Care of Pennant Butterfly(Heniochus acuminatus)

[fishfarmer]

I'm thinking about adding a Pennant Butterfly to a 120 gal FOWLR with a yellow tang, lunare wrasse, blue devil, and green chromis. I need any info on general care, compatibility, potential nipper of corals, and any other info would be great. TIA

[hcs3]

Heniochus acuminatus

an extremely hardy fish for being in the butterfly family. despite this, care should be taken to ensure high quality captive conditions. butterflies are among the most delicate marine fish.

one of the larger heniochus butterflies reaching almost 10" in length. a 120g will nicely fit a juvenile of this species, but an adult will need more room. however, being in with a yellow tang is not good. both fish are open water swimmers which will result in the 2 fish constantly running into each other. deciding on one or the other would be preferred.

if your looking for multiple large open water swimmers, the heniochus butterfly is for you. adding more than one is very possible if added at the same time. most often the fish will school up and behave nicely together.

the fish would do better in a FO tank, only because of it's large size and tendency to nip at sessile inverts. they should not be added to a reef tank. a FOWLR is a definite possibility, pending of course the extent of inverts you have in there.

in captivity, i'd feed this fish any type of crustacean meats. mysis shrimp could be consider an important ingredient, as well as both formula foods. clam is another good choice. the veggie matter in the formula foods should be enough for this guy, but feeding spirulina is always a bonus.

HTH

henry

[skylsdale]

My friend bought 2 of these about a month ago. Yes they are hardy for butterflyfish...but butterfly fish as a whole are NOT hardy, so I would rate them as rather difficult. They are diffinitely a schooling fish and I would not recommend adding just one. They are NOT reefsafe, seeing as how they ravaged my friend's zoanthid colony the second they were in the tank. They loved brine, and also boiled clams and muscles--although they ate better when the food was crushed or cut into tiny bits. THey make an interesting *click* when they eat. My friend's were each around 5-6"...and the larger one picked on the smaller one a bit. After about a month their health seemed to deteriorate, beginning with a discoloration on the dorsal fin. THe color in the face began to fade and their eyes clouded over. The day before they both died, the dorsal fin basically desintigrated...and the next morning he found them both laying dead at the bottom. Still trying to figure it out. I would accompany it to stress and a tank too small for their size and definite activity(constantly swimming and darting around the tank.)

[fishfarmer]

Thanks, Guess I'll be crossing this one off my list.

[Crazy-Algae-Eater]

Cool Post

[moogoomoogoo]

I have one in a 180 gallon FOWLR for over 6 months and it appears to be growing very well. Tankmates include a sailfin tang, a regal tang, a racoon butterfly, a flame angle, and a golden (semilarvatus) butterly. The sailfin, both butterlies and the heniochus all appear to school together at times. I feed it(them) mysis shrimp in the morning, they munch on romaine lettuce thru-out the day the either various flake or frozen food at night. All the butterflies are always picking at the live rock as well. The heniochus has grown at least 1" since I got him. The banner fin is now very long.