Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus) Reef Friendly?

[howser]

Hi everyone,

 

Does anyone have experience with this fish in a reef tank? I have mostly softies and I'm wondering how this fish will do with them. Any experiences you can share would be great!

[Jenny]

I researched them a while back and they should be reefsafe. Should always being the operative word.

 

They don't have that great of survival rate however, bad shippers, easily intimidated, hard to get eating, etc. But I guess no different than other butterflies.

 

Also there are several species of butterflies that look like this one that aren't reef safe. Make sure you are buying by species name not just common name.

 

Let us know how it goes if you get one.

[howser]

Thanks -- I'll probably take the plunge since that's the fish my son really wants. But I thought I'd do a little research before I tell him "yes".

 

Thanks for the feedback, I'd love to hear from anyone that has one!

[quazi]

I had one for over 2 years in a FO tank back in 1990ish. THat is a very long time for a fish to live in my tank back then. A power outage killed him.

 

 

 

He was easy to take care of. He ate flake food and was fine in the tank with a hippo tang and some smaller fish.

 

 

 

Of course, this was just my experience. I have a Copperband now that is very finicky and other people have CBs that eat flake. They are like a box of chocolates...