KrazyKuch's & Michika's 180Gal Tank Build

[Delphinus]

My pair of C. ulietensis ("double saddle-back" or "false falcula") butterflies DESTROYED the majano problem in my 110.

Problem is they like anything with long little tentacles. So zoanthids for example seem untouched. But palys on the other hand, are in a contant state of "trimmed" (the polyp itself is fine, but no tentacles coming off them.)

And LPS is a problem because of the feeder tentacles. So since LPS tend to feed at night and butterflies tend to, you know, sleep, at night .. it's a very slow rate of decay with them, but now that I've had the butterflies 2 months I've had to relocate all my LPS into my smaller tank.

I don't see any LPS in your tank though so you might be OK. Just that one patch of palys there to the left? .. Mine have shown no interest in the clams so you should be OK there.

...

Something interesting I learned though. The whole legend about Chaetodon ulietensis for majano control was begat out of an article written by Terry Siegel in Advanced Aquarist a number of years ago. Going back and re-reading that article and looking at his tank pictures, he has mis-ID'd his fish, what he in fact has is Chaetodon falcula.

From a few conversations I'd have with folks on RC, C. falcula is slightly more reef safe than C. ulietensis. Also in the last year of looking for ulietensis, I passed on falcula a number of times because I was holding out for ulientensis, because the article was adamant that it was ulietensis. (It was only after I had the fish already that the mis-ID was shown to me..) So falcula may be better in a reef, and may be easier to obtain (could just be luck of the draw though). Both are spectacularly beautiful butterflies (very subtle differences in markings, in the falculas the black are smaller defined triangles, where in ulietensis it's more gradual).

[michika]

I really am leaning towards butteryflies to address the issue now. I tried shrimp, they didn't last. The problem is clearly out of control, and its only gotten worse in the past couple months as things have gotten so busy around here.

[christyf5]

I bought a raccoon to get rid of my majanos and aiptasia. After about 5 weeks or so he had finished them all off. Unfortunately now he has become quite the generalized grazer, ricordea, blastos, acans, I've even seen him nail a few sps polyps. He also cleaned one rock of its fugly browny yellow zoos (not sad to see those gone). However when I move everything to the new tank he will be going back to the LFS. I want clams more than a raccoon butterfly and I'm pretty sure they'd just be snackycakes to him.

Go for a falcula if you're looking at keeping them more long term. I love having a butterfly in the tank but I don't love the damage he does.

[michika]

I would love the anemones to be gone, but I love my clams. If worse comes to worse I could always rehome a butterfly if need be. I just looked at the falcula in pictures, and its pretty.

Tony is this what you have?


Additional power bars arrived today. If Kevin hadn't been shoveling we'd probably not have found them. UPS left them squished between our garage and truck. I would have never even thought to look for them hiding in the back yard!

They're here though, and now this means we can update how the lighting on the 180g is controlled. Plus you can now update your Reef Keeper Elite, or Light, using Vista. Still no Mac love, which makes me sad. I'll just be happy to check in on the controller via my iPhone using iReef.

[Skimmerking]

Catherine my threadfin worked great too and didnt touch anything i was amazed and then he died what a great fish too

[Delphinus]

Threadfins have a pretty medium reef-safe rating as well and ironically I had heard they were hardy. The problem is all butterflies are pretty delicate compared to other fish though, they seem to be among the first to kick off at the first sign of trouble. Sorry about your loss there Mike.

FWIW, I had a raccoon butterfly over the summer months until that weird clam spawn incident (?? I'll never really know for sure) in September in which I lost him, my flame hawk, my rabbitfish and my sixline in the space of a few hours. Anyhow, he never once bothered the clams. Having said that though, he did do a fair bit of damage to the LPS corals and didn't judiciously eradicate the majano anemomes to the same extent that the ulietensis have. He must have been picking at them though as their numbers quickly jumped after he died.

But comparatively, the pair of ulietensis I have now pretty much removed several dozen stands of majano within a little more than a week. Within a couple days, I was sure there were fewer, and within a few days more I actually saw them picking at them .. and within a month they were ALL gone, even the ones that were hard to get at because they were in crevasses or under clams.

What you have pictured there is the falcula - notice the tightly defined triangles for the black spots. Whereas ulietensis the black is more gradual and more like stripes. This is ulientensis:


Here are mine:




I am going to have to take them out at some point, it breaks my heart to do it because I love them to pieces, but they are picking at my gorgonians. Gorgonians are about my last stand with corals these days and to start losing them now I might as well switch to FOWLR and save on electricity bills for the lighting.

Ultimately I might setup a FOWLR just for butterflies though. After seeing some incredible semilarvatus recently I'd love to have a FOWLR with some butterflies. Then I could just plop some aiptasia or majano rock in there for a cleaning and poof done problem solved..

[fishytime]

Hava you tried the Tailored Aquatics aptaisia destroyer???works great on aptaisia....and mushrooms