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The Longnose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus), also known as the Common Longnose Butterfly, is a highly popular and exceptionally vibrant marine fish featuring a bright neon-yellow body contrasted by a stark black-and-white mask over its eyes. It is celebrated for its highly distinct, elongated beak-like snout, which it uses to extract small invertebrates from tiny crevices in the reef, and a small black eyespot on the lower edge of its tail fin to misdirect predators.
Tank Requirements
Minimum Tank Size: 75 to 90 gallons or larger; requires a lengthy aquarium footprint to accommodate its active, inquisitive swimming style and minimize stress.
Aquarium Decor: Plentiful, mature live rock structures arranged to form deep caves, narrow arches, and small fissures where it can continuously forage for food.
Temperature: 72°F – 78°F (22°C – 26°C).
Salinity (Specific Gravity): 1.020 – 1.025.
pH Range: 8.1 – 8.4.
Care and Feeding
Diet: Carnivore; generally easier to feed than the Copperband Butterflyfish but still requires multiple small daily feedings of finely chopped meaty foods like mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, krill, and fresh clam or mussel meat placed into rock crevices.
Reef Safe Rating: Reef safe with caution; it will readily consume tube worms, feather dusters, and small ornamental shrimp, and hungry individuals may occasionally pick at the fleshy polyps of large polyp stony (LPS) corals or clam mantles.
Temperament: Peaceful; it is highly docile toward unrelated community tank mates but can display territorial aggression toward other similarly shaped butterflyfish or its own species unless kept in a large, well-matched male-female pair.
The Longnose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus), also known as the Common Longnose Butterfly, is a highly popular and exceptionally vibrant marine fish featuring a bright neon-yellow body contrasted by a stark black-and-white mask over its eyes. It is celebrated for its highly distinct, elongated beak-like snout, which it uses to extract small invertebrates from tiny crevices in the reef, and a small black eyespot on the lower edge of its tail fin to misdirect predators.
Tank Requirements
Minimum Tank Size: 75 to 90 gallons or larger; requires a lengthy aquarium footprint to accommodate its active, inquisitive swimming style and minimize stress.
Aquarium Decor: Plentiful, mature live rock structures arranged to form deep caves, narrow arches, and small fissures where it can continuously forage for food.
Temperature: 72°F – 78°F (22°C – 26°C).
Salinity (Specific Gravity): 1.020 – 1.025.
pH Range: 8.1 – 8.4.
Care and Feeding
Diet: Carnivore; generally easier to feed than the Copperband Butterflyfish but still requires multiple small daily feedings of finely chopped meaty foods like mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, krill, and fresh clam or mussel meat placed into rock crevices.
Reef Safe Rating: Reef safe with caution; it will readily consume tube worms, feather dusters, and small ornamental shrimp, and hungry individuals may occasionally pick at the fleshy polyps of large polyp stony (LPS) corals or clam mantles.
Temperament: Peaceful; it is highly docile toward unrelated community tank mates but can display territorial aggression toward other similarly shaped butterflyfish or its own species unless kept in a large, well-matched male-female pair.