[marine_pheonix]

Hi,i'm new to this website and hope that you people out there could help me out with my probs from today onwards.

I am intending to keep a copperband butterfly fish in my tank and i am not sure whether it is safe anot? So can you people give me some advices?

Here are my current inhabitants in my tank:2 tomato clowns
1 six-line wrasse
2 cleaner shrimps
1 anemone
1 coral(not sure what its called)
a few snails and liverock crabs

Thks!!!

[Samper]

What size is your tank? Also Your "coral" might be at risk if you decided to go that route I would definately find out what species of coral you are keeping before adding any fish that might be a potential predator. Butterfly fish like to pick at things. I have read that they are a fragile fish and very unresistant to disease though I have no experience with them myself. Also have read that they are very territorial, your tomato clowns might not like him much and vice versa.

[Ninong]

Hi marine_phoenix, welcome to Reefland!

The Copperbanded Butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus) is somewhat reef-safe but not always completely reef-safe. Many people do keep them in reef aquaria just as many people keep Flame Angelfish (Centropyge loriculus) in reef aquaria. C. rostratus is certainly not as risky as C. loriculus but both fish are on my wish list.

C. rostratus will eat any feather dusters almost immediately and most of them will eat those pesky Aiptasia anemones eventually. It will pick at the sand bed and consume epifaunal microcrustaceans and some of the infaunal polychaetes. This is to be expected and can't really be considered as a negative trait but it is something to be considered because you don't want to keep too many species of fish that all compete for the same natural food resources. In other words, be aware of the fact that this fish will compete with fish such as Mandarin Dragonets, Pseudochromids, wrasses, etc.

These fish are difficult to adapt to feeding in home aquaria. That is something to consider. They have to learn to take food from the water column as that is not their natural way of feeding. Some hobbyists have reported difficulty in getting them to accept anything other than live food, such as live brine shrimp. Most people who keep them successfully have managed to get them to accept frozen food.

Individual specimens can be unpredictable, which is true of most species. Dieter Brockmann writes in his book, Fishes and Corals, that hobbyists who were unsuccessful in getting their Copperbanded Butterflyfish to accept commercial foods were the ones most likely to report damage to invertebrates. He speaks of attacks on Tridacna clams, Euphyllia ancora, Catalaphyllia jardinei and Xenia. He himself had a Copperbanded Butterflyfish that lived peacefully for two years in his reef aquarium before suddenly ripping apart a Trachyphyllia geoffroyi for no apparent reason.

Having said all that, I hope to one day keep one of these beautiful fish in a reef tank myself but I would want to make sure that it was accepting substitute food first before purchasing it. I did see a gorgeous 3" specimen at the LFS once but on two separate visits they were unable to get it to eat frozen brine or frozen mysis shrimp. If you purchase a C. rostratus, be sure to ask the store to feed it in your presence before buying it.

[marine_pheonix]

Ic.....

I still can't id that coral of mine but the entire coral is pink in colour and it has these "branches" speading out. I will shrunk whenever i turn off the light.
It's slimy(feels kinda like an anemone). Can anyone id this?(sorry for no pic avaliable but this is the best way i can describe it... )

And by the way, i have some button polyps in my tank too.

Would they be harmed?

Another question....Can i add about 2kg of cured liverocks and 1 fish on the same day?

[Ninong]

As long as the 2kg of live rock are fully cured you should have no problems. Everything in your tank except feather dusters and other worms should be safe from the Copperbanded Butterflyfish, provided it is already eating substitute foods, but there are no guarantees with any fish.

[Poseidon]

Isn't 2.2kg only 1 pound?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Poseidon

Isn't 2.2kg only 1 pound?

No.

[Ninong]

1 kilogram = 2.2046226 pounds

1 pound = 0.4535924 kilograms

[Poseidon]

Originally Posted by Ninong

1 kilogram = 2.2046226 pounds

1 pound = 0.4535924 kilograms

Darn it.... I knew it was 2.2!!!

[marine_pheonix]

Ok thanks!!! I do not have any feather duster in my tank thus i think i would not lose anything...Any idea what copperband butterflies eat?

[Minh Nguyen]

Originally Posted by marine_pheonix

Ok thanks!!! I do not have any feather duster in my tank thus i think i would not lose anything...Any idea what copperband butterflies eat?

CBB is a difficult fish to keep. Most CBB will not eat usual fish food. I feed mine frozen clams. I would recommend that you not get a CBB until you have a few more years of reefing under your belt. They will eatl most of the worms in your tank and will pick at snail antena, and will pick at manu solf corals.
BTW, your corals sound beautiful and most likely a non photosynthetic species that will not do well and will likely die in a few weeks to months.
Minh

[fishgeeksrus]

Well, leave it to me to do things ars backwards. I bought a cbb about three weeks ago. Then I really researched the fish and was like "Oh s***" Well I have done the whole frozen clam thing. He is NOT Interested! He does a lot of picking off of the rock. I also see him eating a bunch of the amphipods (sp). He will eat some of the brine shrimp that I feed. I also have this concoction that I made up. I feed that every couple of days. I think he nibbles on a little of that once it settles to the bottom. Doesn't touch the few aptasia that I have . Go figure! I think I am going to add some peppermint shrimp. Maybe that will help with that problem.

[Ninong]

Now that you have the Copperbanded Butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus), I would hold off on the peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni).

It usually takes a Copperbanded Butterflyfish a considerable period of time before it recognizes Aiptasia anemones as food but once it realizes how tasty they really are, it will hunt them down mercilessly using it's long snout to pick them out of the narrowest cracks and crevices. The consensus of opinion among the various hobby authors is that virtually all Copperbanded Butterflyfishes will eventually eat Aiptasia. This could take several days or it could take several weeks but they are a much more reliable biological control than peppermint shrimp.

[fishgeeksrus]

Okay, I will. Thanks for the heads up!