Copperband Butterfly Fish

C

ClownFishGuy6

Member
Hey guys! I have had thus fish for about 2 days and was just wondering what does the copperband butterfly fish eat. I have read it eats black worms, aptasia and brine shrimp. I read that it eats all small worms and frozen small brine shrimp. I fed it frozen brine shrimp, it didn't eat it. I have aptasia in the tank and it is not eating it. I am trying to get black worms but they are hard to find in any store local.

Can anyone recommend how to feed this fish?

I am hatching brine shrimp eggs right now to see if it will eat small live brine shrimp. Hopefully it will work... But I have read everywhere that it cleans up aptasia anemones and its not eating the ones in my tank. I did not buy this tank to eat them purposefully but I thought it was good fish because it will have a good amount of food in case it doesn't eat but it is not eating that. I am confused. Someone pleas help!
 
Just watch it for a few days. If you have Aptasia i bet its eating them and you have not noticed yet.. They take a few days or so to get used to your tank...
Did you QT The fish ?

Mine grazes around constantly picking Pods Bristle worms and so on off the rock work .. Its one of my Fav fish .
 
Them eating Aptasia is hit and miss, The one I had would eat Mysis, clam strips, flakes, pellets, basically what ever I fed the rest he would eat, He also picked at the rock and sand all day eating bugs...
 
ericarenee said:
Just watch it for a few days. If you have Aptasia i bet its eating them and you have not noticed yet.. They take a few days or so to get used to your tank...
Did you QT The fish ?

Mine grazes around constantly picking Pods Bristle worms and so on off the rock work .. Its one of my Fav fish .
Click to expand...

No I didn't quarantine this time.
 
was he eating in the store?

mine pretty much exclusively eats myses and live white/black worms. i've had a devil of a time getting him to take other things. he will sometimes eat other frozen, but not much.

my rule with these guys is that if i don't see them eat at the store, i don't take them home.
 
Mine only eats live black worms and clams. He will eat some nori if it has been soaked in selcon. It won't touch mysis or brine shrimp. It did eat aiptasia when I first got him, but now he won't touch the stuff. :headwally:
 
I've gone trough a couple of copperbands. The most common reason for a copperband to stop eating is, in my experience, stress. Most of them must feel really comfortable before they start to eat. However when they are established in a tank, they might open up for different types of food. They might also stop feeding if you change your reefscape or move it to another tank.

When adding a copperband to an established community it's important to give the fish time with the food, alone. Copperbands generally don't do well with among more aggressive feeders such as tangs, angels or larger clownfish. They will shrug back to avoid the commotion, until they feel comfortable with the environment.

The best method to feed a copperband, aside from growing small tube worms in a separate aquarium, is to pick up some fresh clams. Put them in the freezer overnight and then bring one out, defrost it and thoroughly clean the shell. Use a knife to open it and gently cut it open, but not all the way. Leave about 1/4" opening in the clam and strap it to something heavy and reef safe (maybe a piece of live rock) and drop it into the aquarium. Yes, the other fish will go nuts and try to eat the clam, and they might get a snack out of it, but when they can't reach inside long enough to eat the meat, they'll leave it alone. The only fish that can reach the food is the copperband with its long nose.

I have never had a copperband that didn't eat using this method.

Good luck!
//N
 
NilsRenstrom said:
I've gone trough a couple of copperbands. The most common reason for a copperband to stop eating is, in my experience, stress. Most of them must feel really comfortable before they start to eat. However when they are established in a tank, they might open up for different types of food. They might also stop feeding if you change your reefscape or move it to another tank.

When adding a copperband to an established community it's important to give the fish time with the food, alone. Copperbands generally don't do well with among more aggressive feeders such as tangs, angels or larger clownfish. They will shrug back to avoid the commotion, until they feel comfortable with the environment.

The best method to feed a copperband, aside from growing small tube worms in a separate aquarium, is to pick up some fresh clams. Put them in the freezer overnight and then bring one out, defrost it and thoroughly clean the shell. Use a knife to open it and gently cut it open, but not all the way. Leave about 1/4" opening in the clam and strap it to something heavy and reef safe (maybe a piece of live rock) and drop it into the aquarium. Yes, the other fish will go nuts and try to eat the clam, and they might get a snack out of it, but when they can't reach inside long enough to eat the meat, they'll leave it alone. The only fish that can reach the food is the copperband with its long nose.

