Poll: How many reefers have successfully kept a butterfly?

[jd371]

I've had my CBB for over 4 years now. When I first got it I put in QT for observation and to make sure it was eating and not have to compete with the other fish in the main tank. Didn't eat much in QT, but loved the live black worms. Fattened up on the black worms for a week and then moved it to the main tank. It eats almost everything I feed to the tank now.

 

[SammieT]

I had a CBB when my tank was running amazing until i decided to upgrade and lost him during the process.... do plan on getting another one though...

 

[Aari007]

I did have 2 racoons in my FOWLR, but unfortunately the smaller one had died. However, the big is one is eating pellets vigorously.

 

[Shu_Ting]

I have had luck with this method, I take frozen food and use a cheese grater to make very tiny pieces.

Hi! When you feed the shredded frozen food to fish, do you use a clamshell? Or just drop them into water via a dropper?

 

[Shu_Ting]

eventually it will get hungry and nip at something but remember that the natural food is worms and natural crustaceans.

Try LRS Reef Frenzy. its what worked for me

yesterday we tried putting some chopped mussels in the mussels shells that we glued to ceramic disc (see photo). The fish came to nip from the shells but it was not interested in foods OUTSIDE the shell.

However, my problem was as soon as I lowered the whole shells into water the mussels pieces float everywhere... I’ve seen in YouTube people use a net to cover. I don’t have that net... any ideas how to hold the food down in the shell...?

 

[ApoIsland]

Question for ppl who has successfully kept CBB, do you keep the fish separately in a tank without much food competition (whether QT or separate tank) for a while to condition the fish before you put it into main display tank with lots of competition? Did u feed live food at the beginning to make the fish gain weight significantly? Thanks.

Absolutely yes. Instead of a quarantine tank though I use the sump. I failed on my first attempt with a separate quarantine. I believe it just wasn't cycled completely to allow for the processing of all the waste. The 2nd time around I added the CBB to the sump (40g) to make sure there were no water quality issues. The fish was fresh off the boat from the collector in the philippines so it did not eat anything for a couple days. On day 3 he started to eat live brine. Tried mixing in frozen mysis a couple days later but the fish was not interested. Took maybe a week before I could get him eating frozen mysis.

Another couple weeks and I had him eating PE Mysis out of the net. This is vital as it ensures you can feed him additional food separate from all the other fish in the main tank.

The CBB has a very big appetite and high metabolism. I believe this is the main reason for most reefers failures with the fish. Just can't get them enough food.

Fattened him up in the sump for a month with 3x daily feedings before moving to display. Was up to 1 full cube of PE mysis per day in the sump.
I now feed him 1/2 cube out of the net every morning while I fend off the other fish with a stick when they try to get in the net with the CBB. Then he gets to eat what he can when I broadcast feed all the others in the evening.

This morning net feeding routine is getting old though so i would love to hear other ideas for specific target feeding the CBB with only PE Mysis. I have been feeding my fish only mysis for the last 10 years and don't want to change so not looking to cut up clams, oysters, etc...

 

[Big E]

Question for ppl who has successfully kept CBB, do you keep the fish separately in a tank without much food competition (whether QT or separate tank) for a while to condition the fish before you put it into main display tank with lots of competition? Did u feed live food at the beginning to make the fish gain weight significantly? Thanks.

My Muellers ate mysis an hour out of the bag.

When I had my Muelleri in QT I trained it to hand feed as well as go to a specific corner of the tank. I mainly would drop food right in front of him once in the display in his eating corner.

Muelleri take much larger chunks of food so I was able to cut up the clams,mussels shrimp and scallops, which was the main diet. It will also get it's share of mysis when I would broadcast feed for all the fish.

By far one of my favorite fish-----majanoe and aiptasa killer

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Hi! When you feed the shredded frozen food to fish, do you use a clamshell? Or just drop them into water via a dropper?

I have the fish in a qt tank and turn off all pumps, air hoses, or whatever you have that moves the water and let the food settle to the bottom. I leave it like this for a several minutes to see it the fish will start eating or picking at it. Once fish is eating good this way (which may take a few days) I then leave everything turned on and the fish will start picking the food out of the water column.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

For finicky eaters I also use live black worms if I can get them. Or buy table shrimp, freeze it and shred it up with cheese grater. I have a HOB filter to remove uneaten food and clean it out daily so not to pollute the water. On the days I am planning on a water change I will saturate the tank with food and leave it for 1/2 hours or little longer before changing water. When doing this I will add different foods, pellets, different frozen just to see it fish will eat something. Then I make sure I vacuum all food out during water change.

 

[Shu_Ting]

For finicky eaters I also use live black worms if I can get them. Or buy table shrimp, freeze it and shred it up with cheese grater. I have a HOB filter to remove uneaten food and clean it out daily so not to pollute the water. On the days I am planning on a water change I will saturate the tank with food and leave it for 1/2 hours or little longer before changing water. When doing this I will add different foods, pellets, different frozen just to see it fish will eat something. Then I make sure I vacuum all food out during water change.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! Very useful info to know what to do to train the fish to eat.

I’m happy to report that yesterday the threadfin butterfly ate Formula 1 flakes from Ocean Nutrition. It’s now able to eat the floating flakes and those on the bottom of the tank! When it’s eating regularly I will try with the frozen raw food again.

