New To This African Butterfly Fish...

[Monarch]

just found this forum...I am very new to this fish...my local retailer has obviously given me wrong info...
said it was a hardy species and would co-exist in my 30g tank with: small cats, very lg.pleco, med. angel,
2 very sm angels and 2 very sm blue zebra danios and 2 glofish...needless to say, I have 1 glofish and 1
blue zebra danio left...after googling this species, I see it is carnivorous and has more than likely had a
wonderful, though expensive, meal...the danio was in the tank for 24hrs and the glofish lasted about 72hrs....
my retailer told me the danios and glofish would be mid-dwellers...I figured I had the best...cats on the bottom,
danios and glofish in the middle and my angels and ABF ( aka Monarch ) as top feeders...the danios and
glofish are fast swimmers, but stayed near the top, and obviously were not THAT fast...is this what happened to
them? I, also, was not told they needed any "special" diet...I feed Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef flake, brine and blood worm frozen, shrimp pellets, spirulina sinking discs and floating pellets...what top floating plants do I need...are they
a must? My 30g tank is a tall, cube shaped square...any help/info would greatly be appreciated.

 

[ArcticLancer]

I can't offer the best advice, unfortunately. It's been 2 years since I had my AFB, and I had a lot of problems feeding him, so I consider myself no sort of expert.

I'm pretty confident that you don't need anything special as far as a diet goes. It's hard enough to feed them anything short of a live meal (and even this can be touch and go). Yes, there will always be those lucky few and masters who manage to adjust them to floating of flake foods, but I doubt you or I will manage it. Small feeders was about the only way I could get him to eat - initially he would take mealworms, but eventually shunned them bluntly. Obviously yours isn't going to be safe with your existing small fish, so you might with to adjust to something you can deal with as a 'dinner fish' of sorts. Of course, where you claim you're quite new I'd note when dealing with feeder fish you do always want to make sure you have safe stock. The same as any other new tank mates, you want to isolate the new fish until you're sure they aren't carrying anything you don't want to introduce to your tank. This means you should expect to have another tank on the go just for feeders.

As far as floating plants go, they require nothing specific. It's pretty much more cover is better, so larger bodied floating plants will do you more good - beyond that I'd go with what you think suits the tank decor. While we're on the floating bit though ... I'm assuming you figured this out in your research, but you are aware that AFBs LOVE to jump, yes? It's how I lost mine ... After 8 months safe in the tank, he got out through the small opening for the filter. You really do need to buckle down the tank for these guys.

Personally, I still love the AFB - it's likely my favorite fish - but much like me, you might want to sit down and seriously consider whether or not you feel you have the setup to adequately house this magnificent species. I'd still wait for more input from other board members for sure, as I know there are miracle workers out there and someone might be able to make this much easier for you. Remember, this is only advice from personal experience, and I feel that I failed to meet the needs of the species.

 

[dave_oddballs]

just found this forum...I am very new to this fish...my local retailer has obviously given me wrong info...
said it was a hardy species and would co-exist in my 30g tank with: small cats, very lg.pleco, med. angel,
2 very sm angels and 2 very sm blue zebra danios and 2 glofish...needless to say, I have 1 glofish and 1
blue zebra danio left...after googling this species, I see it is carnivorous and has more than likely had a
wonderful, though expensive, meal...the danio was in the tank for 24hrs and the glofish lasted about 72hrs....
my retailer told me the danios and glofish would be mid-dwellers...I figured I had the best...cats on the bottom,
danios and glofish in the middle and my angels and ABF ( aka Monarch ) as top feeders...the danios and
glofish are fast swimmers, but stayed near the top, and obviously were not THAT fast...is this what happened to
them? I, also, was not told they needed any "special" diet...I feed Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef flake, brine and blood worm frozen, shrimp pellets, spirulina sinking discs and floating pellets...what top floating plants do I need...are they
a must? My 30g tank is a tall, cube shaped square...any help/info would greatly be appreciated.

