Does anyone have a long finned bannerfish??

I was thinking of adding one to the community, but want some feedback from someone who owns one...reef safe etc...

 

I was gonna buy one this past week. They're not reef safe IME.

 

Hit or miss on reef safe. Also, like most butterflies make SURE that it is eating before you bring it home. They are pretty finicky and fragile to boot. Heartier then copperbands, but still can be tricky to succeed in keeping.

 

I have kept two. As long as they are the diphreutes species, they should be safe for reef tanks. Neither of the one I have kept ever touched a thing. They are fairly delicate though. And they do much better in pairs/groups.
If you try one, make sure to get it from a dealer you fully trust 100%. ID'ing the different species can be somewhat challenging, and if it is not a diphreutes, it will absolutely wreck havoc in a reef.
All in all, if you can be sure of the species, I would say yes, reef safe and wouldn't hesitate to recommend one. MUCH safer than dwarf angels which everyone loves to throw in reefs.

 

Yes I have read that--I think the way to tell the difference is where the black stripe ends at the anal fin. I was aware of the 2 species. How well do they acclimate, and how much crap do the others give the long fin?

 

Thanks for touching back on that..there are indeed multiple species sold as "heniochus butterfly". IIRC the one you are looking for is a wimplefish and is easily identified by a shorter snout then the more destructive version.

EDIT: My experience was hit or miss. I had a single individual, then a trio. One would occasionally nip at corals, but the other two were fairly mild. I did make the newbie mistake of not checking them well enough in the dealer tank, though. The 4th one ended up not accepting ANY food and starved to death.

 

Very well IMHO. And I never had any trouble with anything picking on the fins, but I also have a fairly docile tank.
I lost my first one due to it wanting to school with a tang. Tang eventually got sick of it, sliced its side real good with its spikes, and did it in. The second one I lost due to having a mini-cycle after a tank move.

 

As some people know I work at Petco part time, so I have play money. We got one of these in and I almost pulled the trigger on the first one we had. I get a 20% discount, and I use they're tanks as a QT for a few weeks if no-ne buys them--That way I feed-I watch behavior etc...This fish would only cost me about 17.00 with my discount. I just dont want to upset the harmony of my tank. Everyone is doing so well.

 

I actually got my second one at PetCo, someone was trying to return it and they wouldn't take it back
If you do, get a pair and add them at the same time. They can do alright as one, but it depends on the other fish. The henio will most likely try to school with whatever is the biggest fish in the tank. In the case of my first one, it was a powder brown, which got annoyed and killed the henio. In the second try, it was my mandarin, so no harm came from that. But interestingly, both times, they tried to school with the biggest fish available. Henio's are die-hard schoolers. If you get a pair, they will stick together, and shouldn't annoy the other fish.

 

Cool Pack--i think I will get 2. I also have a PB...Don't want the Ginsu to come out!!!!;D