African Butterfly Fish at Walmart

Swimfins

Swimfins

This is as good as it gets.
Sep 24, 2004
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Montreal Quebec Canada
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I'm just in from getting my winter tires on....sigh... I decided to see what Walmart is stocking in their tanks. Lo and behold a bunch of floater bags in the tanks, shipping day! What fun. Soooooooooo, I mosey on up to shmooze the tanks...what do I see? African butterfly fish, 8 of them.
I ask they guy about them, he has to look up the name of the fish, although I told him what they were (sigh) and I'm a newbie. sigh again. 7.97 each.
I will watch them and see how they do in a few days, with curiosity.
 
One of my walmarts had them in with tiger barbs :rolleyes: You'd think long dangly things with nippy fish inherently screams NO. Guess not.

They're awesome fish, though. I love mine - he's a hoot.
 
holy craaaap, Why in the world can i not find any. Qubec has 8 african butterflys in a walmart, but LA doesnt have a single one in petco, walmart, every lfs ive seen....

i need to talk to Arnold about this one, its about time he actually did something to help this state!
 
Ya really, I found it odd myself. Also, little baby tiger oscars. Geez I hope they don't sell them to your average stroller mom, with a couple gold fish, because they're pretty, :idea2: in the bag.

what about the ph? I'm sure this particular Walmart is on the same tap water as myself, ph about 7.4 straight from the tap.

Don't the ABF prefer 6.5ph? If you see this Leaopardess? Please?
 
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i guess ill answer

yes, they do

but as so many threads suggest: if its not broken, dont fix it. I wouldnt worry too much about pH, its generally just important when it comes to breeding. Not to mention itd be really difficult to keep up with all the work seeing that your tap pH is about the same. Every time you change your water you would have to add something to fix the pH. Dont worry about it


im not suprized that they're keeping 8 of them in a tank. it should be interesting if they take them out of the holding bags, considering that lep told me not to put more than one in the 20gal i have. 8 territorial fish in a 10gal holding tank....hmmmm
 
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all 8 of em were in the tank together, not in bags, some were huddled together in a corner, might go back tonight to buy halloween candy and have another look-see :p Like I need another fish...geeeeeeeeeeez
 
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They do not prefer 6.5 necessarily. I'm sure wild caught ones do, but chances are, that's not what you have. Its no different from other fish. Sure, amazonian neons wouldn't do well outside of pH6.4, but our home neons can live just fine in 8+:)

So if you are asking if you would need special conditions, no you would not.

Also, temporary holding of many butterflies in one store tank is very different that permanent homes in a tank with more than one butterfly. All the stores I've been to also keep them in one tank. Of course, half of them are also lodged onto the bottom, in plants and behind rocks - which is a sure sign of stress since they should only dive down when frightened or escaping. They're often too frightened/stressed themselves to be really worrying about each other. Thats why they can also fit in 50 paradise fish in a 20g tank and oscars and RDs and JD's in small tanks and most of them coming out alive! :eek:

Also, if I may share a pic...this is Fruitbat's from MFT's pic (its a little large...) Such pretty fish.
Clickeeee
 
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yeh, gorgeous. I want one so bad, im even considering driving up to canada to have a look. I seriously cant find one, its driving me nuts

Ive gotten to the point where im considering cleaning out my tank of all the tetras and getting a few puffers
 
I believe liveaquaria.com sells them:) I see them on aquabid from time to time, too.
 
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