Raccoon Butterfly fish living with sps's and clams?

Shayn · 04/02/2006, 10:18 AM

Ok I dont have sps's or clams with the racoon yet,but long story short ive been fighting aptasia for about two years, main problem is the tank is 2' wide and 30" deep, add a lot a rock and you have a daunting task.well i keep it checked ,but couldnt ever erradicate it, so my tank leaked dec 1 . And im just geting round to fully seting new system back up,i set rock in 54 gallon rubber made tubs with power-heads and put lids on so little light. And after 4 months the rock looks sweet a few aptasia left, so i made pvc stands with verticle poles and drilled my rock( no more rock slides

). I did kill a few i saw while i was aqua scapeing the lr, and some other softies( had a mixed tank before ,this time sps and clams only), ok after geting the three rock structures in the tank and 120 pounds of sand, i relised there was in fact around 50 ish surviveing aptasia in my view( a lot of them in plases i couldnt effectivly get too, ive tried copperbands before, of the three my first ate aptasia and everthing else like wild fire( let him stay a while moved to 100 gallon system where fish starved to death) second fish never ate anything died in a week. And third just wouldnt eat aptasia( i didnt starve him and make just aptasia available) fish died 3 months after the fact. Tried peperment shrimp, but problem with them is in a 200 gallon system u need so many( and no bio load or lights as aptasia will take off with ether of those lights ( metal halides growem fast or nutrients) So Im ready to restock this system but want to be done with aptasia first! So I bought a raccon butterfly, paid 70 bucks he is about 6 incher( have read bigger and smaller should be avoided) but he was eating big and fat and holding his own with a clown and sohol tang, I by the way have a soho too, so went with it.Ok second day now aptasia all gone, althou fish seems to get back in corner of tank up high a lot of time i watched it 15 minutes after adding to tank go to town on rock work. My real question is is there any way I can resonable exspect to have sucess keeping this fish in a sps /clam tank, or does he have to go to 100 gallon sytem too? Sorry about size of this post, just ive had it with aptasia!

04/02/2006, 10:18 AM	#1
Shayn Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: The Woodlands,Texas Posts: 233	Raccoon Butterfly fish living with sps's and clams? Ok I dont have sps's or clams with the racoon yet,but long story short ive been fighting aptasia for about two years, main problem is the tank is 2' wide and 30" deep, add a lot a rock and you have a daunting task.well i keep it checked ,but couldnt ever erradicate it, so my tank leaked dec 1 . And im just geting round to fully seting new system back up,i set rock in 54 gallon rubber made tubs with power-heads and put lids on so little light. And after 4 months the rock looks sweet a few aptasia left, so i made pvc stands with verticle poles and drilled my rock( no more rock slides ). I did kill a few i saw while i was aqua scapeing the lr, and some other softies( had a mixed tank before ,this time sps and clams only), ok after geting the three rock structures in the tank and 120 pounds of sand, i relised there was in fact around 50 ish surviveing aptasia in my view( a lot of them in plases i couldnt effectivly get too, ive tried copperbands before, of the three my first ate aptasia and everthing else like wild fire( let him stay a while moved to 100 gallon system where fish starved to death) second fish never ate anything died in a week. And third just wouldnt eat aptasia( i didnt starve him and make just aptasia available) fish died 3 months after the fact. Tried peperment shrimp, but problem with them is in a 200 gallon system u need so many( and no bio load or lights as aptasia will take off with ether of those lights ( metal halides growem fast or nutrients) So Im ready to restock this system but want to be done with aptasia first! So I bought a raccon butterfly, paid 70 bucks he is about 6 incher( have read bigger and smaller should be avoided) but he was eating big and fat and holding his own with a clown and sohol tang, I by the way have a soho too, so went with it.Ok second day now aptasia all gone, althou fish seems to get back in corner of tank up high a lot of time i watched it 15 minutes after adding to tank go to town on rock work. My real question is is there any way I can resonable exspect to have sucess keeping this fish in a sps /clam tank, or does he have to go to 100 gallon sytem too? Sorry about size of this post, just ive had it with aptasia!