Pairing butterflies

[Fishfreak2009]

Anyone on here paired butterflies successfully before, especially if you've successfully paired Chaetodon capistratus?

I have a 1.75" juvenile currently in quarantine the past 2 weeks doing well eating a variety of frozen foods. Today I picked up a 1.25" juvenile that came in the same shipment and decided to try pairing them. They are currently in a 75 gallon quarantine, with 60+ lbs of rock and a bunch of pvc pipe elbows to hide inside. So far, the larger one has done some chasing and nipping, but that subsided with the lights off and a little mysis. I'm hoping they'll pair up ok, I can split them if necessary.

Pic of a wild pair I snapped while snorkeling.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Anyone on here paired butterflies successfully before, especially if you've successfully paired Chaetodon capistratus?

I have a 1.75" juvenile currently in quarantine the past 2 weeks doing well eating a variety of frozen foods. Today I picked up a 1.25" juvenile that came in the same shipment and decided to try pairing them. They are currently in a 75 gallon quarantine, with 60+ lbs of rock and a bunch of pvc pipe elbows to hide inside. So far, the larger one has done some chasing and nipping, but that subsided with the lights off and a little mysis. I'm hoping they'll pair up ok, I can split them if necessary.

Pic of a wild pair I snapped while snorkeling.

I don't recall ever seeing really small capistratus paired up while diving, I always thought it was a sexual pairing of adult fish. That said, I don't target that species while collecting, so I may have just missed them?

I've only kept singletons in tanks, so I can't tell you how it would go.

As you probably know, sub-2" capistratus can be tough to keep, they require small amounts of food offered throughout the day, and getting them to eat enough to put on weight is a challenge. I had one that lived for 3 years and really never grew at all.

Jay

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I don't recall ever seeing really small capistratus paired up while diving, I always thought it was a sexual pairing of adult fish. That said, I don't target that species while collecting, so I may have just missed them?

I've only kept singletons in tanks, so I can't tell you how it would go.

As you probably know, sub-2" capistratus can be tough to keep, they require small amounts of food offered throughout the day, and getting them to eat enough to put on weight is a challenge. I had one that lived for 3 years and really never grew at all.

Jay

The pair in the pic I took snorkeling were each about 2.5" long.

So far these 2 are eating frozen mysis, pacific plankton, and spirulina brine 4x daily, and will occasionally pick at clam on the half shell, along with whatever they graze from the rockwork. At first, the one was pretty picky, but it learned to eat from the water column by watching the yellow longnose I threw in with it. The new specimen was greedily eating from the water column at the store yesterday.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The pair in the pic I took snorkeling were each about 2.5" long.

So far these 2 are eating frozen mysis, pacific plankton, and spirulina brine 4x daily, and will occasionally pick at clam on the half shell, along with whatever they graze from the rockwork. At first, the one was pretty picky, but it learned to eat from the water column by watching the yellow longnose I threw in with it. The new specimen was greedily eating from the water column at the store yesterday.

Yes - that's when I've seen them paired - about 2 1/2 or 3" on up.

Jay

 

[dennis romano]

I had a pair, each 1.75 inches, that surprisingly ate well when they were by themselves in a QT tank. When they went into the display tank with larger butterflies, they couldn't compete at feeding time and declined.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Well, they've been together since Sunday with zero signs of aggression after the first night (swimming together, eating together, sleeping together), and then came home today to find the smaller one dead, wedged under the rocks, with all the fins completely shredded.

Not going to try pairing butterflies (other than schooling species) anytime again in the future.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Well, they've been together since Sunday with zero signs of aggression after the first night (swimming together, eating together, sleeping together), and then came home today to find the smaller one dead, wedged under the rocks, with all the fins completely shredded.

Not going to try pairing butterflies (other than schooling species) anytime again in the future.

Sorry to hear. Were there any other fish in the tank that could have caused that?

Even mixing schooling butterflies can be risky - I tried multiple times to add new fish to a group of yellow pyramid butterflies and the existing group attacked any newcomer relentlessly. Oddly, I was able to add a school of black pyramids later on.

Jay

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Sorry to hear. Were there any other fish in the tank that could have caused that?

Even mixing schooling butterflies can be risky - I tried multiple times to add new fish to a group of yellow pyramid butterflies and the existing group attacked any newcomer relentlessly. Oddly, I was able to add a school of black pyramids later on.

Jay

Tankmates include a pair of bicinctus clowns (who don't seem to bother anyone), a singular orange skunk clown, 3 pajama cardinals, 2 banggai cardinals, a multicolor angel (who has shown zero aggression), a juvenile ornate leopard wrasse, a yellow watchman goby, an aurora goby, 2 female mollies, and a small (2") yellow longnose butterfly (who has also shown 0 aggression).