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im thinking about getting a butterflyfish, but ive heard they only accept live foods, but could they also accept frozen bloodworms? the profile says they eat daddy-long legs, and my yard is infested with them spring-fall, but couldnt that introduce diseases to my tank?

Another question- are they aggressive? the only top dwellers i have that can pose as a problem are my pearl gourami and my 2 slender rasboras (btw this is a 35g if your wondering)

please tell me of your personal experiences or if you have any useful information.

Thanks in advance

ive owned two of these amazing looking fish and my most important advice is make sure the tank is completely covered! my 2 managed to jump out of the smallest crack in the glass where the filter came in and died before i found them

I fed mine live crickets which they loved as well as normal floating fish pellets. They will also eat daddy long legs (im not a spider fan so never tried it) but they attack live prey as soon as it hits the water so you wont have a problem of contamination. Mine didnt like frozen foods i tried frozen bloodworm but it wouldnt eat it. It senses food through the movement of the water which is probably why it never sensed the bloodworm as it sank quickly.
In mentioning that make sure that there isnt too much water movement at the surface and that there are plant leaves to hide under.

Mine were never aggressive and never attacked any of my fish including baby cories and tetras. The gourami may be a problem as i tried one in my tank once and they tend to nip the butterfly fishs'"feelers".

Hope that helps!

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

I've been considering getting one or two for my 90g but I have lots of small mid-top dwelling fish and I'm pretty sure when it reached full size they would be lunch. These guys are predatory but they mainly stay in the top few inches of the tank so bottom dwellers would probably be safe. The lfs has 4 that will eat frozen food if you put it in a dropper or pair of tweezers and wiggle it just on the top of the water. It's still always fun to feed out live pinhead crickets. I toss some to my other fish occasionally. I've also fed things from my yard(worms and baby grasshoppers especially) but I live in the middle of nowhere on 50 acres of land and we don't spray anything on the yard or fields. In the city I'd be worried about run off from neighbors yards.

Great fish, I have been feeding mine live crickets which they love. Cant seem to catch the daddy long legs, they move pretty fast and it just freaks me out to have to touch them.

I have managed to get mine to eat flake ... must have been hungry, no crickets around at the moment, but I have been told that you can feed them mozzie larvae and chopped up garden worms. Haven't tried to feed those yet.

I have a dwarf neon gourami in the tank and they dont bother each other. As mentioned they do like a bit of surface plants to hide in. A tight fitting lid is a MUST!

I dont know what they'd be like with smaller top dwellers. I would like to get some Halfbeaks but am worried they'd be eaten. Anyone tried that combo?

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Those who say they cant, Never will !!!

Was that feeding them daddy long legs as in long legged spiders or cranefly? It should be noted that cranefly can be a MAJOR carrier of tapeworm, and that feeding them to fish in aquaria is not a good idea.

Hi Longhairedgit, I was referring to the Daddy Long Legs spider found here in OZ.

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Those who say they cant, Never will !!!

Freshwater Butterfly Fish , Pantodon buchholzi. points to note:

[1] As has already been stated above, a tight fitting lid is essential. This is a freshwater flying fish, and one of the most agile jumpers you'll ever encounter. Give it the opportunity and it will prove to you that it is, basically, an Exocet missile with fins. Expect them to be able to fly over six feet in a single jump.

[2] They are predators, and have a pretty capacious mouth, but tend to be interested in things moving at the surface. Prudence dictates that they shouldn't be tempted with juvenile Neons as tankmates, just in case they decide upon a little fish supplement to the diet, but their natural foods in the wild include flies, pond skaters, mosquito larvae, and just about any insect that ends up trapped on the water surface. Wingless fruit flies make a superb food for them. They can be taught - with patience - to accept non living foods, but it's a tedious task converting them.

[3] The long fin rays on the pelvic fins mean that they should not be kept with fin nippers. Avoid Tiger Barbs and other fishes with a bad reputation in this area as companions. However, large specimens might decide to snack on small Tiger Barbs as revenge ...

[4] They can be bred in captivity, but rearing the fry is difficult. The trick is to keep living foods such as baby Brine Shrimp close to the surface where the fry can see them and eat them. One solution I've seen involves suspending a perforated glass or perspex plate in the aquarium so that the fry are living above a 'glass floor' just an inch below the surface. Pop the baby Brine Shrimp above this plate, and they stay close to the surface long enough for the fry to eat them. Then you can start with wingless fruit flies once they've grown a bit!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

thanks for all of the info. someone took the last butterfly fish, so i got 2 golden wonder killies instead.

A word of caution:

Golden wonders get pretty big 5"-6" and will eat any small fish they can get in their mouth.

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

Hrm my golden wonders are shy of 3 inches and have been that size for almost a year now. I know there anual fish so.
On another note I have a butterfly and he eats flake like CRAZY, I have tried giving him live foods but just isnt that intrested because it wants it to come to him which can take a time. He does eat freeze dryed shrimp. I think that I need to try him on crickets again now that he is a bit more comfortable. I love mine and want to get more but they can be hard to find. I was told that they love to eat guppies but I dont know about that nor the nutritional worth of it.

im not sure if golden wonder killies are annual. ive read about theyre breeding habits and theyre not the type of killifish that bury their eggs in the mud and die during dry season. anyway does anyone know of their average lifespan?

i just did some research and they live for 3-4 years