copperband butterfly - last fish in reef

[Rockagibralter]

Today I dumped a cbb into my 125 to complete my reef... I tried a couple of these early on (9 years ago) and had no luck... I would never want one again, however, I brought aptasia home and it has quietly spread... My 125 has been running for a year, however the first fish were added a month ago (dragonets), which have been happily eating pods. I have about 8 assorted small damsels, fairy wrasse, clown & purple tang. That I added last saturday... How do we think a purple tang that has been in this tank for under a week is going to react to a medium cbb, which happens to be about the same size as the tang? After I put the cbb in, I covered the tank with a blanket leaving the lights off and making it black. It's my hopes the cbb will aclimate, strengthen up after his long live aquaria journey and begin eating... I will uncover the tank tomorrow, giving him 24 hours to adjust... Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I don't like it when fish die!

RC

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Please ask questions before taking actions as you have a couple of potential problems here.

You should quarantine all of your fish before putting them in the dt, and particularly sensitive fish like the cbb and ich-prone fish like the tang. In addition to disease treatment, the qt is good for getting a fish acclimated to captive foods and feeding without competition.

CBBs can be very hard to get eating. You should try a variety of foods like chopped scallop, shrimp and clam fresh from your grocery store plus frozen mysis (both Hikari and PE as some fish have a preference), but you may have to feed live blackworms from your lfs.

Hopefully, you acclimated your cbb carefully to your tank's water parameters and saying you dumped it in is just a casual term. Shipping/lfs water is frequently around 1.020 and reefs 1.025 (SG, or salinity). That is too much of a difference for a fish to be acclimated over an hour or so. This is another use for a qt - you can set its salinity to that of the shipping bag and then slowly raise it.

Did you just put the purple tang in your tank a week ago or other fish at the same time? You need to spread additions out so that you don't get ammonia spikes as the biofilter needs time to adjust to the added load.

Whether the purple will let the cbb in or not is up to the individual purple's personality. Some become very territorial almost immediately, some not. You have a good chance given the purple was there only a week and the cbb isn't a competitor for the purple's food. You will find out tomorrow.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

 

[Voxboy]

I dont think the CBB will be bullied by the Tang....but like Dr said. Crap shoot at best.
As far as getting it to eat...When I added my CBB about 2 months ago it immediately started eating frozen Mysis. it has also started eating frozen blood worm, Cyclops, and frozen chopped clam. My other fish have always gone crazy for the Mysis and Cyclops....it may be a case of monkey see monkey do...for the CBB. Mine is also a medium size. Beautiful fish.

 

[Rockagibralter]

Thanks for the advice... I have a qt system, however, my fear was the tang would claim everything as his own before the cbb settled in, plus that's where he will get his aptasia and feather dusters... Regarding the fish that were added, everything is so tiny, and I've been culturing pods in there for about a year... I will pay attention to the amonia, but based on my other two tanks I'm not going to worry or stress as its never been an issue for me. No worries, I spent a little over 2 hours acclimating the little guy, the dump came when it was time... I rarely feed anything other than frozen food, and I have everything mentioned except clams & squid... There's tons of pods and a few small aptasias, so I hope eats... I'll report tomorrow with hopefully some good news!

 

[Voxboy]

Good luck. Mine eats pretty much everything …but aptasia lol

 

[small alien]

The clown tang is a long term potential problem, especially in that small tank.

 

[SDguy]

Today I dumped a cbb into my 125 to complete my reef... My 125 has been running for a year, however the first fish were added a month ago (dragonets). I have about 8 assorted small damsels, fairy wrasse, clown & purple tang. That I added last saturday...

I think you are going way too fast with your fish additions.

Since the tangs are so new hopefully the CBB won't be harassed. CBB have much better success rates if they are QT'ed and given ample time to adjust to aquarium foods without competition.

I'd get rid of the clown tang.

 

[Rockagibralter]

I don't have a clown tang... If you added up the length of all the fish, there'd be maybe 1'. Every fish is tiny except the purple tang & cbb, and their 3" long at most. The tanks been running for over a year with a good skimmed and refugium, plus I do weekly water changes...

So last night I uncovered the tank in the middle of the night so the cbb would get natural morning light as the sun came up... Sure enough there he was picking at ly live rock and the other fish including the p tang seemed fine... Keeping my fingers crossed on this one ladies and gents... I report late tonight after my lights kick in and food has been added.

 

[MrTuskfish]

All good advice above. One more potential problem: CBBs will not do well with bullies or even a lot or random mayhem. I wouldn't be surprised to see the damsels drive the CBB nuts. They are nasty little fish, especially when they find a rather wussy victim. I think the CBB is going to have a tough time getting his share of food in your tank.

 

[Rockagibralter]

I wouldn't say I'm out of the woods yet, but the news so far is good... The cbb's been nipping at the rocks and picking at the aptasia, and my lady said she saw him eating when I fed the tank... I didn't as i turned my attention to the blackhawks game as they scored the most goals in consecutive games in nhl history, lol... The other good news is, the other tank mates could careless about him so far!

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

If the purple hasn't bothered the cbb yet after 2 or 3 days together, you are probably ok on that front. You now just need to get the cbb eating heartily. Really watch it when you feed. It needs to take more than a tentative mouthful or two for it to thrive in captivity, and that can take a couple of weeks. If possible, feed the cbb at a different place in the tank away from the more aggressive eaters.