African Butterfly Fish

[Catbeanie]

I have just added an African Butterfly fish to my community tropical tank. It was sort of an impulse buy for my son who is 2 years old and into spiders and bugs and things. He loves it. We went out to catch some bugs tonight to feed to the fish but all the other fish ate the bugs first!

The new fish is called "Ipsy". (of course!)

Does anyone else have one of these and do you have any tips?

Ipsy seems to love the flaked food and until tonight I thought he only had a small mouth but it seems to be quite large! A bit scary...

 

[Catbeanie]

How do I add a picture? There is no browse at the bottom

 

[littlefishie]

You'll have to use a site like http/www.photobucket.com as the browse option is only enabled in certain areas of the forum.

 

[CatLover]

I have always wanted an ABF.

Yea, they have HUGE mouths, and love a varied diet. Just be sure that your tank is completely covered - these fish jump! Even if there is a small hole in the back of the hood where some piece of equipment used to be, be sure to cover it up. You might think he is too small to jump through some holes, but don't underestimate them.

That's pretty much the reason why I don't have one. Only half of my tank is covered and I'm too lazy to cover the rest. Plus ABF aren't sold anywhere around here, so it doesn't matter

 

[DannyBoy17]

My next big tank will feature 5 of those bad boys.

DB

 

[Catbeanie]

Bad boys? "Ipsy" is a nice girl.... so far...

[/IMG]

 

[Catbeanie]

Are you serious.. cover all the little holes too?

I have glass tops covering the tank with a hood over those. However where the pipes and things go in there are gaps. And when I feed them I tend to leave a small space too.. Do they really jump that bad?

Does anyone know if they are more active at night or day? What is their favorite food as I have heard they can be temperamental.

 

[aloaring]

Well i used to have two of them in a four foot tank and they never jumped but then i had these water onion plants in there that grew to the surface so they would hide underneath the leaves. I would recommend have some surface plants for it to hide out in. As for eating bugs my ABF were never interested in them what they did love was freeze dried shrimp, watching them crunch into them was amazing! If you've got glass covers you shoudl be okay just don't leave large gaps and as i said get some floating plants for them to lurk under!!

 

[Catbeanie]

Freeze dried shrimp - is that like the ones you buy at the supermarket (people food) or is it a fish shop thing....?

 

[aloaring]

Think its a fish shop thing not to sure weather you can feed them the human kind? hmmm Fraid i'm not an expert you need to ask someone like CFC but if its eating flakefoods thats a good thing it took ages for mine to eat flake food! But usually they'll try and eat anything that floats!!

 

[OoHeatheroO]

you should be able to find freeze dried shrimp right next to the flake food in your lfs or petsmart/petco.

 

[simonas]

Are you serious.. cover all the little holes too?

I have glass tops covering the tank with a hood over those. However where the pipes and things go in there are gaps. And when I feed them I tend to leave a small space too.. Do they really jump that bad?

Does anyone know if they are more active at night or day? What is their favorite food as I have heard they can be temperamental.

remember the one I had years ago if I woke in the night and puitthe light on he would be swimming around the mid section of the tank but at the top in the day. he also became a big eater once settled and gobbled everything put inthe tank

 

[Max Action]

They can jump like hell when startled, but I don't THINK (not sure) that you'll have to worry about them jumping out of little holes.

Mine eats live crickets, freeze dried blood worms, and any random bugs I catch outside (spiders, ants, centipedes) - but he doesn't like beetles. He mostly lurks along the edge of the vegetation until feeding time - but during dim lighting (I have a variable brightness set-up rigged up with folded cloth) he gets much more active and patrols around the tank.

And as others have said - get some floating/surface plants and your fish will be much happier. They are evolved to look like a dead leaf from above and below - so they can enjoy the bug-fallin' bounty of a surface-dwelling life while minimizing the extreme dangers of such a niche (birds from above, larger fish from below, etc) - and so they are always happiest when they have some foliage to blend into.

(If you do some googling with their scientific name you'll see their vision is often studied - I seem to recall that they have two regions for sight processing - one for above the surface and one for below, or something like that.)

Anyway, you can either simply let some plants float around, or hang them into the tank from above/behind and have them held in place with the tank top.

 

[Johnny V]

Mine clearly prefers medium sized crickets. Try that, me and my friend bith find it to be the easiest thing theyll eat

 

[Catbeanie]

I am off to find some crickets for tonights dinner