should i get a african butterfly fish?

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draobmiks

draobmiks
May 23, 2006
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do you think i could but him in a tank with loaches? but not eat the loaches? also would her bother a blood parrot fish?
or does anybody else have any ideas of what kind of fish that like to be at the top of the water?
 
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from what ive read, they dont bother anything that doesnt go by the surface and what doesnt fit in their mouths. so if all of your fish meet that criteira, then you should be good.
they also dont chase any food below the sruface, so have in a good cleanup crew is essential.
 
jm1212 said:
i would wait though, your tank seems to be stocked a little heavily
Click to expand...
and I'm concerned by the "very young tank" statement in your sig.

i've also heard that this species can be a bit nippy with other surface oriented fishes. they get to about 4 inch max size. they're also very good jumpers so a secure canopy is a must.
 
they also need either live or frozen food. they are somewhat insectivorous, so i'd reccomend a diet of live or dried crickets, with the occasional feeder guppy thrown in there too. and I think you need to get rid of a few fish in there before you get one.
 
I just got one today very cool fish... They do seem to stay mostly at the top, but he will travel to the bottom and take a peak at whats going on.... other than that hes pretty lazy
 
Yup, they stay at the surface all day, but will go down to hunt. More than likely once you intoduced him into your tank you wouldnt see your loaches again. I kept khuli loaches with him at first but they always hid under a rock and wouldnt come out. I then put them in a different tank and put in zebra loaches. I didnt see them for over a month, I thought he ate them. One day when I was cleaning a piece of fake driftwood I found them jammed in a hole. I got them out and released them in the other tank with the khulis. Just the sight of the butterfly strikes fear in smaller fish.

If you do get one they can eat floating pellets and they love crickets. I would even feed mine spiders and moths (when the store was out of crickets.)

Theyre sweet fish, but they dont really do much...
 
hmm sounds cool. maybe i could get a tank justt for him........
thanks
 
African butterfly fish are pretty shy and retiring..they like floating cover to hide in the best....very cool fish....they don't like a tank with too much activity. Have fun!
 
I agree that the butterfly fish is very cool. I'm thinking of getting one myself now, and maybe keeping it by itself in a 29 gal. They don't get lonely, do they?

If they could possibly eat kuhlis, what fish would go well with it? I thought they were supposed to ignore bottom feeders. How 'bout if I had it with my two upside-down cats (2.5" and 3.5" long)?

Would 2 butterflies do OK together?
 
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