jp, has some great points covered. Yea, Butterflies tend to be fairly unpopular for a number of reasons. First, most of them pretty fragile. They aren't disease resistant, don't take to aggression well at all, they often times don't take to prepared foods, and there's the obligatory corallivores that even the best of us can't keep.
And those that are somewhat hardy (Raccon's, Saddleback), typically aren't remotely reef-safe, and those that quasi-reef safe, Copperbands, Kleini, are more on the fragile side. (only two species, Pyramid and Zoster's, are IMO the only true reef-safe B/Fs).
Originally Posted by
deejeff442
http:///forum/post/3091380
well the online store came back saying they dont recomend this fish with the snails,crabs and shrimp.so now i dont know what to think.
I wouldn't worry about what a retailer's site suggests. Most of them are either auto-generated or put up so hastily, they aren't thought though. Butterflies will eat some inverts, anemones, coco worms, feather dusters, etc, but they don't go after mobile crustaceans like shrimp/crabs, etc.
As far as adding one to your FOWLR, I would be very careful with the tangs you have established in there with a butterfly. I think "my yellow tang is beating up my Copperband B/F" is one of the most popular threads all time.
