FOWLR Butterfly Tank - Thinking About It (?)

[bucket brigade]

I've come to the conclusion that I like watching schools of fish swimming around rather than having a brilliant display of corals. I really really love Butterfly fish....

Anyone have any suggestions (or good weblinks) about putting together a tank that has a school of butterflies. I KNOW NOTHING about butterflies. I can't even tell you if you can put multiple genres of butterflies in one tank without them killing each other.....

I have a 6month old 75gal tank with good healthy LR. My current stock is:

> powder blue tang
> maroon clown
> two LTAs (clown hosting both)
> green finger leather
> candy coral
> a small colony of zoas
> a small colony of shrooms
> star polyps

QUESTION #1: If I were to start SELLING off my stock to migrate towards a "school-of-butterfly" tank, what listed ABOVE can stay, what will have to go? I have connections locally to people in a reeferclub that will buy my stock up in like 2 weeks or less.... and in good homes too....

QUESTION #2: like 6 months ago I was talking to a LFS owner and I was asking questions about Butterflies and he said, "Butterflies only serve a short-term purpose for a tank, like eating aiptasias....butterflies only live a very short life in captivity (like 6months) and should not be purchased with the expectation of keeping them long-term..." IS THIS TRUE???? Can I keep a tank of Butterflies for 2, 3, 4, 5 years -or- is this just a pipe-dream that will cost me big bucks????

Please help.....

[JennM]

Short answer is "depends".

Many/most butterflies will eat coral and anemones so the LTAs would likely have to go. Possibly the polyps too... unless you didn't mind them being munched on.

Some butterflies should be avoided completely as they are obligate coral feeders. If you don't have Scott Michael's Marine Fishes book, IMO invest in it - it's got loads of info on butterflies, including the ones you should avoid completely.

Copperbands can live for years, so can Klein's, Raccoons, Aurigas, Semilavartus and other species. However a 75 is a bit small unless you get small specimens and plan to move them when they get big.

Make *sure* you know where they came from (country of origin) and how they were caught - and *everybody* will tell you their PI and Indo fish are net-caught... not all are, depsite what you may be told, and it's impossible to know for sure, unless your dealer is buying direct from a net collector - and there are a few out there, but there's lots of fibbing that can go on. Best to stick to fish from Hawaii, Tonga, Solomons, Marshalls and Red Sea if possible.

Make sure you see them eating prepared foods at the LFS before you buy them. The trickiest part about butterflies is getting them to eat. If they aren't eating, leave them there. There are some good preparations on the market now that contain sponge and other material that they would feed on in the wild, so their nutritional needs can be met - Angel and Butterfly Formula by Ocean Nutrition is one, and San Francisco makes one too.

HTH

Jenn