copper banded butterfly

[ryansreef_26]

i just added a copper banded to my 150 gallon tank i cant get him to eat ive tried just about everything. ive read that they have a strict diet and usually just eat critters out of the rocks? what can i try to get him to eat the food i provide which are formula 1, frozen brine shrimp, pruple sea weed, and marine garlic flakes.

 

[Neoz]

When you say you just added him? You mean like today? If so he might take a few days to start eating. Did you see him eat before you bought him? What other fish are in the tank with him?

FWIW mine eat at the store before hand. Upon bringing him home it took a while for him to get settled in. But once he did he feasts very well now.

 

[capnfritz]

Mine very seldom eats any prepared stuff, he lives of the bugs in my rocks.
And aptasia.
Give him a few days.

 

[falconut]

Mine loves live blackworms. I'd try them. I feed mine frozen mysis & plankton with the live blackworms.

 

[returnofsid]

It's best to research a purchase before making the purchase, to make sure you're able to meet the animal's specific needs. Copper Banded Butterfly fish are notorious for NOT eating any foods we offer them. Sometimes, you're able to find ones that will. For instance, I have a CBB that eats frozen food, but is very picky about what it eats. I've had lots of success with frozen Rods Food. ALSO, before purchasing it, I made sure to see it eat frozen food at the LFS.

 

[ryansreef_26]

no i bought him last monday n hes still not eating. he is in a well established 150 half circle aquarium loaded with corals. i have seen him eating the critters in the rocks but i think he needs more nutrition than that ive also been adding kent marines vitamin c

 

[Rockpile]

Mine did not eat anything for about 2 weeks but seemed to do fine living off life on the rocks in an established tank. Finally got him to eat PE mysis. He goes nuts for it now. It's worth a try.

 

[huig]

cbb are very slow and need good acclimatisation before adding them to a tank.
I always added them first to my tanks.
Believing they will just eat from the rocks and thrive is wrong. They need dedicated feedings at least 3 times/day. I feed mine up to 12 times daily.
you can target feed them letting them eat out off your hands or make a feeding tube (just a capped tube with a hole in it)

Mine eat 3 different kinds of clam, muscles, nightcrawlers (yes you read it right) mysis, prawn, squid, octopus and brine shrimp

If your fish don' t look like my male here feed more! and try different things

 

[sbin]

Mine CB eats mysis like a pig and will eat shrimp, clam, mussels agressively holding its own with tangs, angel and clowns

 

[jimroth]

If it's a well established 150G tank it's entirely possible that the CBB is not eating because it is busy eating the population of food items from the liverock. Some things (like fanworms) are much preferred by CBBs over anything we could offer. Give it a few days.
+1 on seeing it eat in the store before you buy it.
+1 also on PE Mysis and live blackworms.

 

[ryansreef_26]

thanks, im going to keep trying to feed him different things, hopefully he'll eat them.

 

[sbin]

Give it a while to get used to its new home.Mine took a while to get used to the tank and spends all day picking at the rock work but loves to eat meaty seafood.Still not interested in pellet or flake food.

 

[wooden_reefer]

CBB varies a lot.

Those that feed frozen food can really gorge down food.

Some starve to death.

 

[tylorarm]

Mine will only eat live bloodworms and clams on the half shell. Might try the nightcrawler thing though, hadn't thought about that. Mine has no interest in hikari nor PE mysis, unfortunately

 

[NeonFish]

Mine hunts for about 3 hours after during the actinic cycle. It does like frozen brine shrimp. I'm having trouble getting it to eat other things. It doesn't like the mysis shrimp.

 

[preef]

I bought one a week ago. I saw him eat brine at the store. At home my Yellow Tang bullied him into a corner that he stayed in almost all of the time. Since he was there and didn't move much I would fill a turkey baster with brine and slowly bring it to him. I'd slowly start squirting out the pieces one by one and he would go after them. The problem is that it didn't take long for the other fish to catch on so I had to dump food in the other side of the tank first.

He wouldn't eat mysis at first but after a couple days he started taking it. He then started taking Rod's out of the water column. He also likes shredded grocery store shrimp. After a week he is eating like a pig and will even eat from a big piece of shrimp I hold in my hand.

It sounds like I got lucky. But I think it is worth trying the turkey baster and slowly squirt brine at him. Since they normally eat worms in the wild you can try filling a mesh bag with some blood worms and weight it down on your sand bed to see if he'll eat through the mesh.

 

[gjk]

Mine eats live and frozen blackworms, PE Mysis, brine, and recently, Rods. The live black worms brought him around from slow starvation and he is very healthy. The worms are not a great deal of trouble and encouraged by PaulB, a member here on RC, I now freeze them and the CBB eats them right up. Are you using garlic to get him started?

 

[Riteoff]

mine didnt eat for 3 days then went crazy eating off the rocks. 1 week later it was gone without a trace.

 

[ryansreef_26]

hes still not eating n just swimming across my glass only he wont even go to the reef. hes been in the tank for 1 week and 2 days now n i also have a powder brown tang medium size that picked on him for the first 3 days only but my cbb still wont swim around the reef idk whats up with this one.

 

[jimmyj7090]

They are much more delicate than a lot of people understand. Just because you don't still see overt aggression from the tang, it is quite likely still being intimidated and stressed out by the tang.

Also, I highly doubt that the CBB is satiated from picking at the rocks. Many many of them come in super stressed, thin, and not eating much. If it looks thin at all, I would assume that it needs more than it's getting. It might get a little expensive, but fresh cracked little neck clams might work to fatten it up and keep it from starving. I nursed a CBB for about a year on little necks, then one day it decided to take frozen mysis and never looked back. Kind of drastic, but a LOT of these fish starve....