African Butterfly Fish

[Polyester06]

I bought an African Butterfly Fish for my aquarium and the set up is all good for the fish, so I don't have any questions about that kind of stuff. I'm wondering what I can and cannot feed it. It hasn't ate the freeze-dried tubifex worms, flake food, or freeze-dried blood worms. I dropped a Daddy Long-Legs Spider in there and it didn't want anything to do with that either. Is it just nocturnal or taking it's precious time to adjust to these conditions? The guy at the pet shop said crickets will work, no lady bugs, and I can feed it ear-wigs if I find those.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I had the pleasure of owning two of these beautiful fish several months ago. They "appear" to be very peaceful, but watch out with tank inhabitants. They look gentle floating at the top of the tank but will dart at any fish that is in there with them. I had success feeding freeze dried plankton. Eventually they started eating flake. I'd give them a few days before starting to worry. They need ample cover in the tank so they feel secure. I've heard they are quite the jumpers, but I've never had any issues. Good water conditions are also needed. I believe that I've read that they can be sensitive to Ammonia so a cycled tank is a must. Brine shrimp is another alternative, but I have never attempted to feed it to them.

How long has the tank been setup?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

BTW- Welcome to Aquarium Advice!

Fruitbat wrote a great article on the African Butterfly Fish. You can read it here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=45290

 

[SerLunchbox]

Welcome to Aquarium Advice.

The butterfly fish is a carnivore fish and in my experience with them, they can sometimes be very fussy eaters. One thing that i have known to work for them or any other fish for that matter is the brand of food that i persoanlly use which is called "New Life Spectrum"

This, in my opinion, is the best food on the market for fish. I can almost guarentee with 99.9% probability that your butterfly fish will go absolutely nuts for it ... most of my picky eaters can't get enough of this food!

 

[Polyester06]

How long has the tank been setup?[/quote]

Thanks to both of you, I'm just going to give the fish time then. It's a cool fish so I didn't want it dying off on me already. This tank's been set up for years, but I've completely redone the set-up once or twice since then. Some of the fish in there I've had forever. For some reason, I can never keep otos alive in there, I think the algae treatment stuff I used to put in there is killing them off... but that's another topic entirely. Thanks!

 

[flamingonhot]

Don't feed it daddy long legs or anything like that.

Crickets, mealworms, waxworms, and stuff like that are some stuff that's safe to eat.

When I had one a long time ago I fed it ants a couple times, never knew they are bad for them. Some like beetles , ants, and other things around that aren't good for them.

 

[Mudfrog]

I have two ABF. When I first got them I also purchased some small crickets. Just drop one in there and the cricket will splash around and attract the attention of the ABF.

For the first two weeks this is the only thing they would take. So I stopped giving them crickets for 3 days then tried some flakes and they took the flakes. Right now I give them a staple diet of krill and flakes with an occasional cricket.

They are deffinitely one of my favorite fish, and when you feed them live food it is very exciting to watch them charge it.

 

[Polyester06]

I'll make sure to stick to crickets as far as live food is concerned then. I don't wanna risk the fish's health. The fish is eating now though, I turned the light off one night and saw him immediately dart out of the plants and begin trolling around, so I dropped in some freeze-dried blood worms and it ate it and then I tried some floating cichlid pellets and it ate those too. The next morning it even went after the flake food I dumped in. I had no idea this fish would be so active just by flipping the light off, pretty cool!

 

[lyquidphyre]

Also, don't feed it anything "caught" becauce you don't know if its been walking around on pestisides.
Just stick with crickets or whatever from the petstore