I kept african butterflies up until i set up my new tank about 4 months ago, as mentioned, mine took meal worms, the freeze dried variety, then seem to loose intrest, they took various other freeze dried food, i stuck to this as it floats and they seemed to loose intrest in anything once it was more than a couple of inch's below the surface. Mine seemed to take to the freeze dried bloodworm, which worked for me as its relatively inexpensive, from my experience they dont handle fast currents too well, but as the water quality has to be of some reasonable quality, the circulation is quite important. As far as the planting went, i found that as i like a well planted aquarium, the floating plants spread quickly and blocked the light to the other plants. I found long 'grass like' plants that hit the water surface worked well. I kept them for a number of years and they got to a reasonable size, about 6 inch from head to tail, there mouth being rather large they can eat supprisingly large fish so id be very particular about what you keep with them, but at the same time they dont cope wel with boisterous fish and will quickly become inactive and refuse to eat altogetha.
I also found it more to there liking to feed them an hour or so after lights out.

 

[Monarch]

thankx so much for your advice...I onoy meant I was new to this species...I've had Uarus, parrot fish, etc.
I just saw this guy and thought he(or she) was so cool ! I know one thing, I'm calling my local retailer ASAP
to get my $$$ back...I'm sure the other 2 I have left won't be long till they're dinner!! They told me they would eat
anything and no special diet...yeah, right...but he/she is to cool!

 

[ArcticLancer]

Ah-hah, well I apologize for the misunderstanding. I think you're making the right choice in returning the butterfly - personally I think they're a species that should get their own tank and attention.

Also, that was a good point regarding the floating plants blocking light to the lower levels. Hadn't thought about that as I was using plastics at the time.

 

[nmonks]

Pantodon have a very specific feeding mode than involves taking prey items within 90 degree arcs around each eye, up to a few cm out from the head. There's no real magic involved to keeping them provided you put some moving prey (either live, or moved by the current) within that kill zone.

By far the best foods for them are small insects of appropriate size, from wingless drosophila through to crickets, which you can get at any reptile store. They will take this instinctively, with little effort from the aquarist. Otherwise "collect your own" about the house and garden, provided you don't use bug spray of course! Bluebottles, spiders, woodlice and so on will all be taken. If you root about in the garden, earthworms are good, and from a pond, live mosquito larvae and daphnia are excellent.

Once your fish has learned you're the one offering the meals, it shouldn't be hard weaning it onto dead or flake foods. Hand feeding bloodworms or small live maggots/earthworms for example using forceps is possible. I "hand train" most predatory fish I own, even things as small as halfbeaks. It's actually very convenient to be able to hand feed a predator a known quantity of food. You can also take this time to check the fish is healthy, and obviously it also helps a fish to settle down and develop some sort of bond with its owner (as opposed to fear!).

It is important that no other fish are feeding at the surface, so no manic danios or angelfish or whatever! The best tankmates for Pantodon are things that stay close to the bottom, such as Corydoras or kuhli loaches.

Yes, these fish will take flake or pellets, but these have to be [a] moving and in the kill zone. So make sure your tank has nothing stealing food from the Pantodon and also has a gentle current that moves the flake/pellets about.

Like any predator, Pantodon will quickly get bored if offered just one thing. At minimum, cycle between three types of food.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Monarch]

OMG what have I been sold..a monster...I was not given ANY of this type of information...the retailer has offered to let me return the AFB for a credit, but I think he's cool...I have a lot of circulation in the water with the large filtration system I use...AquaClear 110...lots of great info, wish I knew this before...still going to try to keep it...if it doesn't work and he dies, I'll be out $20 USD...I've thrown more than that away on stupid stuff!!

