Copperbanded butterfly fish

[armyman16]

Does anybody here have any experience with the copper banded butterfly fish? I am wanting to eventually get one but I will have a reef tank, how have people been doing with that?

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Hard to take care of and very hard to feed. Should be ok in a reef tank. Dont get one unless you are an EXPERT.

 

[Jlsardina]

They eat copepods at first- but you can get them into frozen mysis relatively quickly. Mine has been in the tank for almost 6 months and is fat and happy.

 

[Jlsardina]

Hard to take care of and very hard to feed. Should be ok in a reef tank. Dont get one unless you are an EXPERT.

Awwww. Guess I should return mine then. Lol. Jk.

 

[Jlsardina]

Almost forgot...

Definitely a reef tank fish- wait til your pod population is plentiful. Don't get any clams with this fish or they just turn into a 100$ snack.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Awwww. Guess I should return mine then. Lol. Jk.

Lol you are expert! Hahah

 

[Jlsardina]

Lol you are expert! Hahah

Far from it. There's always more knowledge out there to obtain. I am just a life long student in this crazy fish world. Some of learn from books- other from experience. The individual that started this thread did an excellent job of checking experiences IMO- books can only get you so far

 

[armyman16]

Haha yeah because on live aquaria it says reef safe "with caution" I had a Valentini puffer and it need nipped at any corals and it said "with caution" so I'm trying to make sure I can keep some corals in there

 

[Jlsardina]

Haha yeah because on live aquaria it says reef safe "with caution" I had a Valentini puffer and it need nipped at any corals and it said "with caution" so I'm trying to make sure I can keep some corals in there

The copperbanded will pretty much kill clams- but they do help with hitchhiker removal as well.

 

[mr_X]

It's hit or miss in my experience. Some you can get to eat prepared foods, some you can't. Just like moorish idols IME.

 

[armyman16]

Yeah, we'll when and if my lfs has one I will ask what they feed and if they say they are having a hard time then I won't buy it but if they said mysis or brine shrimp then I will.

 

[mr_X]

I would witness it eat before purchasing. Don't go by someone at the store's word.

 

[Jlsardina]

I would witness it eat before purchasing. Don't go by someone at the store's word.

+1. Either way though- it could still revert back to eating pods so just keep an eye on it

 

[armyman16]

Okay an I have another quick question, how long will it take for 45 pounds of base rock to be seeded by live rock and how many pounds should I buy to seed it I a 75 gallon?

 

[mr_X]

You really don't need to "seed" the base rock at all. Bacteria will grow on and in the base rock over the course of your cycle.
All adding live rock to the tank will do is allow whatever algae/pods/worms that are on the rock to spread onto the base. It's not really necessary.

 

[armyman16]

Okay thanks I will make sure to give it plenty of time to grow some stuff, will it start to grow some coralline algae on it as well?

 

[mr_X]

Coralline algae must be introduced. You could just take some scrapings from a fellow reefer or LFS's tank and sprinkle them in yours to start that. No need to add rocks if you don't want to.

 

[armyman16]

I have already added 4 pounds but I do wanna add more because I only have about 45 pounds of base and it's a 75 gallon tank, would it better to add more live rock and let it spread or to scrape some off a live rock and sprinkle it on?

 

[mr_X]

That's up to you. I would have at least 75 pounds of rock in there total though. base or live.

 

[armyman16]

Yeah so I'm probably gonna add at least 25-30 more but its probably gonna be 40 more