Butterfly fish - Characteristics, habits, effective breeding tips

Copperband Butterflyfish, a marine aquarium fish with an impressive long snout and orange-yellow striped patterns running along its body. Difficult to keep, picky eater.

Copperband Butterflyfish is one of the marine fish species with an impressive appearance with a long pointed beak and prominent orange-yellow striped pattern, so it is very popular in saltwater aquariums. However, this fish is quite difficult to raise and is a picky eater, requiring the player to have a lot of experience.

If you want to learn more about this special sharp-beaked butterfly fish as well as know the secret to raising healthy, long-lived fish, please refer to the article and nice fish shared below.

Copperband Butterflyfish Information :

Origin and distribution of Copperband Butterflyfish

Copperband Butterflyfish or Copperband Butterflyfish.

Copperband Butterflyfish, scientifically known as Chelmon rostratus, is a marine aquarium fish native to the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Mainly distributed in:

• Southeast Asian coasts such as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia....
• East Sea
• Papua New Guinea
• Solomon Islands, Fiji

In nature, the sharp-snouted butterflyfish lives in coastal coral reefs, rocky areas with depths of 1 - 25 meters, with many shelters and abundant food sources.

Nowadays, thanks to its impressive appearance and colorful colors, this fish is very popular in the marine aquarium market in many countries, including Vietnam.

Copperband Butterflyfish Appearance

Close-up of the colorful appearance of a pointed-snouted butterflyfish.

As the name suggests, the sharp-beaked butterfly fish has a unique and impressive appearance with a long, sharp beak and colorful colors. Let's learn more about the appearance of this fish.

• Shape : Flat, oval.
• Size : Average 15 - 20 cm.
• Snout : Long, pointed like a bird's beak, this helps it reach deep into coral and rock crevices to find food.
• Color : Bright white or silver background, with 3 vertical orange-yellow stripes on the body with silver-gray or black borders for an impressive contrast.
• False eye : On the tail base there is a black round spot like a "false eye" to help them defend themselves against ferocious predators.
• Dorsal & anal fins : Extend from the back of the head to near the tail, transparent or slightly yellow in color.
• Caudal fin : Fan-shaped, transparent.

Copperband Butterflyfish Behavior

The spear-snout butterfly fish can live in pairs.

Below are some interesting habits of the sharp-beaked butterfly fish. Let's learn more to know how to take care of this fish more easily.

Gentle, rarely living in packs

The needle-billed butterflyfish is a rather docile species, rarely causing trouble with other fish in the tank. In the wild it prefers to live alone or in pairs, rarely living in groups.

In an artificial aquarium, you should not keep many pointed-snouted butterflyfish together because they can fight over territory with each other.

Swim slowly and gracefully

The needle-billed butterflyfish swims very slowly and gracefully, they often swim around live rocks, coral reefs or close to the bottom of the tank to search for food. They also do not like places with strong currents, instead they like quiet environments with many hiding places.

Territorial

Although they are docile by nature, in the wild they are territorial, often preferring to find a certain area to live and forage for food.

In the aquarium, Copperband Butterflyfish tend to avoid contact or collision with other fish and they also prefer to swim around a certain area rather than swimming around everywhere in the tank.

Is a carnivorous fish

Platypus are carnivores, they love to eat small aquatic creatures such as silkworms, hydras, parasites, and small crustaceans. However, they will be a bit picky in an artificial environment, so you need to practice eating habits from a young age.

Copperband Butterflyfish Raising Tips for Beginners

The Snout Butterflyfish is kept with many other marine aquarium fish.

The Butterfly Fish is a rather "difficult" aquarium fish, usually only for professional aquarium hobbyists. However, if you are a beginner but still want to challenge yourself with this beautiful fish, follow some of the following tips.

The aquarium must be clean - the water environment must be stable.

This is the most important rule when wanting to keep butterflyfish because they are very sensitive to water quality. You must maintain the water to meet the following basic parameters:

• pH : 8.1 - 8.4
• Temperature : 24 - 26 degrees Celsius.
• Salinity : 1.020 - 1.025
• Ammonia and nitrite: Absolutely none
• Filtration system : Prioritize a filtration system with a skimmer (organic matter separator) to help keep the water clean and clear.
• Equipped with heating or cooling system : To maintain a stable temperature.

To do this, you should use high quality live rock, use a test kit to check water quality regularly so that you can make timely adjustments when there are fluctuations.

The tank should have plenty of space - with plenty of hiding places.

The Snout Butterflyfish likes a spacious living space with many hiding places to feel safe. Therefore, when designing the tank, you need to pay attention to the following:

• Volume : 200 - 300 liters, length 90 cm or more.
• Tank structure : Live rock accounts for 30 - 40% of the tank volume, arranged in rock crevices, small holes, the sand base should be white, smooth, with a thickness of 2 - 3 cm. Can raise more soft corals, avoid expensive SPS or LPS corals.
• Wave generator : Use a low-power type that creates a gentle flow.

Be patient in eating.

Copperband Butterflyfish is a rather picky eater, especially when first introduced into the tank. During this period, you should feed them some of the following foods:

• Arrtemia live or frozen.
• Bloodworms, sea worms.
• Small fresh bait.

After getting used to it, you can feed them with gel-based industrial food or chopped bait.

Avoid keeping with aggressive fish

For the sharp-beaked butterfly fish to grow well and not be stressed, you should avoid keeping them with the following fish species:

• Golden threadfin
• Earl Grey Fish
• Other sharp-beaked butterfly fish

The Snout Butterflyfish can be kept with the following fish species:

• Nemo Fish (Clown Fish)
• The gentle fish.

Observe abnormal signs and take care of fish health every day

The sharp-snouted butterfly fish has a weaker immune system than some other marine ornamental fish, so it is susceptible to fungal and parasitic infections if living conditions are unstable. Here are some common abnormal diseases in this fish species. Follow along to learn more.

How much is a Copperband Butterflyfish?

Currently, the price of Copperband Butterflyfish depends a lot on the origin, size, color,... Let's refer to the price of Copperband Butterflyfish in the international and Vietnamese markets!

Price of sharp-beak butterfly fish on the international market :

• Copperband Butterflyfish under 5cm: About 60 USD (~ 1.5 million VND)

• Copperband Butterflyfish medium size 7 - 10 cm: About 100 USD (~2.5 million VND)

Price of sharp-beak butterfly fish in Vietnam market:

• Currently, there is not much information about the price of this fish in Vietnam. However, based on international market prices plus transportation and import costs, it is estimated that the price of sharp-beak butterfly fish in Vietnam will fluctuate from 2 to 4 million VND.

Beautiful sharp beak butterfly fish pictures

Please enjoy the most beautiful pictures of Copperband Butterflyfish with impressive moments under saltwater compiled here.

Sharp, beautiful image of a pointed snout butterfly fish.

A super beautiful marine aquarium with butterflyfish and many other fish.

A sharp-snouted butterflyfish is feeding on a coral reef.

The Needle-Beaked Butterflyfish and the Nemo Clownfish.

A super beautiful pointed beak butterfly fish.

Through the content that nicefish.net shares in the above article, it can be seen that the Copperband Butterflyfish is an ornamental fish with an impressive appearance and beautiful colors, but it is quite picky and difficult to raise. Therefore, you need to carefully learn the knowledge and experience before raising this fish.

If you want to know more about other beautiful and unique marine aquarium fish to add to your aquarium collection, please visit our Blog section now!