Reef Safe Butterflies

[xRage10]

Ok, I want to get the general consensus from some of you all on butterflies and whether they are, in fact, reef safe.

My LFS tells me that no butterfly fish are reef safe and that I shouldn't attempt to keep them in a reef. On the other hand, I've been told by a buddy or two, and also seen online by some people, that some butterflies (specifically with long noses) such as the Yellow Longnose and the Copperband generally are reef safe.

Thus, my question is, is there any butterfly that is generally safe, not necessarily for inverts, but for most corals? That's all I'm really worried about, and I just didn't find the reef safe topic covering butterflies all too well.

 

[Kevin8888]

Here is a short list of ones I have read/seen as reef "safe" use at your own risk, as every fish is different.

Schooling Bannerfish (Heniochus diphreutes), are supposed to be 100% reef safe as they are planktinovours, though I assume if you don't meet their needs they will nip (like most fish).
Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus), I have seen people with these in a reef tank, (no sps, just lps/softies) and they said they never had any problems.
Copperband Butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus), can be safe.... but can nip at anemones, tube worms, feather dusters, and inverts (like shrimp and clam mantles).

SO, in conclusion, these are the only ones off the top of my head, that I personally would be willing to attempt to keep in a reef (I personally plan to try to have a small school of Yellow longnose in my 1000gal when its built), but at the same time, I would only recomend adding them to a system with no sponges, or decorative shrimp (except maybe skunk cleaners), and with healthy large coral colonies. As if the butterflies do nip a large healthy collony occationally you probably wont have any problems, but a small collony, frag, or sick coral, could easially be killed off by even a little nipping. Again, no guarentees, attempt at your own risk.

 

[xRage10]

I do ask this because I've been contemplating attempting to keep a Yellow Longnose, but I've resisted the urge so far. I do have a temporary home he could stay in if he starts nipping at corals too often, but I'd have to find him a permanent home if it doesn't work out. My "reef" currently isn't anything more than about two frags of about 20 polyps each (nuclear green and purple death) and a couple heads of frogspawn so I haven't invested too much into corals yet and figured, if he does eat them, it wouldn't be too big of a hit on my wallet (only spent about $40 on the polyps and frogspawn). Thus, if he does end up eating most/all of the coral, I could even possibly consider keeping a FOWLR tank for a while and keep him in there. Still not sure though, and that's simply why I haven't bought it yet.