 

[trout]

I keep a yellow longnose and copperband butterfly fishes in my tank. The copperband survived a marine velvet outbreak and a long CP treatment in a hospital tank last year. The copperband eats only frozen food as well as fish clams and mussels. The yellow longnose eats everything I offer, including flakes and small pellets (Hikari-Saki carnivore).

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! Very useful info to know what to do to train the fish to eat.

I’m happy to report that yesterday the threadfin butterfly ate Formula 1 flakes from Ocean Nutrition. It’s now able to eat the floating flakes and those on the bottom of the tank! When it’s eating regularly I will try with the frozen raw food again.

Glad it is starting to eat!

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Copper bands, latticed, and racoon

 

[vlangel]

I have never tried a butterfly of any kind but would like to attempt a raccoon, or long nose.

 

[ReeferSamster]

Here's a video of Willie my Copperband butterfly back in 2013:
2013 youtube video of my 40B reeftank
I actually acquired him 2 years before that, and by 2013, became tame enough to eat from my hands, as you can see in the video. Sorry the youtube video resolution is low, this was back in 2013!

He thrived in the 40 gallon tank until 2019, just last year when he started going blind. I think it was old age, he was larger than a juvenile when I acquired him to begin with, + 8 years in my 40B tank.

Even blind, if i took some blackworms in my fingers and put it in front of his face he would devour the live blackworms. In fact, I think the key to my success with Willie, was the live blackworms. Wriggling around the water as they sink, and wriggling around 10 more seconds on the liverock when they land, I think any healthy butterfly that is not stressed, would devour them. Eventually, this led to Willie rising to the water whenever I came, and next whenever I dipped my hands in the water he would nip at my fingers hoping for blackworms.

I was able to ween him off to frozen mysis shrimp but I could tell he wasn't as enthusiastic about it as the live blackworms.

I miss him. So far, I've transplanted my tank into a RedSea Reefer 350 just last year, but because of some new additions to the tank, such as a mimosa (hybrid) tridacna clam and a maxima clam, I would rather not risk the clams on another Copperband. Even though I would love to acquire a new Copperband and know that if I get a healthy specimen, starting them off blackworms will help my chances of success.

What do you think, should I risk it with my 2 clams?

 

[Zionas]

Glad to see success stories. Would love to start with a Bannerfish among the butterflies. I’ve asked WWM on having a Threadfin, Yellow Longnose, Double Saddle, or Pyramid as alternatives to the Heniochus but the guy who answered my questions says Heniochus> Chaetodon or any other genus when it comes to ease of care for a relative beginner.

 

[reefer333_]

Hello R2R,

For those of you who has fed live black worms to butterfly fish before, I have a question. I recently acquired a copperband from LFS. The fish is alone in 20 gal with live rocks and macro algae (no medication and the tank is fully cycled for more than 3-4 months with other fish before). My plan is to condition the fish to put on some weight and aggressively eating before putting it in main DT to compete with other fish. Right now, I am feeding it live blackworms (I will eventually switch to frozen food later). The fish is eating.

My question is how many black worms should I feed per day (ball park #).? I am not sure whether I should feed like the portion of frozen mysis or feed less like pellets. The fish is alone in 20 gal and I don't want to foul the water by overfeeding, at the same time, I want to make sure CBB is gaining enough weight significantly. Right now I am feeding a few (4-5 worms) for ~5-6 times a day and he seems to be eating it all, but not sure whether it is too much or too little. Thanks for your inputs.

 

[Lostreefin]

Copperband years ago, tried to mix diet, worked great on aiptasia, and wish there was such thing as reef safe on other varieties.

 

[ApoIsland]

Here's a video of Willie my Copperband butterfly back in 2013:
2013 youtube video of my 40B reeftank
I actually acquired him 2 years before that, and by 2013, became tame enough to eat from my hands, as you can see in the video. Sorry the youtube video resolution is low, this was back in 2013!

He thrived in the 40 gallon tank until 2019, just last year when he started going blind. I think it was old age, he was larger than a juvenile when I acquired him to begin with, + 8 years in my 40B tank.

Even blind, if i took some blackworms in my fingers and put it in front of his face he would devour the live blackworms. In fact, I think the key to my success with Willie, was the live blackworms. Wriggling around the water as they sink, and wriggling around 10 more seconds on the liverock when they land, I think any healthy butterfly that is not stressed, would devour them. Eventually, this led to Willie rising to the water whenever I came, and next whenever I dipped my hands in the water he would nip at my fingers hoping for blackworms.

I was able to ween him off to frozen mysis shrimp but I could tell he wasn't as enthusiastic about it as the live blackworms.

I miss him. So far, I've transplanted my tank into a RedSea Reefer 350 just last year, but because of some new additions to the tank, such as a mimosa (hybrid) tridacna clam and a maxima clam, I would rather not risk the clams on another Copperband. Even though I would love to acquire a new Copperband and know that if I get a healthy specimen, starting them off blackworms will help my chances of success.

What do you think, should I risk it with my 2 clams?

Go for it. Get a young small one who may have never eaten clams and don't ever feed it clams or anything stuffed into a clam shell/oyster shell etc... I would imagine your odds for success would rise dramatically.

 

[Zionas]

For aiptasia cleaning services, if there ever need be, I’ve decided to go with a Heniochus. Hopefully by feeding it well it’ll refrain from touching any of my softies and eventual LPS. Much easier to keep than the Copperband, one of the few butterflies that Scott W. Michael in his book rates a 5/5.