African butterfly fish

Quick facts

Adult size

10 cm

Lifespan

can live up to 6 years

Tank zone

top

Temperament

semi-aggressive

Difficulty

intermediate

Typically wild-caught

yes - acclimate slowly

Water parameters

Temperature

24–28°C

pH

6.0 to 7.5

Hardness

1 to 12 dGH

Tank requirements

Minimum volume

120 L

Minimum length

75 cm

Flow

low

Lighting

dim preferred

Substrate

any

Open swimming room

needed

Lid

required - jumper

Feeding

Diet: carnivore, feeds primarily at the top.

Surface feeder with a large upward-facing mouth. Prefers live insects: fruit flies, small crickets, and wingless fruit flies are ideal. Accepts frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp from the surface film. Reluctant to eat sinking food or anything below the top centimeter of water. Can be stubborn about dried food but some individuals learn to take floating pellets over time.

Compatibility

• Sits motionless at the surface with pectoral fins spread like wings, mimicking a dead leaf. Strikes at anything that moves within range on the surface, including small fish
• Will eat any fish small enough to fit in its mouth, including neon tetras and small rasboras. Only keep with fish that don't swim at the surface and are too large to eat
• Jumper. The 'butterfly' name comes from the wing-like pectoral fins which it uses to glide short distances above the water when startled. Tight-fitting lid required
• Virtually zero current. In the wild it lives in still-water swamps with floating vegetation. Filter outflow should not disturb the surface
• Only one living species in its family (Pantodontidae). Another living fossil; the family is at least 100 million years old

Habitat

Native to slow or still water across West Africa, typically near the surface among floating vegetation. The pectoral fins are modified into wing-like structures used for gliding short distances above the water to catch insects. In the aquarium, they spend almost all their time within the top 3–4 cm of the water column. They rarely interact with fish below mid-level. Dim lighting and floating plants are important; they become stressed and pale under bright open lights.

Breeding

Rarely bred in home aquariums. Surface spawners that scatter eggs among floating plants. Eggs hatch in about 7 days. Fry are tiny and need infusoria for the first week, then baby brine shrimp. The main challenge is getting a pair; sexing is difficult, though females tend to have a straighter lower edge to the anal fin.

Common problems

Jumpers. They will find any gap in a lid, no matter how small. A tight-fitting cover with no openings is required. They can also injure themselves on internal filter intakes near the surface. Refusing food is common in the first week after purchase; they sometimes need live food (fruit flies, small crickets) to start eating, then can be weaned onto frozen.

Bioload

Bioload coefficient: 3.0 (moderate for a 10 cm predator; feeds infrequently).

Bioload coefficients are calibrated against the neon tetra as the anchor (1.0). See the methodology page for the formula and how each value was derived.

Further reading

• How to cycle a fish tank
• Stocking ideas by tank size