Does anyone have a butterfly in their reef?

[PaintGuru]

Just curious. Someone in Chicago is selling their copperband butterfly (along with the rest of their tank), and I heard they were reef safe. Of course when I heard they like freshwater clams, I thought "Well gee, wouldn't that mean they would like my tridacnid clams as well? I'm just trying to find something "different" for my reef than the usual tang, clown, blah blah blah.

[Casey]

Montanarocknreefer has one and has had no trouble with his

[Brooke]

We have a copperband and 3 clams. No problem with him nipping at them at all. The butterfly will probably eat all of your tube worms, bristle worms, and anemones though. Not completely reef safe but a great addition with some planning!

[MontanaRocknReefer]

As Casey has stated I do have a Copperband Butterfly in my 80 gallon reef aquarium! The fish was orginially purchased for a bad aiptasia problem I had but with the help of three peppermint shrimp I no longer have this problem.
The copperband is a beautiful fish and have had it for a few months now and has not bothered any corals, inverts or other fish to this point! The biggest problem seems to be getting it to feed but Brooke turned me on to the use of mysis shrimp and from day one it took to it really fast and also have got it to eat my home made "mush" as well! I don't know what I would do without my copperband now! So I would say give it a try! I also have four clams and no problems there!!

[PaintGuru]

I do have 2 anemones, a green carpet and a BTA. Of course I have clowns in the BTA to protect that, but would the CB go after those anemones? I do have plenty of small featherdusters in the sand for it to much on too. Thanks for the tips so far.

[MontanaRocknReefer]

I do have 2 anemones, a green carpet and a BTA

The copperband is safe with those guys!!

Feather dusters will disappear for sure!!

[PaintGuru]

Well maybe I will look at picking him up from this guy, especially since he has obviously had him for some length of time. Thankfully I'm not too attached to the featherdusters. So besides featherdusters/tube worms, bristleworms, and aptasia, is there anything else I need to worry about this guy munching on?

[MontanaRocknReefer]

At this point I can't think of anything else to worry about!

Pic of my Butterfly:

[Geoff]

i have heard these are reef safe:

Hemitauricthys polylepis

i do not have any experiences, but maybe someone here has. i would not know where else i would have heard these are reef safe from.

G~

[tdwyatt]

http://www.themarinecenter.com/butterflypolylepis.htm

[Brooke]

If you are very attached to your current big anems I would pass on the butterfly. There is no guarantee that it will not nip at your anems. Each fish is different. Overall ours is a model citizen. We don't have any anemone's though.

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Your are probably right Brooke about anenomes as each fish is different! I have a large BTA in my tank and the butterfly stays completely away from it!

[Big Dave]

I was in the LFS yesterday and a local supplier was in there. I was talking to him for a while and he mentioned that the Heniochus Butterflies from Hawaii were 'reef-safe'. Is this true? He said most of the year they go down to 200'+ deep and never have adapted to eating corals. Maybe JennM or Tom or one of the many 'experts' can weigh in on this. Thanks for the help!

-Big Dave

[Geoff]

check this thread out.

G~

[Reefer Addict]

My Copperband is also a model citizen aside from 'rushing' the purple firefish on occassion and sometimes nipping a clam mantle when he's late getting breakfast.
He never actually damages the clam... but I thought it worth mentioning.
Mine also only eats live food... I've tried various other frozen foods (mysis, brine shrimp plus, blender mush) and it doesn't respond to them... anything live though brings out a feeding frenzy.

It's a great fish otherwise... it's like a little puppydog whenever I'm approaching the tank with food... all happy and wiggling all over.

HTH.