African Butterfly Fish

[piper]

Hello all,

I have two ABF in my 70 gal and they seem to be doning fine. However all i can realy feed them is flake as all other food sinks before they get a chance to eat it (blind little chaps they are).

Also unless the flake is large they normally ignore it, they share the tank with 5 large mollies which means they nsometimes miss out on food all together.

So what floating food do you feed your ABF?
Do you think i could feed them the floating food for my pond goldies?

 

[jayjay]

you sure it's a 70g as you don't really have alot in there if it is, (5 mollies and 2 ABF's), maybe 70litres?

also mollies like slightly brackish water (salt).

have you tied just putting bloodworm in front of them (hand feeding them), also what are you feeding them except flake?

 

[nmonks]

Butterflies will eventually take flake, but in the meantime some live or frozen should be used to get it back into good condition after the last few weeks of travel and sitting in the fish shop. As jayjay say, hand-feeding can be a good option. I use long-nose forceps ("tweezers") to hold individual bloodworms in front of surface fish such as halfbeaks and hatchets. Works well. Pretty well any insects will be taken, too. Crickets, moths, aphids, whatever.

Butterflies have a very specific feeding behaviour, and the "prey", be it a live cricket or a bit of flake, needs to go right in front of one or other of the eyes. If not, they ignore it, and they certainly don't swim towards food.

Once you get the hang of feeding them, they're outstanding fish, and among the best small oddballs out there.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[piper]

Yes it is 70 Gal this is my complete stocking list:

6 Cardinal Tetras
1 Pentazona Barb (five banded barb)
8 Parti Pentazona Barbs
2 African Butterfly Fish
5 Sailfin Mollies 2M 3F
3 Apistogramma (1M 2F)
4 Oto's
4 Amano Shrimp
2 African Dwarf Frog

I only mentioned the mollies as they are the ones that eat the food before the ABF can get it. I'm going to try the twezer method of nmonks.

I have a large range of frozen food I feed my fish but how often should a hand feed teh butterflies, does it have to be every day ?

I know mollies do like salt in their water but I have heard they can do well in fresh to.

 

[Phantom Thief]

That's a nice list of fish you got there.

I've had no experience with ABF, but what i'm sure of is that, should everything else fail, live crickets will do the trick.

Btw, do all of the fish get along alright, or are there some squabbles once in a while?

P.T.

 

[aloaring]

when i had a pair they used to love freeze dried shrimp. they float on the surface and are nice and crunchy for them !!

 

[Dwarfs]

IME, ABFs will eat most floating foods if they are hungy. Also, take advantage of any insects living in/around your home, because if it floats, it will be eaten.

 

[Jox]

Freeze dried bloodworms float really good. Hard to get them to sink for me.

 

[k.o.d]

Small mealworms and small crickets are an excellent source of protein for butterfly fish

 

[piper]

There arn't really any fights between my fish. Although when I first got the cardinals they were a bit small and a few turnded into Butterfly food. Got a vid of one chweing on a Cardanial on my camera phone although the qulity is poor.

My problem with floating food is the mollies just attack it till it sinks. The ABFs dont get a look in. However I have been hand feeding them frozen food and they seem to be liking it. I enjoy feeding them this way too although it is abit time consuming.