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Originally Posted by Cosine
I believe banner fish are safe
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Make sure that you get the
Heniochus diphruetes, which are planktivores, and not the
Heniochus acuminatus, which are polyp eaters. these two are often misidentified, make sure you get your specimens from a VERY reputable dealer, and actually see the specimens eat prior to purchase.
If the dealer doesn't show any concern or suggest that there is an issue when you mention that they are going into a reef tank, then you need to be going to another dealer. One hint in ID, Most of the
H. diphreutes are coming into the US from Hawaii or the Maldives. Adult specimens have a more rounded belly under the mouth, which protrudes more like a beak than the
H. acuminatus, which has a more straight belly and forehead which meet to rorm a straight angle at the oral opening.
Other butterflyfishes that are primarily planktivores (make sure you read this to them before releasing them into the tank
):
- Lemon Butterflyfishes (Chaetodon miliaris)
- St. Helena Butterflyfishes (C. sanctaehelenae)
- Smith's butterflyfishes (C. smithi)
- Pyramid butterflyfishes (Hemitaurichthys spp.)
Other
Chaetodontids feed primarily on benthic inverts (including
coral polyps) and regularly supplement their diet with zooplankton. A few act as cleaners as adults, although many species also start their lives as cleaners as well for larger fishes while they are juveniles. I might add as a personal note that in captive systems where feeding is limited, most of these fishes could prolly still be pushed to eat polyps given either infrequent scheduling or low quantities of feedings, although I have not witnessed this personally.
A few other butterflyfishes are not corralivores either, but may have very specialized diets that may preclude their husbandry in most captive systems. these include the snouted invertebrate feeders of the genera
Chelmon, chelmonops, Forsipinger, and Prognathodes. These fishes use their snouts to feed on noncoralline invertebrates in the cracks and crevasses of reef rock and corals to include
fan worms, polychaetes, and small crustaceans from the benthos, although some may be limited to ascidians, sponges, and hydroides (see the Japanese Highfin Coralfish
(Coradion altivelis).
Juvenile diets may differ markedly from the adult of a specie, so a young fish introduced to a system eating zooplankton foodstuffs may suddenly change months after apparently good non-polyp consumption into a raging coralivore. Keep this in mind if your thining about acquiring a specimen and the LFS says, "Watch this (y'all)" as he/she feeds zooplankton to your desired specimen...
HTH
