Butterfly fish question

[Jeskay14]

I'm currently setting up a 70 gallon reef with mainly softies and and euphelia. Could I keep a butler fly fish? The tank is 3 feet long and 18 wide.

Thanks to all that can help!

 

 

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[rtelles]

3 ft. long is a little short. I'm being a bit of a hypocrite since I kept one in the equivalent of a 40B for nearly a year, but ended up rehoming it to a much larger tank because he started to swim back and forth across the glass in apparent boredom for hours. They really shouldn't be in anything smaller than a 4 ft tank, imo and based on my experience with having one. They get relatively large and are really active and friendly once they're comfortable (mine would eat from my hand and hang out on whatever side of the tank I was on, whether he was hungry or not). If you do decide to get one, read Paul B's primer on butterflyfish, which was really helpful in selecting a healthy one, and make sure you're ready to try a bunch of different foods to get it to eat, since they can be annoyingly picky, and often die due to malnourishment. Mine wouldn't touch pellets, would pick at mysis but not fill himself up (same with brine shrimp), but went crazy for LRS reef frenzy. Before trying reef frenzy, I'd also leave an opened clam at the bottom of the tank twice a week for him to pick on to get him eating, which is probably the only reason he survived initially. In other words, unless you're willing to put in some effort to get a butteflyfish the right nutrition, you're going to have a bad time.

[Jeskay14]

3 ft. long is a little short. I'm being a bit of a hypocrite since I kept one in the equivalent of a 40B for nearly a year, but ended up rehoming it to a much larger tank because he started to swim back and forth across the glass in apparent boredom for hours. They really shouldn't be in anything smaller than a 4 ft tank, imo and based on my experience with having one. They get relatively large and are really active and friendly once they're comfortable (mine would eat from my hand and hang out on whatever side of the tank I was on, whether he was hungry or not). If you do decide to get one, read Paul B's primer on butterflyfish, which was really helpful in selecting a healthy one, and make sure you're ready to try a bunch of different foods to get it to eat, since they can be annoyingly picky, and often die due to malnourishment. Mine wouldn't touch pellets, would pick at mysis but not fill himself up (same with brine shrimp), but went crazy for LRS reef frenzy. Before trying reef frenzy, I'd also leave an opened clam at the bottom of the tank twice a week for him to pick on to get him eating, which is probably the only reason he survived initially. In other words, unless you're willing to put in some effort to get a butteflyfish the right nutrition, you're going to have a bad time.

thank you so much as this was extremely helpful. I will look more into them and get some more research on them to fully commit. So at this moment I do plan to get one but I'll wait until my tank is established and I have a week or so of good time to spend finding the right food for him! Thanks again and I'll let you know what I end up doing it if I have any more questions.

 

 

 

 

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