butterfly ???

[cityreefer]

new to butterfly fish bought a Orange Butterflyfish (Chaetodon kleini) and it is now freaking out hiding so close to the rock work and stressed out, is this normal for butterfly's when first added.

i drip a acclimatization to the new water for an hour and the leaves tested good excerpt posthaste.

75gal other thank mates are a foxface, coral beauty and black spot trigger

[Myka]

Butterflyfish are notoriously difficult to keep. They are difficult to acclimate to captivity and difficult to keep healthy long-term. "The pros" question feeding requirements among other issues, but the issue hasn't been studied. Hopefully he settles in for you, not much you can do other than keep the lights off for a day or two. You may have difficulty getting him to feed, try frozen bloodworms and frozen clams in a shell.

I don't know what you mean by the "leaves tested good excerpt posthaste." Maybe that was auto spell check and you meant "levels tested good except phosphate."?

[Delphinus]

There are varying degrees of suitability for captivity among butterfly fish species for reasons that vary from "they just die" to "they eat corals" to "they only eat corals" (obligate corallivore). That said there are a few species that are planktivores and those usually adapt well. Wetwebmedia.org lists kleinii as one of the more suitable butterfly fishes here http://www.wetwebmedia.com/bstbfshi.htm

But two things about butterflies that are pretty universal: they are notoriously skittish and stress out very easily, and most are pretty destructive to a reef as they will pick at corals.

Hopefully yours will settle in over time. It can take up to a week or even longer for them to settle in and get bolder. Also make sure there is nobody bullying him.

[Reef Pilot]

Butterfly fish are actually my favorite and I have been successful with both Copperbands and Pearlscales. It is best if you can first acclimatize them for 2 months in a separate quarantine tank. There you can get them feeding and healthy before adding them to your display tank where they might have to compete for food with other tank mates, or worse, be harassed by them.

However, since you are past that point, you will have to try and get him comfortable first in your display tank. This might take a few days. Make sure he has good places to hide where he can feel safe. Adding a piece of PVC pipe to hide in can help.

Once he is comfortable, he should come out and start looking around for food. I found that frozen PE Mysis was a good first food to entice the most finicky butterfly fish. If the other fish are grabbing it first, try using a turkey baster to concentrate the food closer to where he hangs out.

Once you get him feeding PE Mysis, wean him off the turkey baster and get him feeding with his other tank mates. Eventually, he should start eating other foods, too. You might have to starve him a bit for that. I have my butterfly fish eating almost everything, and mostly dry foods now. And that includes my Copperband.

I have read that the Chaetodon Kleini is an easier butterfly fish to keep, so hopefully he will work out for you. Good luck, and keep us informed of your progress. I could share a few more tricks to get him feeding if necessary.

[daniella3d]

My favorite fish is my copperband butterfly.. such a nice personality and not skittish one bit. Each fish is different because my niger trigger is the one that is very very skittish and he hides all day in his cave and only come out to feed, then go back into hiding.

So each fish has its own personality. I have been feeding my copperband live white worms for a year and he is healthy and outgowing and very friendly. He does not eat any aiptasia, or touch clam or coral at all.

I agree 100% that acclimating the fish alone in a QT is the best way to go because the fish does not have to witstand the other fish aggression while getting used to captivity. I took this opportunity to gain my fish trust and he was so skinny so I took this time to fatten him up and after that month in quarantine he was already trusting me and eating from my pipette. Transfering him to the main tank was done the least stressfull way with a large plastic container...he bearely noticed the switch :)

[ScubaSteve]

In the past when I kept butterflies I found they they can flip out a little when you first add them. Keeping the mainlights off does wonders for them. Try to avoid a lot of foot traffic past the tank, don't wear dark clothes (you look like a shark) and feed them lots to eat. Give it mysis with garlic to help it mellow out (hard to be stressed when you're full) and to help ward off ich. It'll take a few days to calm down, then it'll eat every tube worm in your tank...

[cityreefer]

thank you so much for the help this is great!! i ll let you all know how it goes