African Butterfly Fish

[skinbad]

So, been out n about today to a couple of local fish stores, looking for plants and nosing around. I saw an African Butterfly fish in a bit of a sorry state, in a heavily stocked community tank. Ive been reading up on them the last few days, but seen little mention of their communual mentality, so, what i want to know is, will my tetras dissapear overnight? or are they safe with other fish? any first hand advice?

also, overheard some chatter regarding birchirs, senagalese(?) and the chat was, that if a small / juve is added to a "full tank" and well fed it wont bother the established fish? much truth to that?

 

[giant19000]

For yhenbichir I'm not sure but I wouldnt try and well my AFrican butterflyfish didn bother my other fish although I did see it couple times swimming in the middle of the tank and well their top dwellers? Which is odd maybe he was goin for one of my neons? Lol
Feed it dried krill to give it color and small crickets they love them!! They are cool fish like mini arowanas but with longer fins and a pretty cool tail look at a aro and the African butterfly they look sooo much alike same body shape same big mouths well good luck

 

[skinbad]

Their body shape made me think of a locust actualy, but i see the resemblance. i watched a random link on youtube that popped up of one eating a cricket. i have plenty about thanks to having a tarantula, but what other insects are safe to feed them from round the garden house? rainbeetles? hundreds of them about!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

ABFs do have a reputation for being tricky to convert from non-live food, but my two happily eat Tetra Prima; floating Doromin sticks (broken into ~3mm pieces); small Hikari floating cichlid pellets.


They enjoy a bit of current, ~25C temp, tankmates that are normally quite sedate and definately not nippy. While they can do fine as single fish, they can work in groups, providing each fish has ~30x30cm of water surface (even better if there is lots of floating plant like Canadian Pondweed to break up territories and give them somewhere to perch on).

My two share a Rio240 with a trio of Golden Wonder Panchax (albeit the male is currently back in the 560l, after giving his two females a really hard time recently); four Bushfish (3 Leopard and possibly a Bullseye/Zulu Perch, after googling this week); four Upside Down Catfish (which might be moved to introduce them to five youngsters who would be a tempting size for all the predators in the Rio240); three adult Brochis multiradiatus; six 6cm Brochis splendens.

Will your tetras be safe tankmates? That will depend upon which species they are, plus their length and depth.

 

[skinbad]

The Tetras are Glowlights and Black Neons, the smallest of them being over 1", and my Ember / Silver Tip Tetra stays right in the middle of the Glowlights shoal, and rarely ventures from the bottom.

I wouldnt be looking to completely ween one off live food / meat, thats kind of the appeal tbh, but its probably better for it to have pellets / flakes occasionaly? If its still there next week, think it'll be a go! Gonna get a water lettuce as there interesting too, that should be fine for one shouldnt it?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Sounds a bit risky to me, especially with regard to the Black Neons and Embers being live snacks eventually, plus the Silvertips might be very tempted to nip the long spindly fins that dangle below ABFs.

My two spent about five months in a 620T tank with some 3-4cm Sterbai Corydoras, but as these guys are very stocky for their size, there was never any issues.