The African Butterfly Fish (Pantodon buchholzi), also known as the Freshwater Butterfly Fish, is a captivating and unique species that has been a favorite among aquarists since its introduction in 1905. This fish, the sole member of its species or family, originates from various large bodies of water in West Africa, where it thrives in environments with little to no current.
One of the most remarkable features of the African Butterfly Fish is its ability to jump through the air, facilitated by its large, butterfly-like pectoral fins. These fins allow the fish to fan out and maximize surface area, enabling it to stay airborne for longer periods. This guide aims to provide you with all the essential information you need to ensure the health and well-being of your African Butterfly Fish.
A beautiful African Butterfly Fish.
Appearance and Lifespan
The appearance of the Freshwater Butterfly Fish is a key aspect of its uniqueness, remaining largely unchanged for millions of years. This fish has a flat head and back, typically light brown or greenish with a silver sheen, adorned with dark markings on the fins and underside. Its large pectoral fins are widespread, enabling it to glide over short distances.
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.
pantodon aka african butterfly fish getting ready to breed
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The typical lifespan of an African Butterfly Fish is around 5-6 years when given a good diet and proper conditions.
Habitat and Tank Requirements
African Butterfly Fish care is all about providing them with an ideal habitat. These fish like a loosely planted shallow aquarium best, about 6 to 8 inches (15-20 cm) deep. They will swim in the top of the aquarium. One that has more length and width to it rather than depth gives them a large surface area.
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. Freshwater Butterfly Fish need a well-designed environment to feel comfortable. They do like some floating plant cover to lurk under as well. 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. It’s absolutely essential to have some kind of lid to prevent these fish from jumping out.
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Water Parameters
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.
Aquariums should be quiet and without a lot of water movement. 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.
Diet and Feeding
Since they are carnivores, the Butterflyfish, African Butterflyfish, or Freshwater Butterflyfish will eat all types of protein foods. They especially like live insects. 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.
Feed flies, mosquito larvae, small spiders, worms, small fish and large flake food. 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.
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.
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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. 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.
Though the Butterflyfish, African Butterflyfish, or Freshwater Butterflyfish is generally a good community fish, they can be a bit intolerant of other surface swimming fish and have been known to nip fins. They are a predator and will eat small fish.
Choosing Tank Mates
Tankmates should be chosen with care. Though butterflyfish are not efficient fish predators, small fish that venture too close to their mouths will be eaten. Larger tetras and barbs are safe from predation. Small bottom-oriented cichlids, catfish, Ctenopoma species, and mormyrids are also excellent choices.
Also be aware that fin-nippers should be avoided, since they will attack the long, flowing fins of the butterflyfish. The light should be subdued because the butterflies live so close to the surface, so low-light plants of the genera Anubias, Bolbitus, and Cryptocoryne are the most appropriate.
Fish that occupy the surface of the tank aren’t a good idea at all really. Steer clear of any fin-nipping fish too.
Breeding African Butterfly Fish
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.
These fish are rather difficult to breed and peat filtration is recommended. Feed a pair with a large variety of live foods to induce spawning. Once spawning begins, 3 to 7 eggs will be produced at each pass.
Once the breeding process has occurred the floating eggs will be laid. 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.
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. The eggs will float to the surface where you can use a spoon to transfer them to another aquarium. The pairing will continue for some time with a total of 80 to 200 eggs dropped per day.
If the goal is to raise butterflyfish fry, the best method is to remove the parents from the tank when eggs are present.
African Butterfly Fish can be bred in home aquariums with proper care.
Rearing Fry
Rearing the fry is more problematic than getting the eggs to hatch. The fry are difficult to raise as they will only eat foods that float directly in front of their mouths. 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.
Once the fry are ready to be fed you’ll need to start feeding them in order to facilitate proper growth. The eggs will hatch in about 36 hours. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Health and Disease
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.
Don’t forget the impact that general stress can have on the health of your fish.
African Butterfly Fish Sexing
Males and females can be distinguished by their anal fins. While a female’s fin is broad and unbroken, a male’s fin is separated into two distinct sections, with the lower portion being longer than the upper portion. Females also grow larger and heavier than the males. Coloration is highly variable and not a good indicator of sex.
| Feature | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| Anal Fin | Separated into two distinct sections | Broad and unbroken |
| Size | Smaller and slimmer | Larger and heavier |
Key differences between male and female African Butterfly Fish.
Conclusion
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.
