Butterfly

[tiger]

Hi, need expert advice?

Got a tank keeping some mushroom and polyp, question is is it OK to keep copper band butty. Read from some site is safe, then ask lfs , one say OK, the other say will eat the polyp, end up did not buy and confused. The TM lfs guy in fact say all butty are not safe with polyp. Any advises or experience keeping butty with reef or polyp, tnks.

[Dazza]

hihi Tiger

I hv kept copperbands with polyps & even corals b4 & they did not damage any of my corals. The only thing the copperband attack was my tubeworm. But this was back when not much info was available abt the hobby. Generally speaking, butterflies shd not be trusted with corals.

Problem with copperband is feeding. If u can get one that feeds well, then its a beautiful creature to keep.

[pospeh]

As far as I know butterflies do not really bother mushrooms and polyps. They actaully like to nip at lsps, ps and sponges.

[Dazza]

yeah but its quite wierd cos i now hv a pearl scale in my tank n it do not bother my sponges, mushrooms or even my bubble coral hahaha. Guess all heng, sway lah. But i think generally butterflies not to be trusted with such invertebrates.

yo pospeh, may i know who is that in yr avatar?

[tiger]

Tnks for the advises. Yes, understand that copper band is difficult to feed. in fact one of my friend just told me, his 2 just died, refuses to eat.

In that case I will give the copper a miss. Is there any other fish that is safe and will survice in reef tank? Understand that blue tang and yellow tang is a good choice, any others? What about fire angel (the red color one), reef safe and easy to keep and feed? Sorry, newbie so need many advices from the experts, tnks.

[Dazza]

flame angel no problem with reef btu a bit exp to be trying that at the moment rite? Keep a yellow tang lah. Easy to keep n nice bright colours. If u want to splash a bit more then go for a purple tang. I hv one at the moment in my tank and its a great fish to hv-active and grazing the whole day thru. Prob with tangs is that they are ich magnets. So keep yr water quality up and feed them food (frozen shrimps, nori etc ) soaked in garlic. U can add some decorative shrimps as well.

[DeepBlue]

generally...I do not recommend having yellow tangs or purple tangs unless you are sure that that willl be the last few fishes you are going to put in your tank. They are very territorial and aggressive to new fish when introduced once established.

My YT has no concept he is a smaller fish...will go after fishes that were twice his size..........

[DeepBlue]

flame angel no problem with reef btu a bit exp to be trying that at the moment rite? Keep a yellow tang lah. Easy to keep n nice bright colours. If u want to splash a bit more then go for a purple tang. I hv one at the moment in my tank and its a great fish to hv-active and grazing the whole day thru. Prob with tangs is that they are ich magnets. So keep yr water quality up and feed them food (frozen shrimps, nori etc ) soaked in garlic. U can add some decorative shrimps as well.

it will be good to do a bit of research on the fishes(some websites and books are really good) and decide what are the fishes you want to put in....create a list .....suitable in numbers for your tank to prevent overloading..........then we can help you in terms of comments.....

I normally like some bottom dwellers...and some that likes to swim a lot...like tangs.....

[tiger]

tnks for the advices.

Yes, had read up and it seems Tang are great to have for my semi reef tank, and most probably my last fish to add.

So now go narrow to 3 choices:

a) yellow tang

blue powder tang

c) blue hippo tang

So which one should I go for, just like to hear your view, tnks.

PS. I can only buy one more, and was advice for Tang, only can keep one in a 3ft tank.

[planetg]

how large is your tank tigger?

[tiger]

Is a 3ft tank.

[Dispar_Anthias]

Tnks for the advises. Yes, understand that copper band is difficult to feed. in fact one of my friend just told me, his 2 just died, refuses to eat.

In that case I will give the copper a miss. Is there any other fish that is safe and will survice in reef tank? Understand that blue tang and yellow tang is a good choice, any others? What about fire angel (the red color one), reef safe and easy to keep and feed? Sorry, newbie so need many advices from the experts, tnks.

As you know flame angel is still a kind of dwarf angel and some dwarf angel are known to nip on lps or coral polyp............. As i always say, different angel has different character just depend on whether you dare to take the risk........ Some people experience havoc created by their flame angel when they add it to their tank but others had flame angel with totally no problem..... BTW tang are big fish and rather fast swimmer, love to lap around the tank, so a big tank is needed to give them ample room...... A blue tang can grow up to 25 cm therefore need at least a 4 feet tank IMO, while a yellow tang remain smaller so maybe a smaller atnk can be used to keep them.............. BTW some atng are territorial and aggressive so read up more on tang compatibilty

[Dispar_Anthias]

tnks for the advices.

Yes, had read up and it seems Tang are great to have for my semi reef tank, and most probably my last fish to add.

So now go narrow to 3 choices:

a) yellow tang

blue powder tang

c) blue hippo tang

So which one should I go for, just like to hear your view, tnks.

PS. I can only buy one more, and was advice for Tang, only can keep one in a 3ft tank.

You mean powder blue tang, since you are just starting in this hobby suggest that you should not keep pwder blue tang becasue they are not hardy in fact rather delicate and get ich infection easily........... Well for blue tang, they do grow big so 3 feet IMO is a no no.......... So that should narrow you down to yellow tang, Imo it is ok if they are small and btw yellow tang can be aggressive so keep one per tank

[tiger]

Tnks for the explanation, really appreciate your advise.