 

[DarkEntity]

OMG what have I been sold..a monster...I was not given ANY of this type of information...the retailer has offered to let me return the AFB for a credit, but I think he's cool...I have a lot of circulation in the water with the large filtration system I use...AquaClear 110...lots of great info, wish I knew this before...still going to try to keep it...if it doesn't work and he dies, I'll be out $20 USD...I've thrown more than that away on stupid stuff!!

Research is the key to fish keeping, do loads of it prior to buying, that way you dont buy something you have no idea how to look after properly

 

[Monarch]

OMG what have I been sold..a monster...I was not given ANY of this type of information...the retailer has offered to let me return the AFB for a credit, but I think he's cool...I have a lot of circulation in the water with the large filtration system I use...AquaClear 110...lots of great info, wish I knew this before...still going to try to keep it...if it doesn't work and he dies, I'll be out $20 USD...I've thrown more than that away on stupid stuff!!

Research is the key to fish keeping, do loads of it prior to buying, that way you dont buy something you have no idea how to look after properly

I ALWAYS research before buying...what had happened in this particular case...I was in the LFS, saw the AFB, and proceeded to get info from the retailer....I had never even heard or seen this species...this is a very reputable dealer...I'm in the USA...he breeds himself and gets his fish from breeders in Europe, Asia, etc....I've dealt with him for years...never had a problem...he has agreed to work this out with me and allow me to return the AFB...he had a danio and glofish for his dinner last night...and I even brought him home some crickets....he was stuffed, so my angels ate them!

 

[ghostshrimp101]

i have thought about getting a AFB it was my understanding that these guys are not a hardy fish that they general do not do well in tanks is this true, i have bee searching or a top dwelling fish. how big do they grow?

 

[nmonks]

Pantodon buchholzi gets to about 8 cm or so under aquarium conditions. It is territorial though, so groups shouldn't be kept in very small tanks. A tank around 180 litres in size should be ample for 3-4 specimens.

They are hardy and adaptable fish, provided you understand their very specific feeding requirements. They can be good community fish, though I'd argue best kept with things that stay close to the substrate so that there's no competition for food. This is very important if you plan on training your specimens to take flake or pellet foods, which they will, once you've weaned them off a live food diet and they've learned you're the guy serving dinner!

Cheers, Neale

 

[ghostshrimp101]

i see i feed frozen food this should be okay for them? 8cm doesn't seem that big?

 

[LauraFrog]

8cm is normal under aquarium conditions but with lots of space and very good feeding they have been known to reach almost 15cm. This is rare, but 10-11cm is not uncommon. Also, they have very, very big mouths. They have a mouth like a drawbridge and can eat fish well over half their size. Anything smaller than 6cm is not suitable as a tankmate. So on the NO LIST: rasboras, danios (except giant danios), small tetras (big ones are okay), small livebearers (big platys and swordtails are okay; guppies are too small, mollies are incompatible as they need hard and preferably brackish water, ABF need soft acid freshwater).

I have seen ABF looking happy when kept with mid and bottom dwellers, provided the mid dwellers do not madly attack the surface on the apperance of food. They naturally live in quiet, shaded backwaters where the fish are large and slow, so they will be stressed (possibly to the point of not eating) if kept with fish that move rapidly and jerkily and constantly disturb the surface. Rainbowfish are ideal tankmates as they tend to stay around the middle and bottom, and often move quite slowly. Feed them at the opposite end of the tank to where the ABF is to avoid disturbing it too much.

I've never kept them, but I do want two or three when I get my big tank, so I've done quite a lot of research on them. Frozen foods should be fine if you can get them to take it. If you use blunt tweezers to hold the end of a bloodworm and dangle the other end in the water and move it around, this might get the ABF's interest. If you can possibly house them in a sealed paludarium, releasing flies into the top section (get maggots from a bait store and let them pupate in the tank) lets them simulate their natural behavior jumping for food. you can only do this when there is a bit of air space - say at least half a foot - or they'll just hit the top of the tank and injure themselves.

 

[Repeat]

I can hand feed mine flakes