Teardrop Butterfly With Cleaner Shrimp and Feather Worms?

[Liz HI]

In my 90 gallon saltwater tank I have a 20 gallon sump with a protein skimmer and refugium, 50 pounds of live rock and a marine pure block.

I have some inverts including a purple cushion star, 3 Hawaiian feather dusters, a small/medium cleaner shrimp and hermit crabs. Regarding the fish stocking I have a royal gramma, 2 clownfish, 2 green chromis, 1 medium yellow tang, 1 medium diamond goby, three-striped damsel, and a firefish in quarantine. They will be going into my display tank in a couple of weeks.

I'm just trying to get ideas for my fish stock list for my next group of fish in my quarantine system. I'm planning on adding a medium sized coral beauty angel, medium sized long nose hawkfish and a banggai cardinal. I was wondering if a medium sized teardrop butterfly can live in a 90 gallon tank with the inverts that I have.

I don't want to have to rehome the butterfly or replace my cleaner shrimp so I'm looking for any advice. Im pretty new to keeping a saltwater tank and I live in Hawaii so no corals allowed in my tank and a limited selection for fish. Any opinions on the butterflyfish would be helpful. Thanks

 

[Pbh-reef]

The shrimp will be fine but you’ll likely have to pick between any butterflyfish and the worms, except maybe planktivores like the zoster and pyramid butterfly in the Hemitaurichthys genus and even those might eat worms. I’d personally pick the butterfly over the worms, but that’s just my preference and if I couldn’t have coral I can see the appeal of having some colorful sessile inverts

 

[Zack K]

The Teardrop butterfly will eat your feather dusters for sure and depending on size will nip at your shrimp. I've had a pair eat small shrimp. He is also hit or miss on nipping coral, I've had one pair that did nip and one that did not nip. Not a great reef butterfly. If you really like the feather dusters than a butterfly isnt going to fit in your tank as worms are on the diet of 99% of butterfly fishes.

 

[Liz HI]

The shrimp will be fine but you’ll likely have to pick between any butterflyfish and the worms, except maybe planktivores like the zoster and pyramid butterfly in the Hemitaurichthys genus and even those might eat worms. I’d personally pick the butterfly over the worms, but that’s just my preference and if I couldn’t have coral I can see the appeal of having some colorful sessile inverts

I was trying to add a little movement to the live rock. Since I can’t get anemones, I decided to get three of the feather dusters. I like the worms so I would like to save them if I can. I was looking for a medium sized fish to add to my tank. I have a lot of smaller fish and my bioload doesn’t seem to be that heavy. I might have to take all butterfly fish off my list. Any suggestions on peaceful and invert safe fish that could go into my tank?

 

[Liz HI]

The Teardrop butterfly will eat your feather dusters for sure and depending on size will nip at your shrimp. I've had a pair eat small shrimp. He is also hit or miss on nipping coral, I've had one pair that did nip and one that did not nip. Not a great reef butterfly. If you really like the feather dusters than a butterfly isnt going to fit in your tank as worms are on the diet of 99% of butterfly fishes.

My shrimp is about 2.5 inches. I don’t have any corals in my tank but I don’t want to lose the worms or my shrimp to the butterfly. I will probably have to take the butterfly off my list. Any suggestions for invert safe and peaceful fish I could add to my tank? I don’t think my bioload is too heavy and I wanted to look for new fish to add in my next batch of quarantine.

 

[Zack K]

A Tang can be a nice Larger addition to the tank that is invert safe. A Foxface/Rabbitfish is also a great invert safe bigger fish. There is also a fairly large selection of wrasse that are safe with your Feather dusters that are very pretty.

 

[Liz HI]

A Tang can be a nice Larger addition to the tank that is invert safe. A Foxface/Rabbitfish is also a great invert safe bigger fish. There is also a fairly large selection of wrasse that are safe with your Feather dusters that are very pretty.
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A Tang can be a nice Larger addition to the tank that is invert safe. A Foxface/Rabbitfish is also a great invert safe bigger fish. There is also a fairly large selection of wrasse that are safe with your Feather dusters that are very pretty.

I already have a medium sized yellow tang in quarantine and I didn’t want to risk aggression if I added a different tang. I was also worried about the tang growing my tank or having my tank overcrowded. With my medication in my quarantine tank, any wrasse and hippo tangs won’t do well in my tank. It’s becoming difficult to look for fish that will be a good fit for my tank.