Aquarium Conditioned-Racoon Butterflyfish

Aquarium Conditioned-Racoon Butterflyfish, Chaetodon lunula.

Size: ~2-3+ inches. They will reach up to ~4-6+ inches with maturity.

Please see unique care information for this species below:

Racoon Butterflyfish are a unique butterflyfish species and out of the species we offer reaches large size. This species is bright yellow in coloration with a white and black face mask.  This species native to the Indo-pacific reefs. In their natural environment they are often seen singly or in schools. This is a good first butterflyfish as they are a more hardy species. We are feeding them a variety of prepared foods including frozen Mysis shrimp, LRS frozen nano blend, TDO XS pellets and a variety of other prepared foods at our farm. We recommend feeding them often such as 2-3+ times daily. They love Hikari BioPure and PE Mysis shrimp.

We recommend housing this species singly or paired. These do really well paired. They are peaceful fish and friendly to keep with our captive bred seahorses. There is a possibility of them nipping at corals and possibly very small invertebrates especially when underfed. Keeping them well fed tends to reduce this risk and they are often fine with corals in the aquarium. Anemones are not seahorse safe anyways so no concerns there if keeping them in your seahorse aquarium. Of course, keep an eye on them. These are also great in larger seahorse aquariums with all artificial hitching posts or FOWLR aquariums. We recommend a 75 gallon or larger aquarium size for this species. They like swimming space and having lots of branch rockwork.

Butterflyfish can be great seahorse tank mates in larger seahorse aquariums. They like to be fed often and a lot like seahorses. They are peaceful fish and also extremely beautiful. While some are a bit larger fish, they are generally docile feeders and they are not going to easily outcompete your seahorses during feeding time.

These fish have a lot of personality and can make for a fun and unique tank mates in your seahorse aquarium, FOWLR aquarium and even some mixed reef tanks. There is a possibility of them nipping at some coral species but this is pretty unlikely in our experience. Many of these species like to explore the aquarium with their mouth and they may take an occasional nip at a coral but this is unlikely to be harmful to corals in many instances.

Our Aquarium Conditioned fish are quarantined and observed at our aquaculture facility before offered for sale. We prophylactically deworm all our fish as well as run an anti-parasitic treatment on all of our fish.  

Give us a call 410-618-3604 or send us an email: alyssa@seahorsesavvy.com if you have any questions. We are happy to help!