia are relatively safe. Over all a fish I would absolutely try in a reef, with some preparation and understanding around their proclivities. There are lots of awesome butterflies on the safer side worth consideration as well. Roaops like the burgess and tinkers, prognathodes, and the true roa are all pretty good in reefs.

joshyross70 · Sep 19, 2020

pcon said:
I have seen them in several mixed reefs. Tanne Hoff has them in his amazing reef tank. They are high on my list if I do a larger reef in the future, get a little big for my current tank. Seem to follow the rules for risky coral fish, and don't seem to be on the super destructive side of butterflyfish. Fleshy LPS like acans, trachy, lobo, favia, ect are probably high on the menu. Zoanthids seem hit or miss. Softies seems to depend on the type, seems some gorgonians are left alone. Seems like SPS and Euphyllia are relatively safe. Over all a fish I would absolutely try in a reef, with some preparation and understanding around their proclivities. There are lots of awesome butterflies on the safer side worth consideration as well. Roaops like the burgess and tinkers, prognathodes, and the true roa are all pretty good in reefs.

Any idea of the Mitratus Butterflyfish would be good in a reef? Considering one or a tinkers

pcon · Sep 19, 2020

Yeah the roaops are all pretty good in a reef. I would still be a little concerned about fleshy LPS like acans. I have never had issue with my burgess. Good eaters usually come in eating out of the bag. Best aiptasia control I have ever had. Mitratus has a reputation for being pretty aggressive among the Roaops.

SDguy · Sep 20, 2020

pcon said:
Yeah the roaops are all pretty good in a reef. I would still be a little concerned about fleshy LPS like acans. I have never had issue with my burgess. Good eaters usually come in eating out of the bag. Best aiptasia control I have ever had. Mitratus has a reputation for being pretty aggressive among the Roaops.

I'd actually say burgessi are the most aggressive of the bunch. Mine successfully killed or caused the removal of all the others (tinkeri, declevis, mitratus), even in a 240g 8' tank.

mattzang · Sep 20, 2020

SDguy said:
I'd actually say burgessi are the most aggressive of the bunch. Mine successfully killed or caused the removal of all the others (tinkeri, declevis, mitratus), even in a 240g 8' tank.

did it bother other butterflies or just theroaps?

SDguy · Sep 20, 2020

mattzang said:
did it bother other butterflies or just theroaps?

Just the other roaops.

Dolphins18 · Sep 20, 2020

Hello, How about anemones? I have heard they sometimes eat those. I have only ever kept butterfly fish in fish only.

pcon · Sep 20, 2020

mstoneman17 said:
Hello, How about anemones? I have heard they sometimes eat those. I have only ever kept butterfly fish in fish only.

Semilarvatus or Roaops? I am not too sure on semilarvatus, I would suspect large ornamental nems like large bubble tips and magnifica, ect are fine. would be somewhat concerned about smaller rock flowers and baby bubble tips. but I am not certain. I think roaops are fine with large nems as well but I don't keep any. I do have to cover rock nems when adding them for the first day or two, as they do garner a lot of attention from the butterflies when first added to the tank. After the first day and once the nem has settled in they have been ignored by the butterflies I have.