Golden Semilarvatus Butterflyfish And Coral?

[rastaangel]

Anyone have one of these in a SPS reef system? I picked one up today after reading on a website they were one of the only reef safe butterflys other then the pyramid. When I got home I did a bit more reading on them and most say they will eat all corals... I just got rid of a longnose butterfly that developed a taste for my SPS and I sure dont wanna introduce another SPS hungry fish...

[Aquattro]

I've always thought of these as SPS eaters. Never tried one for that reason.

[rastaangel]

Well I put some SPS frags in my QT with him to see what he does...
Hopefully someone else chims in!

[Delphinus]

I've only ever seen them in FOWLR's. The challenge with predicting what butterflies may sample is that change their minds from time to time. I found that of the 3 butterflies I've tried is that anything with a tentacle is usually the most at risk. So right off the bat, things like aiptasia and majano, for sure, they're munched. LPS feeder tentacles that come out at night, and so on. SPS with polyp extension were toast first then others with less polyps. Started off as the polyps just being mowed like a lawn but eventually the coral would just let go.

Never tried semilarvatus specifically but my guess is they're pretty similar to other butterflies.

[Funky_Fish14]

I have another Chaetodon member, (Chaetodon rafflesi) a latticed butterfly, in my tank with SPS, 1 small acan frag, and 3 BTAs. At first when I added it, it would stop at all the SPS, and 'look' at them, then move on... maybe it knew I was watching? It also picked all over the place at the rocks, some sponges and stuff, algae. It did for a couple weeks pick at the polyps of 1 SPS coral, but for the last 2 months I haven't seen it look at anything. I had 2 aiptasia left after using berghias to eliminate a bunch, and the butterfly took care of those. It is supposed to eat anemonies and potentially nip at LPS and stuff... but it has never looked at any of the anemonies once, nor bothered the acan frag.

He now eats pellets like a champion, even floating pellets!

Its like tony said, the challenge is they will change their minds. Some people have tangs that eat coral from time to time, lol.

The golden may be a bit more likely to try the SPS than a latticed.

Good luck!

Chris