Dr. Burgess Gets a Butterfly

Chaetodon burgessi is one of the hobby's best Butterflyfish. Usually, we just call it the Burgess Butterfly, for its namesake. The fish geekiest among us will recognize that name because they've seen it on their bookcase; Dr. Warren Burgess co-wrote the famous book “Dr Burgess’s Atlas of Marine Aquarium Fishes.” This is an appropriate name for one of the hardiest and easiest Butterflyfish to keep in captivity. Sometimes you'll find C. burgessi in Local Fish Stores labeled as Black Barred Butterfly, the reason for which is quite obvious from the attached photos.

Generally, C. burgessi is pretty easy to identify. It's pretty small with the biggest adults rarely breaching five inches long. Most of them have white bodies with black bars. That being said, it is part of a small group (sub-genus) called Roaops. These fish are all similarly shaped, and they all feature a colored bar through their eye, and universally these bars are either black or gold. We bring up the rest of the Roaops fish because (as of the writing of this article) this group might be a mess. Where these species' ranges overlap, they can and do hybridize. Further confusing this identification is that Burgess butterflies have regional variants (possibly because of the penchant for interbreeding) and so depending on where your Chaetodon burgessi was collected, it might have a yellow eye band, and even a yellow eye, or yellow fringed dorsal fins. Other variations might have a pale-yellow body instead of the usual white. In the end, there are frequently hybrids available to the home aquarist, and sometimes these are actual hybrids, and sometimes these are regional variants (that may or may not contain the DNA of two distinct parent species), but in the end, if you got a gorgeous and unique fish, how much does it matter what you call it?

Their small adult size means you can keep a couple in a tank as small as 75 gallons, and you could keep as many as you wanted together, but obviously, you'd need a bigger tank. This tank should have a good mix of rock and open swimming space, with plenty of places to hide and swim through. They're not picky about needing a substrate, and flow should be moderate to high, depending on what else you house in the tank. You'll often see internet advice saying this fish should be housed in a dimly lit tank, because they are always collected from fairly deep water (200-300+ feet), and you can keep them in the dark, but you don't need to. They'll be just fine in bright tanks but should be acclimated to this condition slowly.

Filtration should be strong but needn't step into overkill range as Burgess Butterflies aren't overly sensitive, and the quality parameters you're shooting for aren't overly onerous. Keep nitrates under 10ppm. Specific Gravity should sit stably between 1.020 and 1.026, with a pH between 7.8 and 8.4, but shouldn't move more than .4 in a 24-hour period. They'll be perfectly at home in a display that is anywhere between the mid 60s and the high 70's Fahrenheit as long as they are acclimated to this temperature over an hour or two.

Burgess Butterflies are among the easiest of Butterflies to feed. They generally segue over to thawed foods and later pellet foods without hiccup. They like to graze and so you can utilize the Nutramar Algae & Color Boost Shots stuck to the rocks or glass to give them a natural feeding behavior. They also eat suspended food, and in house we mimic this with Gamma's Mysis, Mini-Bloodworm, Chopped Prawn and Chopped Mussel. You could also feed them the full assortment of Gamma Brine but should lean on the enhanced versions like Brine plus Spirulina or plus Omega to get them a more rounded nutritional profile. Here we feed them at least twice a day, and we suggest you do the same or more.

The Burgess Butterfly is a shy fish, and ideally, you'd keep at least two of them together, but they'd also be fine with more. They'll do well with other timid fish and are a good choice for things like Fairy Wrasses, Cardinals, Anthias, Gobies of many sorts, and Halichoeres, Macropharyngodon and Pseudojuloides Wrasses. They're also fine with other Butterflies. But wait, there's more good news: They'll eat aiptasia anemones, but the downside of this grazing behavior is that they're high risk with LPS Corals, Tube Worms, and Clams. We've seen varying reports around about whether or not they are safe to keep with SPS corals, and we don't recommend it. They will generally ignore soft corals like Xenia, Mushrooms, Colts, etc, but there is always an exception to the rule. If you're going to add them to coral heavy displays, do so with a big dose of caution and some common sense.

Regardless of the exact appearance of the Burgess Butterfly you have, they are spectacular aquarium fish and seriously underrated. They're hardy and peaceful, stay reasonably sized, are gorgeous and will even eat your aiptasia! They're just about the perfect aquarium fish as long as you don't have an aquarium with bully fish or inverts that are on the menu. If this sounds like your display and your type of fish, head over to your LFS and ask them to get you a couple Burgess Butterflies from Quality Marine today (and maybe ask if we've got any hybrids or interesting color variants right now because... we do.)