Butterfly Fish

Marine butterfly fish are closely related to marine angels, but are quite different in both appearance and in habits .Butterflies are very widespread throughout the world's tropical seas wherever there are coral reefs. They rely heavily on the reefs for food, as well as for protection, and would not normally stray even a few metes away from their natural home. Butterflies have a small mouth and need to peck at food constantly; consequently they are slow growers, rarely exceeding 15crn(6in) langouste are not fast swimmers and have no natural protection against predators other than camouflage. Therefore, not surprisingly, they are shy and rather sensitive fish. Never put butterflies with boisterous fish, such as damsels and triggers, as they cannot compete either for territory or for food.

Translating butterflies' natural lifestyle into a captive environment requires careful consideration. Firstly, with only two exceptions, butterflies are unsuitable for invertebrate systems, since they readily attack and eat coral heads, anemones, tubeworm's, cucumbers, etc. Since keeping them in a home aquarium denies these fish their natural foodstuffs, it is vital to take note of their dietary requirements and to provide them with frequent small meals. Since they cannot consume much food at one meal, the only chance of keeping them alive for reasonable time is to provide frequent 'snacks'.

To compound the problem, many butterflies will not touch flaked food, so frozen or preserved my sis shrimps or brine shrimp (Artemis Salina) are essential. It is clear that keeping butterfly fishes presents the fish keeper with quite a few problems. However, on the plus side, butterflies will not attack other fish, they can be kept singly or in groups of any size and constituency, they are not prone to disease and are often relatively inexpensive. They grow very slowly in captivity, so they rarely cause problems of outgrowing their allotted aquarium.

The sunburst butterfly hardy, happily accepts flake food (Cartoon Klein ii) is the easiest of and never seems to become involved the butterfly fish species to keep in the in territorial disputes with tank mates, marine aquarium. Once settled in, it grows to about 10cm (4in) long.

The threadfin butterfly fish (Cartoon au Riga) is found widely throughout the Indo-Pacific. It grows to 23cm (9in) in the wild but only Haiti size in a tank. It makes a good, hardy aquarium subject and enjoys availed diet but, unfortunately, it will not accept flake food. The four-eyed Butterfly fish (Cartoon capitals) is the most common butterfly in the West Indies. It is relatively hardy but will not accept flake food in its diet.

Heniochus Brown Butterfly Fish

Heniochus brown butterfly fish belongs to Chaetodontidae family and Heniochus varius species. The length of this fish is near about 20 cm. They are quite in nature and they are compatible with Cardinal fish, Chromis etc.

Latticed Butterfly Fish

Latticed butterfly fish belongs to Chaetondon rafflesi species and Chaetodontidae family. These butterfly fishes grow up to 15cm in size and in diet they typically eat flesh eating animals. These fishes are very peaceful in nature.