auriga butterfly in my reef tank

reeferious · #1 03-14-2009, 05:32 AM

bought an auriga 2 weeks ago hoping it would go to work on those pesky anemones (desperate enough to end this headache once and for all). having heard all those advices about how most butterflies do not mix well with reeftanks i at first kept it in a 10 gal tank plumbed to sump and drop in some liverocks that were anemone infested along with few attached frags. you guessed it darn fish totally ignored pests and started pecking at those frags. pecking went on until some frozen food was thrown in and this fish turned its attention to food. couple of days later seeing how the frags remained more or less unmolested i dropped the auriga into maintank where it now resides, eating frozens and totally ignoring everything else. guess my next step would be trying out something like a racoon butterfly.

fishoholic · #2 03-14-2009, 05:59 AM

Did you try a copper band butterfly? Mine eats apastia and most CBB's will.

naesco · #3 03-14-2009, 04:40 PM

Although a CBB can eradicate your problem unfortunately they have poor survival rates in hobbyist's tanks and should be avoided.

Try a peppermint shrimp. It is vital that you acclimatize this shrimp very slowly over a period of six hours. I have had 100% success.

reeferious · #4 03-14-2009, 07:16 PM

aptaisia is under control by a gang of peppermints, just 2 or 3 large ones that i left alone to feed peppermints with their offsprings. the real scourages are the majanos that have rebounded since i last electricuted majority of them. as of now i have seagrass filefish and a butterfly in tank which are supposedly their mortal enemies but have touched nary a one. HHHHHG.