Is that raccoon butterfly still circulating in club?

capman · 05-30-2003, 12:41 PM

A while back (a year or so???) Marty Boeckman had a raccoon butterfly that he donated to the club as a "community fish", to circulate among our tanks for use in Aiptasia control. Is this fish still around in the club somewhere?

I have a 220 gallon tank here at Augsburg College that not oonly has developed an Aiptasia problem, but more disturbingly, a big Anemonia problem (actually, it had the Anemonia problem when we were given the system a year or two ago). I'm getting deperate, and would like to try a raccoon butterfly to see if it will eat the Anemonia.

Bill

geshields · 05-30-2003, 08:02 PM

Bill,

I do not believe the Raccoon Butterfly will consume the A. Majano. For those, a Bi-Color angel works best as it is a staple in their diet.

Greg

capman · 05-31-2003, 02:50 AM

Greg,

Thanks for the reply. Quite a few posts in forums on the web describe raccoon butterflies eating Anemonia, though I don't know how predicatably they do so.

Regarding the bicolor angels though:
Have you kept this species? How do they do in an aquarium if they have no Anemonia to eat? Do they take other foods readily?

I'm assuming the fish you are referring to is Centropyge bicolor (a blue and yellow dwarf angel). Is this correct?

Also, do you know what else in a reef tank they might eat..are they any safer for a reef tank than a raccoon butterfly (which of course is not very reef safe)? (My impression from a bit of reading is that the bicolors might be a little bit more reef safe than the reaccoon).

Thanks,

Bill

geshields · 05-31-2003, 10:29 AM

Bill,

I did have a Bi-Color angel (cenropyge bicolor) and sold him to another local reefer. I didn't have a large breakout of majano's but figured I would try it anyway. My majano never grew in population but they were never eradicated either. After I sold the first bi-color, the population started to grow. I don't believe the timing was a coincidence. The bi-color was keeping the majano in check.
I tried another Bi-color and I don't believe he did anything to the majano population. He died after 3 weeks in my tank so it could have been something else bothering him not making him eat them.
I will be getting another Bi-color soon. I believe it was Eric Borneman who said that the A.Majano is a staple in their diet.

Both of my Bi-colors readily ate regular food also.

Greg

geshields · 05-31-2003, 10:31 AM

Also, the 2 I had have been totally reef safe. It is reported that they will nip at some corals but I never saw them bother any of mine.

Greg

capman · 05-31-2003, 12:09 PM

Thanks for the further information. It really sounds like bicolor angels are more reef-safe than raccoon butterflies.

Can you tell me more about what you had in your tank when you had the bicolor angel? What sorts of corals? SPS? LPS? Soft corals?

Did you have any giant clams in the tank with the bicolor?

What size tank was this?

I wonder whether your bicolor was reef safe because there were still some Anemonia to eat?

Bill

geshields · 05-31-2003, 12:52 PM

bill,

58G, mostly SPS, a small toadstool leather, GSP, branching soft gorgonian, no clams.

Greg

capman · 05-31-2003, 01:11 PM

Thanks so much for taking the time to tell me about your experiences with the bicolor angels.

Bill

David Grigor · 06-02-2003, 10:51 AM

From everything I have read, Bi-color are not easy to keep long term. Simply becasue of the wide variety diet which includes sponges that we really can't duplicate. Even eating our prepared foods etc. isn't enough variety to keep healthy.

I am sure there are always exceptions to the rule.

David Grigor · 06-02-2003, 11:07 AM

My copperband eats Aptasia like there's no tomorrow. If you have a smaller rock that would be easy to remove from the tank. I could place it in my tank for a few days and see what happens. Generally, when I place a rock with aptasia in the tank all are gone by next morning so should know right away.

Copperband is one of my favorite fish. Only problem is that if your wanting to keep a wide diversity of critters such as fanworms, copepods etc. the CB would desimate them.....

SawCJack00 · 06-02-2003, 11:58 AM

Dave, I have lots of Majano in my 125. We could try a rock from there. let me know if you want to, I can get a rock & drop it off.

David Grigor · 06-02-2003, 12:46 PM

Sure. I'm game as long as it doesn't also have the nasty algae on it.

capman · 06-02-2003, 01:21 PM

David,

Thanks for your generous offer to allow us to do a copperband "test drive" to see if they eat Anemonia, but if I were you I would reconsider. If you don't already have Anemonia in your tank, you DON'T want to risk introducing them, especially in a tank the size of yours where manual control would be very difficult! If one of the Anemonia decides to detach from the rock and go exploring your tank (they do detach like this sometimes), then you'd have the beginning of an infestation, and you might not even realize it had happened until it had started to spread in your tank.

Personally, I think I would completely dry any rock from our 220 before introducing it into a new system in order to eliminate any chance of transfering these pests. We are planning a 500+ gallon display tank for our new science building, and I'm determined I'm not going to let these Anemonia in that tank if there is any way I can avoid it!

Bill

David Grigor · 06-02-2003, 02:36 PM

If I put it in there and still there the next morning that is enought time to know. I'm not so worried about them detaching too much, but I didn't think about the possibility that if he/she did take a sample and didn't like it, pieces could get spread. However, if did like a pieces go spread it would be a non-issue.

As far as I know, I don't have any and never seen any.

capman · 06-02-2003, 05:24 PM

I still think that it would be a mistake to risk it. These anemones seem to mostly stay put, but they also seem more willing to detach and wander as adults than Aiptasia, and if they do get loose in your tank they will be harder to control than Aiptasia.