A Hungry Hungry Copper Band

[firefish2020]

I thought I would feed my CBB tonight and decided to film it. I brought her a nice rock of Aiptasia to munch on between meals. She went for the rock before I got my hands out of the water lol.

Enjoy.

NOTE this is about 5 megs so dial uppers you are warned



http://www.ronedmedia.com/Ronswebstuff/CBB1.wmv

 

[billragan]

Very nice........does it bother any of your coral?

 

[billragan]

Very nice........does it bother any of your coral?

 

[firefish2020]

Nope she only attacks the aipsasia and of course all the feather dusters and tube worms are history but it is well worth it to me.

 

[joyski58]

Great flick. CBBs are soooo cool! Mine also cleaned up ALL aiptasia, and tears up the mysis and krill. He also doesn't bother my coral, but steals krill from the brittle star. I wonder if he'd nip at a clam. I also wonder if he was removed, would the apitasia come back, or do CBBs eat them down to the foot -- or root -- or -- all of it.

 

[firefish2020]

Has not touched my clam yet but Im watching her.

 

[LtPiper]

Hrrrrrmmmmmppph. Mine picked on my frilly and elephant ear mushrooms and didn't touch the aptasia.

 

[firefish2020]

I trained mine first LOL

No fish are like people each one is an individual Chuck don't use it as a rule. Unless it's a Blue hippo those things are evil.

 

[fishmon]

with the swanky music I thought she was gonna strip or somethin. Great film Ron!

 

[firefish2020]

LOL that would require a vast amount of CG work Jim.

 

[jmccown]

Hey Ron, do you have a Blue Hippo you want to get rid of? Seems like I read somewhere else you had one you wanted to part with. He would look just great in my big tank. I've got about 350lbs of live rock in there now, it's really shaping up nicely. I'll post pics soon.

 

[essop3]

I loved the one I had. It just went a hid at feeding time though. They are one of the prettiest fish for the aquarium. I may try another one day.

 

[firefish2020]

She is in the tank at the shop now, so far she has been better than in the 120. I think she just needed more room to play in. Those fish are nice but you have to keep an eye on them as they can eat coral better than most angel fish LOL.

 

[WVfishguy]

I can download the video, but don'y have an application to run it.
I keep Copperbanded Butterflies in eight tanks for Aiptasia control. In my reef tank, I have numerous softies, LPS and a Crocea clam. I've never seen a Copperband nip at corals or the clam, BUT I feed well, and twice a day.
If you have a serous Aipstasia problem in a fish only tank, get a Raccoon butterfly. They'll eat every invert. I even had a pair eat the legs off a Red African spiny starfish(!).
I know I've complained about this before, but could we keep abbreviations down to a minimum in new posts? Any newbie looking for "Copperbanded butterfly" won't get a hit on this thread. All I'm asking is to use the full term in the first post so others can search for the info.

 

[crabfan]

Copperbanded Butterflies for Aiptasia

Copperbanded Butterflies for Aiptasia

Over time my tank developed a terrible Aiptasia problem and I tried a lot of different approaches with no results (joe juice, the correct species of peppermint shrimp, and even berghia nudibranchs).

The copperbanded butterfly has truly worked like a charm. If you have an ever expanding population of aips, then this is your solution.

 

[essop3]

I was scared to try another copperband since the first one didn't like to eat. This one is doing great. (3 months) I had 1 or 2 aiptasia and farmed some more until it started eating better.

 

[Salty Bginners]

That so totally pwns my anti-apatasia formula.

 

[crabfan]

Aips

Aips

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9488888#post9488888 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Salty Bginners
That so totally pwns my anti-apatasia formula.

Maybe not - the copperband isn't without a downside. As Ron mentioned, the copperbands also eat all the tube worms and feather dusters. People still need to experiment with other solutions.

I'm concerned that now that the aips (and tube/fanworms) are gone, and without something to contstantly graze on throughout the day, that the copperband will not get enough to eat. She is such a beautiful fish (and has been healthy since the January 28th swap when I acquired her). Barry warned me that she might be a difficult and delicate fish - but so far so good.

I'd still like to have found a solution that was specifically targeted to the aips. That's why I tried the berghia nudibranchs. I went to a lot of trouble to be successful with that project - doing a lot of before purchase research, setting up a seperate tank with limewood airstones for circulation (so the nudis didn't get shredded in pumps), rotating aip infested rocks in and out for the nudis to "clean". But ultimately, it proved to be a lot of hassle for nothing. For a mild aip problem it might have worked well, but not in my situation of infestation. Even after working with this approach for months, the aips were multiplying faster than I could rotate the rocks.