Mandarin and BSButterfly

[Curtis1158]

I am thinking of adding a Bluestripe (or Fremblii) Butterfly to a tank with an established Mandarin. Will this butterfly devour the pod population, thus starving the Mandarin. I read on another post that a Copperbanded Butterfly starved a Mandarin this way. I am having a hard time locating a Bluestripe so the point may be moot, but would like to be prepared in case. Does anyone have experience with these too fish together long term?

[natan]

unfortunately i dont have the Xperience u r looking 4. but, i do have some with mandarin(s). and, they are not rely as difficult 2 ween to the prep food as many say. and if it is feeding on frozen/dry regularly and needs his pods just 4 a snack, than u may not have a problem. and here is a tip on how u do it: get fresh fish eggs from inside the fish on the fishmarket, freeze them and offer some 2 the fish. u will be surprised with what happens next. get it used 2 a feeding station. next, mix the eggs with other frozen food. in 3 days max (6 feedings) yuor mandarin will be traned to take frozen like a clock. it may take u a while to trane it go off the rock to get food, but u can trane it to eventially go anywhere in the tank just like u would with a puppy.

[Curtis1158]

Thanks for the info. My mandarin currently eats pods, mysis and Cyclo-peeze. It is not an aggresive hunter-more a slow and steady wins the race. When I feed the tank mysis and Cyclo-peeze, the mandarin seems to eat what floats in front of him as opposed to finding the source. He is healthy and eating, so I am leaving it at that.

All input is welcome.

[Zaita]

Originally posted by natan
unfortunately i dont have the Xperience u r looking 4. but, i do have some with mandarin(s). and, they are not rely as difficult 2 ween to the prep food as many say. and if it is feeding on frozen/dry regularly and needs his pods just 4 a snack, than u may not have a problem. and here is a tip on how u do it: get fresh fish eggs from inside the fish on the fishmarket, freeze them and offer some 2 the fish. u will be surprised with what happens next. get it used 2 a feeding station. next, mix the eggs with other frozen food. in 3 days max (6 feedings) yuor mandarin will be traned to take frozen like a clock. it may take u a while to trane it go off the rock to get food, but u can trane it to eventially go anywhere in the tank just like u would with a puppy.

Err.... This is not a good piece of advice. Your mandarin will not be sustained on prepared foods nutritionally and eventually will die if there are no pods in the tank.

and if it is feeding on frozen/dry regularly and needs his pods just 4 a snack,

The very opposite of this is true. A Mandarin will spend all day, and a large part of the night, hunting for pods to eat. Unless you can constantly supply it with prepared foods (and I mean constantly) then the Copepods will always be its primary food (and nutrition) source.


Unfortunately for now you are going to have to do some more research on the Butterfly fish regarding it's pod eating habbits. I am not aware of them being a fish that heavily predates pods. Do be aware that most (if not all) fish will consume copepods on occasion, even our friendly little clownfish