Rainfordi Butterfly

Introducing my latest near impossible undertaking. The rainfordi butterfly. I hear nothing but terrible things about these fish. From what I hear they are harder than a copper band which I already failed at. I just couldn't pass this poor fish up. It was taken from the ocean which it shouldn't have been and to top it off it got sent to someone by mistake who does not want to try taking in this fish. So I decided I would do my best to save this rare fish. A couple of frags later and I had its bag in hand.

At this point Im trying a lot of things to stimulate feeding. Heres whats been on the menu so far:

Yellow polyps
GSP
Small purple polyps
fresh clam in shell
frozen angle and butterfly diet spread accross rocks
frozen mysis
frozen brine
frozen blood worms
frozen cyclops

Im currently bubbling some brine shrimp eggs so I will have live brine for it this weekend at the latest.

So far it is eating yellow polyps, some of the fresh clam and feather dusters in the tank.

Any suggestions are welcome

 

Well, I have no experience with the rainfordi, but I have been pretty succesful with my butterfly, who has been with me for a little while now. Here is some other food to try that mine likes:
Tubifex worms
Fresh Scallops
Fresh Mussle
Fresh Shrimp
Banana (dont ask)

One thing that really helped my butterfly to get eating was the way I presented the food. You can drill a few small holes in a rock, and put the food in the holes. Use a different food per hole to keep track of what it likes. This makes for a much more natural feeding/grazing situation, and can really help get them going.
Beautiful fish, I wish you the best of luck!

 

wht size tank is it in. just wondering

 

well actulay i pulled out my special book on butterfly fish and it says it has a greater chance of survival if placed in a tanked filled with lush filamentous algae growth and individuals (under 3.9 inch) are more ready to acclimate than larger fish and is more likely to feed in groups. thats all da info it says on the fish and gives nothing on feeding.

 

Mysis shrimp with garlic, also have you tried the purple nori?

 

Its been a long trip with this fish and Im happy to report that it started eating frozen this morning. Thank you for the suggestions I've only tried green algae so far. Ill try some purple and see how that works.

Its living in 20 gallons of solitude right now.

 

best of luck mike. full marks on trying everything possible to keep the fish healthy and alive. it wont be through lack of effort.

 

I would try lacing some of the food with garlic, thats always helped my picky eaters!