The African Butterfly Fish (Pantodon buchholzi) is a freshwater species that has been around for quite some time. The African Butterfly Fish, also known as the Freshwater Butterfly Fish, catches the eye with its unique look, making it a favorite among aquarists. But for some reason, there seems to be a bit of misinformation floating around online when it comes to these fish. That’s where this guide comes in.
Author Note: People commonly confuse this species with saltwater butterflyfishes.
This fish comes from various large bodies of water in West Africa. They’re usually found in water with either no current or very little.
One of the most interesting things about the African Butterfly Fish is their ability to jump through the air. This is made possible by their large pectoral fins that resemble butterfly wings. When they’re in the air they’ll fan these out to get as much surface area as possible so they can stay airborne longer.
The typical lifespan of an African Butterfly Fish is around 5-6 years when given a good diet and proper conditions.
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Appearance
The appearance of the Freshwater Butterfly Fish is a big part of what makes it so unique. Like we said earlier, the design of this fish has mostly been unchanged for millions of years. Everything about this fish is geared toward their ability to hunt and thrive at the surface. Their mouth is positioned at an upward angle too.
The African Butterfly Fish has a series of large fanlike fins that typically point away from the surface so they don’t scare away prey. Their dorsal and anal fins are average in size, but their caudal fin is rather large. The ventral fins on this fish are quite interesting.
African Butterfly Fish are usually brown or grey and have some very small dots that cover the lighter parts of their body. The average African Butterfly Fish size is about 5 inches in length.
Author Note: We know a few aquarists who’ve had their Freshwater Butterfly Fish exceed the average length by about an inch.
African Butterfly Fish Care Guide | Exotic Surface Predator for Freshwater Aquariums
Tank Setup
African Butterfly Fish care is all about providing them with an ideal habitat. The minimum recommended tank size for an African Butterfly Fish is 40 gallons. It’s very important to get a long tank instead of a tall one.
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Maintaining the proper water parameters is one of the most important aspects of African Butterfly Fish care. Since this species can be very sensitive to the parameters in their tank, it’s important to monitor these levels closely. Instead, have a schedule and test these parameters consistently.
Freshwater Butterfly Fish need a well-designed environment to feel comfortable. Plants are a very important piece of the puzzle when it comes to their habitat. Some floating aquarium plants are a good choice for this. Make sure you don’t go overboard with plants though.
Plants will also do a good job of keeping things a bit on the dimmer side. Since they don’t visit the bottom very often you can be a lot less picky when it comes to their substrate. When it comes to additional items like rocks, caves, and driftwood there’s really not much to consider as well.
It’s important to make sure you don’t have a current in their tank as well. Find filtration and pumps that allow you to run what you need without stirring up the water.
Author Note: It’s absolutely essential to have some kind of lid to prevent these fish from jumping out.
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Water Parameters
Wide ranges of water conditions are tolerated so long as the water is not very hard and basic. Soft, slightly acidic water is better for spawning and rearing fry, but moderately hard water with a pH in the 7.0 to 7.8 range is acceptable to keep butterflies happy and healthy.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Temperature | 75-86°F (24-30°C) |
| pH | 6.0-7.5 |
| Hardness | 2-12 dGH |
Potential Diseases
There aren’t any particular diseases that impact this species specifically. Various infections, skin flukes, and parasites are all things to look out for. Where you need to be especially careful is with the water quality and parameters of the tank.
Fortunately, this means you have a lot of control over their likelihood of getting a freshwater disease.
Author Note: Don’t forget the impact that general stress can have on the health of your fish.
Feeding & Diet
The ideal African Butterfly Fish diet should be geared around their nature as a predator. You can’t rely on flakes and pellets like you can with other species. It’s quite common for these fish to refuse this kind of food.
This means you need to feed them a lot of meaty live food. The best feeding schedule for African Butterfly Fish is 2-4 times a day. We prefer to aim for the higher end of that range because it provides them with extra stimulation and mimics their natural eating pattern.
In the aquarium, the fish will learn to eat a wide variety of floating foods such as sticks and pellets, so long as the food is substantially large enough attract their attention. The best food, especially for conditioning the fish to spawn, is live crickets.
The normally sedate butterflyfish can sense the movement of a cricket on the surface of the water from across a large aquarium and quickly hunt it down.
Behavior and Temperament
When it comes to behavior, African Butterfly Fish are interesting. But when it comes to feeding time, things change. They’ll scarf down their target and dart away to eat.
Author Note: This is one of the advantages of feeding them a few times each day.
