doe copperband butterfly bother zoa & SPS?

[m12345y]

Hi,

Just to get more opinions before i commit to buy the copperband butterfly, do they actually bother the followings?

zoa

SPS such as acro/valida/birdnest/digi

poccipora/stylopora

mushrooms/goniapora

i know it will finish all the tube worms. need it to combat aiptasia

btw, will it get along well with yellow tang? a bit close in color and shape..

thanks

[bellinayu]

It's after all a butterfly and chances of it attacking yr SPS ad zoas are high. Better be safe than sorry. I never like to take chances. Try using jose juice. Some have good experience using this product. Others don't. If not many aptisia, this product might work for you.

[jerome9731]

i got a pair of peppermint shrimp from henry, got rid of almost all the aipista except for 1 left.

[yikai]

Chances of eating your SPS = 0%

Chances of eating your zoas = < 10%

Copperbands are very reef safe as far as butterflies go. Their beak is made to eat tiny invertebrates living amongst rocks and corals. Diet in the wild do not contain coral polyps.

However, being a butterfly, it is up to you to take the risk.

My Marginalis butterfly (a very close relative to the copperband, 90% resemblance, but a diff species) has a soft spot for tridacnid clams and will eat away the mantle, and then devour the entire clam up.

For me, i love the fish more than the clam so it doesn't bother me. I will just stop adding clams from now on.

However if you are a hardcore coral lover who cannot take even the slightest risk with your precious corals, then i suggest not to add the copperband butterflyfish.

However reefsafe it may be, that little % of non-reefsafe quality will slowly eat you up inside!

[vt_snowman87]

copperbands and marginalis, chelmons basically, are very very very safe with SPS.. but there's a slight risk with zoas..

[yikai]

in fact i'm willing to say 100% safe with SPS.

butterflies belong to 3 groups if talking about SPS.

group 1) obligate sps eaters - this group called the "Citharoedus" consist of obligate SPS eaters. such as ornate, reticulatus, larvatus etc. their lower jaw is shaped like a spade to scrape polyps and flesh off SPS.

group 2) normal butterflies with normal shaped mouth. these have rounded mouth that cannot eat the polyps, but can nibble at the SPS slime and flesh. excessive nibbling can cause STN,RTN and polyp retraction. when SPS tissue is damaged or torn, these butterflies can quickly nibble away the flesh.

group 3) butterflies with pointed shaped mouth. longnose, copperband etc. cannot eat SPS at all regardless of state of SPS. cannot nibble, cannot scrape, cannot anything. they can however, pick little crabs, worms and other inverts living within the SPS.

with regards to LPS and softies, all cannot be trusted except 3. pyramid butterflies, longnose butterflies and chelmon butterflies.

[DUCADOS]

And also copperband n yellow tang wun crash so dun worry...

Definitely different thing...

[sun2000]

I introduced a copperband to manage aiptasia ( did a good job) but I had a yellow tang (introduced long ago) and the yellow tang did not leave the copperband in peace. I think it is the shape and color. I was difficult to get the copperband to eat and all the stress from the tang did not help much. I have some Zoas and anemone but the copperband does not seem interested in them. No more aiptasia in my tank though...

[TayHongSiang]

I introduced a copperband to manage aiptasia ( did a good job) but I had a yellow tang (introduced long ago) and the yellow tang did not leave the copperband in peace. I think it is the shape and color. I was difficult to get the copperband to eat and all the stress from the tang did not help much. I have some Zoas and anemone but the copperband does not seem interested in them. No more aiptasia in my tank though...

yellow tang may bully your copperband...

they do not bother corals...quite reef safe...

[m12345y]

thank you guys, i'll give it a try!

joes juice was effective, but troublesome to apply, some even not reachable, peppermint shrimp are KO-ed by the two dottybacks

[Underwater]

And also copperband n yellow tang wun crash so dun worry...

Definitely different thing...

Are you sure of your advice?

Previously, my yellow tang almost killed a newly added copperband butterfly (larger in size) till I have to give it away.

[yikai]

yellow tangs can be quite aggressive once established.

zebrasoma tangs are like that.

most probably it did not deliberately go after the copperband, but more likely any fish will get wacking.

moreover, copperband and yellow tang usually same size and roughly the shape shape. so attack is not unsurprising.