Aquarium Conditioned-Black Pearlscale Butterflyfish

My Aquarium Conditioned-Black Pearlscale Butterflyfish, Chaetodon argentatus.

Size: ~2.5-3+ inches. They will reach up to ~3.5-4.5+ inches with maturity.

The Black Pearlscale Butterflyfish is an absolutely stunning species. These have a beautiful crosshatch or net-like markings throughout their body. This species is native to central Indo-Pacific region from Indonesia and the Philippines.  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 PE Mysis shrimp.

We recommend housing this species singly, paired, or in a group. These do really well paired or in a group. This species is absolutely stunning when displayed and kepts in a school. They are peaceful fish and friendly to keep with our captive bred seahorses. There is a possibility of them nipping at corals, anemones, and small ornamental shrimp, 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. If keeping them in a reef tank you may consider avoiding Acropora and Pocillopora coral species if you do not want to risk them picking at these corals. There is a possibility of them nipping at other corals 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!