We have a 180 reef and will be setting up a 90g fish only tank once our new carpet gets installed. We already have a YT, pair of clowns, Coral Beauty, Royal Gramma, Lawnmower Blenny and 2 Threadfin Cardinal all have been in QT already 5 weeks. I have a Sunset Butterfly coming next week and hear they can be finicky eaters. What do yours eat if you have one? Do they really prefer cockle meat? If so where do you find it? I’m not seeing that it’s readily available anywhere...all the websites I see are UK sites. I feed a large variety of frozen food twice a day as well as algae, nori sheets and the good pellets. Any experience to share?
Sunset Butterfly fish feeding question
- Thread starter TrishK
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JumboShrimp
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I have never tried Masstick, but I would if I had a finish eater heading to my tank. Best wishes! 
JumboShrimp
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My post said “finicky” eater, not “finish” eater. Don’t know what happened. Lol.
Okay so we’ve had the sunset butterfly for a few days and I’ve not seen him eat anything. I’ve given chopped up mysis and brine because I know they have little mouths, I’ve put in zooaquatics mix, ocean nutrition small pellets, masstick on side of a rock and never saw him go near it. It eventually just broke up in the water. Today I put around 1,000 amiphods/copepods in with him and he didn’t go for a single one. I have some oyster feast on order but afraid he’ll starve before then. Is it possible he’s eating when I’m not looking? He’s not a shy fish at all and doesn’t hide when I stare in at him ever so figured if he was eating I would see him.
Any other suggestions for me? I put garlic in both the food and the water.
Any other suggestions for me? I put garlic in both the food and the water.
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I wouldn’t chop mysis the butterflies can eat full mysis and brine. I would also try not feeding garlic as some fish don’t like the taste.
Have you tried live brine or live black worms? Clam on the half shell? I like angel and butterfly mixes like haikari mega marine ange and SFBB angel and butterfly as they have a wide variety of benthic inverts such as worms and sponges. I recommend mixing these mixes in with the Mastic before putting it on a rock.
A few days without eating is not superuncommon, most of my butterflies took a couple days to start eating. Frequent feedings of a large variety of foods usually brings then around for me. Sometimes need to step up to live foods.
Have you tried live brine or live black worms? Clam on the half shell? I like angel and butterfly mixes like haikari mega marine ange and SFBB angel and butterfly as they have a wide variety of benthic inverts such as worms and sponges. I recommend mixing these mixes in with the Mastic before putting it on a rock.
A few days without eating is not superuncommon, most of my butterflies took a couple days to start eating. Frequent feedings of a large variety of foods usually brings then around for me. Sometimes need to step up to live foods.
I originally wasn’t chopping the mysis or brine but after a few days of not seeing him eat any of it I decided to chop the next go and see if it made a difference as I had read they have small mouths and you needed to chop it.
We don’t have live brine or black worms around here and I hate to spend another $100 on food and shipping. And I did just put 1,000 pods in the 30gal QT tank and he didn’t seem interested. He’s very active though so maybe he eats when I’m not around. I feed several times a day because I have a bunch of wrasses so I just feed everyone.
I’ll eliminate the garlic next mix up aNd see if it makes a difference. He could just be warming up to the tank yet. He’s with a Coral Beauty who is smaller than him but the CB of course thinks he owns the place already.
I do feed the angel/butterfly mix as well for the CB so it’s in there. I feed many different types of frozen every feed and mix in flakes and pellets and nori, masstick, you name it lol...I just don’t have the means to raise live brine or black worms and no idea where to get clam in half shell. Read they like cockle but can’t find any place online to buy it except LA and they want $30 shipping
SDguy
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Other than having the food on the half shell like clam, etc, chopping up things like mysis is actually a good idea. Most butterflies are not used to eating large pieces of food (though they will eventually). Also, they often don't like, at first, the more "prickly" parts of mysis, like the tip of the tail, or the head. Definitely try clam on the half shell (I use venus clams from the grocery store) and live blackworms if you can find them at a LFS. I also have success with finely minced diver scallop or raw shrimp, also from the grocery store. Good luck!
