African Butterfly Fish

There are two African Butterfly Fish sitting at my local LFS... the store manager clearly has no idea what they are or what conditions they need.

Anybody know anything about or have these funny looking guys?

 

Here's a pic incase anyone was unsure of what I'm talking about....

 

Hey Kiazer.

These are great fish to keep - not too hard to care for and interesting to keep and look at. As far as conditions go, they aren't especially fussy, tolerating a pH between 6 and 7.5, and the temperature should stay above 24 C.

Before you buy the fish, make sure they are eating and you know what they're eating. Some specimens will only take live foods, although normally they accept frozen foods or dry foods if you're lucky. They eventually adapt to dry foods. Be sure to only feed floating foods, as any food that sinks below the immediate surface will be ignored.

Another important thing is to make sure you have a good lid - butterflies are excellent jumpers and can take advantage of almost any gap in the lid to get out of the tank, especially if they're startled.

It's best to avoid mixing these guys with other exclusive surface dwellers (eg: hatchetfish), as problems have been known to occur, as well as any fin nipping species (eg: tiger barbs) as they are all to often tempted to nibble their trailing pelvic fins.

I can only highly recommend you get this fish - especially if you're into oddballs.

Cheers
SA

 

Thanks SA thats pretty extensive! Would you say R60 is a good price for them? I'm going to go have another look at them tonight?

Was thinking of putting them in my second 3ft tank with 6 Kribensis.... do you think there will be a compatability issue?

 

I think that should be fine - I'm sure there was a member on here who just recently posted their tank which contained both Kribensis and African butterflies. As far as I know, Kribs are mainly bottom-orientated fish, and establish their territory there, while the butterflies will hang around the surface.

R60 is quite a decent price, you may occasionally see them cheaper, but they are often a little more expensive than that. I'd say take them.

 

Would you recommend them as a good "community" (I use that term loosely) fish, of course without other exclusive surface dwellers? They do look really interesting....

 

I've kept them with various other fish with no hassles. Just make sure that the other 'community' fish aren't large predators or nippers. As a side note, these guys will eat young fry if they share the same tank.

 

I have 6 of these beauties in my 2m tank. They need some surface plants to hide in.

They do jump when frightened! They will eat smaller surface dwelling fish, my fish love crickets (up to medium) and I feed them medium size guppies from time to time, they do also nibble on blood worm and medium size food granules before it sinks. They 'hang' around a lot waiting for prey, but get very active when there is food in the water and at night.

They have no qualms with my other fish (Kribs-One little guy is only 1.5cm and is going strong, Elephant noses and Congo Tetras).



This guy in the pic is about 100mm.

Goodluck!

*During the day they hardly move, so if your tank is low or your water lever up near you lid, you will have to bend to see them.

 

would they chow plattys do you think..?

 

I would say yes. If you saw how they scoff guppies! The Kribs and Congo tetra are "very aggressive" and know how to take care of themselves. In fact my Congo tets enjoy a guppy from time to time (if they get past the butterflies)

 

Okay so as I was reading all the posts to the thread I saw that most people said that kribs aren't nippers so what I want to know is and don't worry don't want to take over the thread just want to know is I have paradise fish in the tank and their fins are nipped is it the kribs or my daffodils or my angels and they are about 3 cm's

Thanx

 

Ok thanks Scaly, they do seem like nice fish though

 

Easy to keep

Float some indian fern or grow tiger lotus and they are happy under it.
I sprinkle flakes near them, and they sense the flakes dropping (The same way they detect mosquitos in the wild) and go for it, fighting with a dozen congos and 8 kribs.


As for eating, yest they can be picky. The first one I ever had refused to eat EVEr, and eventually died. The new guys are not fussy luckily

 

It's the Daffodils and the Angels. They are both notorious fin nippers...

These butterflies seem like fantastic little oddballs!! If I had an extra tank, I'd certainly look into them.

 

I have seen Johans tanks and I don't think it is the Angels, I agree with Slagter that it is the Daffodils but he has 7 or 8 Kribs and we can't tell if they are all male could that maybe be the problem that they are all trying to find a area for them selves??
and as for the butterfly Fish I am going to order a few for my tank next wek I can't wait.

 

Got 8 in my 1.2

2 of them where returns to a Petshop , as they had cleared the tankout of the little guys

 

mmmm well I returned to the pet store and they had just been sold

Apparently the guy didnt even know what they are... hopefully he'll get bored and return them so I can pick them up!

 

IF the guy does not return them you could always ask the owner of the LFS to order a few for you. that is what I am doing

 

Well I finally got my 2 butterflys and they're amazing.... fed them on live 1/4 crickets which they cant get enough of!


This is a pic of one of them just after he has eaten

 

are those normal LFS crickets for reptiles?