Big Longnose Butterflyfish

The big longnose butterflyfish is the rarer, deeper-water cousin of the common yellow longnose (Forcipiger flavissimus), turning up in the trade alongside it but at a premium and in far smaller numbers. Its extra-long snout lets it winkle small crustaceans, polychaete tentacles and echinoderm tube feet out of crevices — a specialist diet that makes it genuinely delicate for its first months in captivity, needing a mature, well-established tank and several small feedings a day to get established. It generally leaves stony and soft coral alone, but may nip clam mantles, zoanthids, LPS polyps or ornamental tubeworms, so treat it as reef-caution rather than reef-safe. Best reserved for experienced keepers willing to work at acclimating a wild-caught specialist feeder.