As far as their temperament is concerned, this species definitely has the potential to be aggressive. They might also eat smaller fish in your tank if you pair them with a tank mate that isn’t compatible. These fish are predators (as we’ve mentioned throughout this care guide).
Fish that occupy the surface of the tank aren’t a good idea at all really.
Author Note: Steer clear of any fin-nipping fish too.
Breeding
Despite what you may have heard, it’s entirely possible to breed African Butterfly Fish in a home aquarium. You’ll want to make sure you have a tank with a lot of surface area and some floating plants in the mix as well.
Assuming their habitat is all set up, the next thing to think about is water temperature. Once the breeding process has occurred the floating eggs will be laid. It’s important to remove these eggs and bring them to a separate tank so the parents don’t eat them. This is a problem in captivity.
Once the fry are ready to be fed you’ll need to start feeding them in order to facilitate proper growth.
Inducing healthy butterflyfish to spawn is not difficult. The usual trigger is a cool water change. The opaque white eggs, which immediately rise to the water surface, are laid in floating plants. They turn dark after 24 hours and will start to sink.
The large eggs take about seven days to hatch. There is no parental care for the fry, and the parents are likely to eat them. If the goal is to raise butterflyfish fry, the best method is to remove the parents from the tank when eggs are present.
Rearing Fry
Rearing the fry is more problematic than getting the eggs to hatch. The baby butterflies are not very mobile and are not very good at hunting food. Newly free-swimming fry resemble their parents only in color.
Their fins are not well developed at all, and they appear similar to skinny frog tadpoles. The only clearly distinguishable features are the eyes, which are large and clear from the start. After the fry hatch, they rise up into the floating plants and take up a position in which they will wait for food to come to them.
They will only eat live food that comes within striking range, and they may not even strike the food unless it touches them on the face.
The most challenging part of raising the babies is getting them enough food. They are too small to take insects like wingless fruit flies or pinhead crickets at first, and any food that drops below them will not be eaten.
Baby brine shrimp Artemia nauplii is an excellent first food, but they will not live a long time in fresh water. Daphnia or Moina (similar to Daphnia but smaller) are better choices because they will not die, but the trick is to keep the food in front of the fish for as long as possible.
The best way to accomplish that is to drop the water level to the point where the floating plants are resting on the bottom. A ½-inch-deep water level is not too shallow. With the water level that low, the live food cannot swim below the fry.
A dense cover of floating plants also traps the live food in small spaces with the fry, allowing the fish to easily find the food. If brine shrimp is used, the water will have to be changed frequently, which is best accomplished by adding aged water to the tank, letting it sit for a few minutes to mix, and then lowering the water back down to the shallow level.
The fry will grow quickly once they can easily find food. The next challenge is to keep them from eating each other. It is not uncommon to get 100 or more fry from a single spawn, and the close contact with siblings increases the opportunities for cannibalism.
The fish will strike instinctively at anything smaller than they are that bumps into them. Larger fry will not hesitate to eat a smaller sibling, which will make the eater grow much faster and more capable of eating more siblings. The result will be a group of 100 fry being whittled down to just a few.
This process is very natural, however, so unless the goal is to end up with many butterflyfish, the cannibalism is actually a good way to end up with a few larger, healthy juveniles. The only way to reduce sibling predation is to reduce the density of the population.
When the fry are about a week old, they can be separated safely into other tanks with fewer fish per tank. They will still eat each other, but the lower density results in fewer incidents of cannibalism.
Caring for Juveniles
The fry will start to grow their distinctive pectoral fins at about two weeks of age. They will now be a little over ½ inch long and able to eat larger food items. Wingless fruit flies and pinhead crickets are excellent for this stage.
Daphnia and baby brine shrimp can still be fed so long as the water remains shallow. When the fry are about six weeks old and over an inch long, they will start to eat small floating pellets and freeze-dried foods.
This may take some training by feeding pinhead crickets or fruit flies along with the pellets. As the fish aggressively feed on the live food, they will also take some pellets and learn that it is food.
A 12-week-old juvenile looks and behaves like a miniature adult. The risk of cannibalism is greatly reduced after this point, but putting them in with adults is probably not a wise thing to do. After a few months the young adults can be put into community tanks to grow and prosper.
P. buchholzi is slow to mature, and it is unlikely that the new generation will try to breed until they are a year or more old.
African Butterfly Fish care is rewarding on so many levels. Despite the fact that they’re not as beginner-friendly as some other freshwater species, we think that just adds to the fun.
If you have any stories about your Freshwater Butterfly Fish that you’d like us to include in our guide feel free to send them our way!
