I am working on trying to spawn the African butterfly fish (Pantodon buccholzi) again. This is one of my favorite oddball fish. Obtaining a good pair has been a challenge. Most of the fish that are imported are half starved to death. Their bodies are very bony, however, so it is not easy to tell if they are thin or not. Feeding them is pretty easy to do, however, unless the fish are so starved that they will not longer eat at all. If wholesalers would do nothing more than toss a handful of small crickets on top of the water the morning after the fish arrive, then we would see a lot healthier butterflies in the stores.
The male in this video I have had for about a year, but the female is a new arrival. This is the first healthy female I have found in a store since getting the male. I have seen lots of males, and a few dying females. The way to determine gender it to look at the anal fin. A male looks like it has two of them, a long one under a short one. A female looks like it has only one anal fin. Mature females are also larger and heavier than males. I condition the pair by feeding them live crickets, about a dozen small crickets in a week. I usually feed them very heavily twice a week. I have not found a limit to the number of crickets they will eat in a meal! Here is a video of them being fed. Enjoy!
A very cool fish that I’ve never kept. Do you think mealworms or adult mealworm beetles would be an ok food for them, Ted?
So long as the food floats, the butterflies will eat it. Even flake and pellet. They are very easy to keep. If the mealworms do not float, you can also hand feed them with forceps.
Thanks Ted. I’ll keep an eye out for a good looking pair. I seem to remember you wrote an article on their spawning… I’ll have to find that too.