Is banner butterflyfish(Heniochus acuminatus) reef safe?

[saltwater84]

I'm interested in this fish and want to get it to put in my reef tank. I asked the lps and they said it is not reef safe, but they don't know what type of corals will it pick on. Here is what I have in my tank.

2 clams
1 yellow star plyop
1 orange zoanthid
1 torch coral
1 sponge
1 bubble coral
1 purple star polyp

 

[aresgod]

how big is the tank, what other inhabitants, etc...?

 

[saltwater84]

my fish tank is 75gals.
-arrow head crab
-lionfish
-mandarin goby
-watchman goby

Don't worry about my lionfish eating my goby, it won't happen soon.

 

[wayne]

No but the arrow crab might give it and the mandarin a bit of a nightime surprise.

Bannerfish are pretty safe, but clams are hit and miss with most anything , even the msot reefsafe of fsih might have a nip

 

[saltwater84]

So Wayne, you don't think that the bannerfish might eat my zaonthids. Every sites I visited said that bannerfish are not reef safe.

 

[wayne]

Which sites? I would assume them to be pretty good as they are largely planktivores, but you know there's always a small chance....

This is a decent starting point... Heniochus

Then go to the heniochus faq's, and look at number 3 in particular - I would agree with everything there - yes they're pretty safe, BUT a 75 tank is the bare minimum in size for these fish.

And if you don't qt this fish you are, frankly , a fool as these are very, very likely to be carrying something. Particularly ich, and internal worms