Butterfly Fishes...
 

While I am debating my fish stock in the future I am considering these two,
I really like two types..

Pearlscale Butterfly

Copperband. Butterfly

Anyone have any personal feedback on these two?

I have a 90 Gal...

the butter fly's i would say the best to get is a cooper band, but wait til the tank is stable and well fed with duster's and assorted pods.
the other ones i would stay away from if you are getting corals Randi, and if you are thinking of gettting a yellow tang the copperBand will fight with him .

due they are the same in shape


mike

Thanks Mike.
So what if I added the Copperband and the yellow tang at once?...

copperbands
 

coppper bands are a real hit or miss. The one I bought was in perfect conditon, clear eyes responsive and very beatiful. He started eating the next day and then poof a month later he died. If it were me I would put copperbands into a reef system where they can be pampered,otherwise they just dont seem to do well. Pearscales are a better choice in my opinion for the community tank...dont want one of these in your reef! They still are picky like most butterflys and need clean oxygenated water and an aged system.
hope this helps

the copper band will still fight for a bit with the yellow, from what i have read and heard.


mike

Here is my current "Wishlist":

Pair of Percula Clowns First

Yellow Watchman Goby or a Blennie.. not 100% sure but a bright colored one

Mandarin Dragonette eventually after atleast a year

Tang - Yellow and or Powder Brown(white faced kind)
BUT I REALLY love the Naso Tang instead.. what if I got him and then upgraded my tank later?..hmm... How fast do they grow?

Orange colored Anthias - a few... OR Blue-green chromis (some schooling fish)

Anyone have any comments?

Thanks Mike and Shadowboy for your help on the butterflys... :) Think I will steer clear for now of them.

[quote="clownchick22"]Here is my current "Wishlist":

Pair of Percula Clowns First


GOOD

Yellow Watchman Goby or a Blennie.. not 100% sure but a bright colored one


Wait til the tank is up for atleast a month of too to build up the pods in the tank for the goby

Mandarin Dragonette eventually after atleast a year

Will have to start looking at gettign a Refuguim for these fish battling againt a goby and a manderin for food

Tang - Yellow and or Powder Brown(white faced kind)

Ok ok right after the clowns

BUT I REALLY love the Naso Tang instead.. what if I got him and then upgraded my tank later?..hmm... How fast do they grow?

TOo big for the naso the 90 gal need a 6' tank

Orange colored Anthias - a few... OR Blue-green chromis (some schooling fish)

ANTHAIS need to feed lots and i mean lots the chromis are ok


mike

Any other suggestions...
I like Yellow tangs... but they are so common.. I want something different

What would be a good "showpiece" fish.. besides the Naso :cry:

a leopard wrasse are ver y nice and maybe a cheveron tang but they are 150 bones ... purple tang maybe ,
scopas tang.

mike

Chevron is nice...
http://saltaquarium.about.com/librar...ngjuvkeoki.jpg

chevron is a great fish if you have the money.

sailfins are nice show fish but they do get rather large as well. purple tangs are nice additions, ive also had a softspot for a convict tang, not for everyone i guess but they look kinda cool.

I have a Yellow Tang and a Copperband Butterfly in my 90 that do not show any aggresion to each other at all. There was a little bit of fighting for the first week or so, but nothing to worry about. (CBB should be larger than the Tang IMO.)

Also the CBB will eat frozen food and if your lucky maybe even flake. My CBB takes frozen mysis right out of my hand every day. :mrgreen: They are a great fish that I would highly recomend.

It's a good idea to get one that is very thick and healthy because it can be a little tricky to get them to eat at first.(Mine took two weeks.)

If they're not eating a short time after getting them, a CBB can be convinced to take food easier than many other fish if you go about it the right way.

that tang is a baby so keep that in mind too.


mike

they change with the age of them .

For what it's worth, my yellow tang is a show piece fish. Almost everyone that comes to visit loves the "bright yellow one" :razz:

I agrre with Brad. love the yellow tang.... a real stunning color...

and a good fish


mike :mrgreen:

For the gobies and the mandarin fish I'd put a ton of rubble behind your rock, the more rubble the more hidding places for pods. Make it inpeneratable to fish and you could have a good pod population in a year. The refugium is an excellent idea, a few pairs of shrimp in there will provide lots of larval food as well for your fish.

Doug

Heniochus (banner fish) are among the easier to keep butterflies. However, tangs tend to pick on or inspect closely any new fish, especially a decent sized one. I use an isolation chamber made of eggcrate (8"x8"x12") to get my new fish used to the tank & my old fish used to my new fish for a week before releasing it into the general population. Have had very good success so far with this method. Also make sure that there are plenty of hiding places like caves for each fish to call its own. That'll cut down on the territorial fighting.

By the way, Chevron tangs are most beautiful & expensive when juveniles - take a look at pics of adult ones before you invest in one to make sure the "final" product is worth the price. For some it is, for me, not so much.

JME & O

Anthony

I have a yellow tang and copperband together in my tank as well. I have purchased a few copperbands over the years and some certainly are fragile and don't do well.

My advice is be very selective with your copperband. Look for one that not only looks good but has shown some signs of being territorial even at the store. Allen pointed one out for me at J&L Aquatics. Since I had 5 tangs in the tank already I was concerned about adding a Copperband and just seeing the thing being harassed to death. But I really wanted a fish to decimate my featherduster population, and took my chances. The Copperband acclimated well and stood his ground. He is doing great with all the other fish. Now that the featherdusters are gone the only foods he'll touch is mysis or brine shrimp.

Having an established tank with pods, worms, featherdusters and lots of rock and hiding spaces is really going to help. They are a beautiful fish, I really enjoy having this fish. Mine will eat the mysis out of my hand.

Also one thing to keep in mind is they can bother clams or brain corals. Mine actually killed one of my open brains :evil: . But now he doesn't touch any of my clams or other brain corals . Guess he liked the taste of just the one :confused:

Good luck with your selection(s)