Hawaiian Butterflyfish Experts

[ApoIsland]

I currently have a copperbanded butterfly that reauires more food than any other fish in my tank. Are most butterflyfish similar in this manner with a super high metabolism?

I was inspired by another thread talking about a Hawaiian fish themed reef. I currently have a mixed reef which I obviously can't add butterflyfish to but was thinking to plumb a 90 gal FOWLR tank to it for these beauties.

Wanted to keep an Ornate, Blue Stripe, and Raccoon. Afraid it might not be possible though if they require as much food as the copperbanded as I don't think I want to dump that much food in the tank x3 just to feed those guys.

Appreciate any input I can get here.

Thank you.

 

[SDguy]

I would not personally plumb a FOWLR into a reef system, unless your reef system is overbuild to begin with. Two main reasons from my perspective. 1. You definitely won't be doing your reef any favors with regards to nutrient load, as you already suspect. 2. Keeping a FOWLR disease free is extremely important with butterflies IMO, and is much more difficult with a reef.... do you QT EVERYTHING wet? I certainly didn't when I had a reef.

Side note: Forget the Ornate B/F. They are almost impossible to keep due to their diet.

 

[ApoIsland]

Appreciate your response. Sounds like I have to flush this pipe dream...

 

[SDguy]

Appreciate your response. Sounds like I have to flush this pipe dream...

Well, on the upside, a sump, filter sock, return pump, and nice skimmer is all you need for a FOWLR B/F tank. Minimal lighting too.

 

[tehmadreefer]

They don’t eat any more than any other fish... feed as normal as they will be just fine.

Ans yes, scratch the ornate, maybe go with a saddleback.

 

[pcon]

Tinkers is a decent option for a Hawaiian butterfly for a reef tank.

 

[ApoIsland]

Well, on the upside, a sump, filter sock, return pump, and nice skimmer is all you need for a FOWLR B/F tank. Minimal lighting too.

unfortunately the plan was to convert the current sump into the butterfly tank when I remodel the house. Current setup is the 120g with 40g sump. Going to convert that into either a 120g and 90g or two 90g in wall tanks stacked on top of each other, dependent on how well my current scape fits into a 90.

I do not run a skimmer or any other mechanical filtration. just a sump packed with live rock and some coral frags so there would be no change in that regard. Minus the frags of course. I’m primarily worried about the bioload with adding 3-4 fish and only increasing water volume by either 20 or 50 gallons.

If butterfly fish are a lot more susceptible to disease though I’ll scratch that idea.

 

[ApoIsland]

Tinkers is a decent option for a Hawaiian butterfly for a reef tank.

Thank you for the suggestion. I already have the copper banded in the reef tank though so really just wanted to check the feasibility of putting my 3 favorites together.

 

[Fish & Coral]

I kept different types of butterflies and they are slightly susceptible to bacterial infections than other fish like angels or tangs. So If I were you I would search a type of medication that would be reef safe that you like and keep it on hand (if you want to have it connected to your main tank) but don't be discouraged from keeping butterflies. Also one more thing you should watch for is they might fight together and many people can tell you don't do it. But I did it with no problem even with same type of butterflies. Also watch for bioload.

 

[ApoIsland]

I kept different types of butterflies and they are slightly susceptible to bacterial infections than other fish like angels or tangs. So If I were you I would search a type of medication that would be reef safe that you like and keep it on hand (if you want to have it connected to your main tank) but don't be discouraged from keeping butterflies. Also one more thing you should watch for is they might fight together and many people can tell you don't do it. But I did it with no problem even with same type of butterflies. Also watch for bioload.

Thank you for the encouragement! What butterflies did you keep?

Seems an Ornate is out of he question though as the follow up research confirmed what was said earlier. might still go with a racoon and a blue stripe and a couple angels.

Do you find they reauire more food in general than other fish? For example...my CB gets half cube PE mysis in the morning and half cube after lights go out. And thats just for the CB. Feed out of a net so he is the only one that gets the food and eats nearly all of it.
All other fish in the tank (Yellow tang, Blue tang, Kole tang, long nose hawk, potter's wrasse, royal gramma, marine beta, cardinal fish, firefish) get 1 broadcast feeding of 1.5 cubes PE mysis or regular mysis once per day (CB also eats at this time). So basically the butterfly eats almost as much food by himself as all other fish combined and still barely grows. Do you feel that would be the case with the other butterflies as well? If so I will probably pass.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Thank you for the encouragement! What butterflies did you keep?

Seems an Ornate is out of he question though as the follow up research confirmed what was said earlier. might still go with a racoon and a blue stripe and a couple angels.

Do you find they reauire more food in general than other fish? For example...my CB gets half cube PE mysis in the morning and half cube after lights go out. And thats just for the CB. Feed out of a net so he is the only one that gets the food and eats nearly all of it.
All other fish in the tank (Yellow tang, Blue tang, Kole tang, long nose hawk, potter's wrasse, royal gramma, marine beta, cardinal fish, firefish) get 1 broadcast feeding of 1.5 cubes PE mysis or regular mysis once per day (CB also eats at this time). So basically the butterfly eats almost as much food by himself as all other fish combined and still barely grows. Do you feel that would be the case with the other butterflies as well? If so I will probably pass.

No they don’t require any more food than majority of the the fish we keep. Why do you keep asking that?? Feed the tank like normal and move on with your day, lol

 

[ApoIsland]

No they don’t require any more food than majority of the the fish we keep. Why do you keep asking that?? Feed the tank like normal and move on with your day, lol

Well the copperband certainly requires more than the average fish. I think anyone who has kept them with long term success can attest to that. My question was directed at the person who seems to have a lot of experience with butterflies.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Well the copperband certainly requires more than the average fish. I think anyone who has kept them with long term success can attest to that. My question was directed at the person who seems to have a lot of experience with butterflies.

Sorry but no they don’t... I’ve kept several types of butterflies for over a decade and have a cbb as well.

the only issue you run into are coral obligate eater, which is most every chaetodon species. Since you can’t really replicate their diet, they die very quickly. Which again, is primarily why you won’t be able to keep an ornately and most likely would be difficult to find anyway.

So there’s that.

 

[pcon]

No they don’t require any more food than majority of the the fish we keep. Why do you keep asking that?? Feed the tank like normal and move on with your day, lol

This is widely regarded as incorrect. plenty of butterflies benefit greatly from frequent feedings. they are used to picking from the rockwork continuously and are not adapted to large feedings like we generally do in tanks. Some are fine with larger infrequent feedings but not all. just because this is your experience does not mean it is generalizable to all fish in a large and diverse family.

 

[tehmadreefer]

This is widely regarded as incorrect. plenty of butterflies benefit greatly from frequent feedings. they are used to picking from the rockwork continuously and are not adapted to large feedings like we generally do in tanks. Some are fine with larger infrequent feedings but not all. just because this is your experience does not mean it is generalizable to all fish in a large and diverse family.

this isn’t widely regarded as incorrect, pleas cite your source. I guess over a decade of keeping butterflies and different types were all just flukes lol.
Of course they pick at rock all day, that’s what they do in those natural habitat, that doesn’t change just because they are in a tank.

 

[Fish & Coral]

From my experience, once acclimated and food conditioned, whenever I give them food they will eat it. Sometimes once a day and sometimes twice or three and never have I felt that one type of bf needs more feeding to stay healthy than others. All fish not just bf spend most of their time in water searching for food all day and picking at anything resemble food (what else do they have to do in the ocean) LOL. That is just my opinion
I never kept an ornate bf. So I can't talk about this particular type.