I have never had a copperband that didn't eat using this method.

Good luck!
//N
Click to expand...
What a great idea. I will have to try that next time.
 
mondobongo said:
was he eating in the store?

Mine pretty much exclusively eats myses and live white/black worms. I've had a devil of a time getting him to take other things. He will sometimes eat other frozen, but not much.

My rule with these guys is that if i don't see them eat at the store, i don't take them home.
Click to expand...


+1
i have this guy 2 yr now. the first 18 months never comes out to eat! but keep my aiptasia in check. then somehow it started to eats mysis when i bought in the new Anthius 6 months ago!
 
Mine eats black worms, mysis, bs, LRS, pretty much any frozen food I feed the tank but goes crazy for black worms. I didn't think he was eating aptasia at first but after a little over a month in the DT I don't notice any aptasia anymore.
I saw were somebody took a piece of PVC and capped the ends and drilled holes along the body, put food in it so the CBB could eat through the drilled holes without the other fish getting to it.
 
This is my favorite fish in my tank. I've had two. The first one hardly ate anything and second one is a pig. It eats everything except flake food. The best advice I can give to to go online and find a vendor that sells a very large range of frozen food. I got a ton of variety including clams, muscles, and other more traditional items like brine and mysid. I now what he likes but he'll pick at most anything.

A second concern is how to keep them well fed after you find something he likes. This fish are pigs and eat constantly or slowly wither away. Mine is at the font of the glass all day and follows me around looking for food. I swear he is insatiable. I bought a frozen cube feeder that you put the food into and it slowly thaws and dispenses into the tank. This way I can put in a couple of cubes while I'm at work for him to slowly nibble on. They really need to be fed constantly and not just in bulk once a day. Also I had tube worms throughout my whole display and he cleared all of those in about a month. So now he really needs this slow consistent cube feeder or he goes nuts.

Such a great fish though. It's definitely my favorite fish I've ever had in over 30 years. Easily.

FB
 
Fishbulb2 said:
This is my favorite fish in my tank. I've had two. The first one hardly ate anything and second one is a pig. It eats everything except flake food. The best advice I can give to to go online and find a vendor that sells a very large range of frozen food. I got a ton of variety including clams, muscles, and other more traditional items like brine and mysid. I now what he likes but he'll pick at most anything.

A second concern is how to keep them well fed after you find something he likes. This fish are pigs and eat constantly or slowly wither away. Mine is at the font of the glass all day and follows me around looking for food. I swear he is insatiable. I bought a frozen cube feeder that you put the food into and it slowly thaws and dispenses into the tank. This way I can put in a couple of cubes while I'm at work for him to slowly nibble on. They really need to be fed constantly and not just in bulk once a day. Also I had tube worms throughout my whole display and he cleared all of those in about a month. So now he really needs this slow consistent cube feeder or he goes nuts.

Such a great fish though. It's definitely my favorite fish I've ever had in over 30 years. Easily.

FB
Click to expand...


Which frozen cube feeder do you use?
 
Just the innovative marine one. It's nice. Nothing fancy but it just require the cube to thaw before the fish can attack it. Some cubes thaw in minutes, other take hours.
 
Took me 4 tries to get one to survive. I've tried live brine, live shellfish, frozen everything.
Seems hit or miss to me.
Never actually saw mine eat aiptasia. Just noticed over time they were gone. Moved her to another tank with an aiptasia issue. For now she is picking at all the goodies in the roc work. We will see if the aiptasia decline over time.
 
Copperbands are worm eaters in the wild. The best food to get them to eat is live blackworms. I usually buy mine in bulk online and store them in the fridge. They'll last a month or so if you change out the worms' water daily. I recommend the worm-keepers that most online places sell. You'll likely want 2-3 depending on how many worms you order. Yes, the worm keepers are worth it. Do a web search for "live blackworms" and you'll see the usual places.

IME, if they won't eat live blackworms they won't eat anything. I have found that I get a better feed response with PE mysis over other brands. The PE mysis tend to be larger and meatier.

+1 to the above that it can be difficult to see CBB's eating aptasia. You'll likely just notice in a few weeks that there are fewer than there used to be.

I haven't tried the pvc pipe with holes drilled in it yet, but I will. My CBB was always slow on eating and would get out-competed by my tangs. I haven't tried the clam trick above but will do that too.
 
I got super lucky. My CBB ate mysis from the get go and has been fat and happy since. I feed frozen daily.


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