Copperband Butterfly Primer

[Lilputian]

They said it hasnt eaten since they got it. I fear for the little guy. I was also looking at a coral beauty which they said had eaten that morning but completely snubbed food when I was there.

 

[carlosR]

A new development last night, my CBB has finally taken a liking to some aptasia! He has started on the small ones but that is o.k. with me. It has been nearly a month now since I received him. I guess it just takes time with this fish.

Obviously those are not aptasia in this photo!

 

[ecomdesign]

I wanted to share what I use to feed my copperband. Its a simple PVC end cap and adapter to plug it off. I drilled some small holes in it for him to get to the food. The great thing is he is the only fish that can get to it.

Hope this helps out some of you with picky eaters.

Hella

What do you put in this feeder? If I put some homeade mush in there would it float out? Will nitrate levels rise?

 

[ecomdesign]

Hey Paul, just picking your brain here about the earthworms.

Do you buy them, or just pull them out of the ground and toss em in?

I've got experience with reptiles, and earthworms are frowned upon for them because they can lead to parasites. What about any other insects for the fish? Meal worms, wax worms, super worms... any experience with any of these? Do you gut load the worms at all?

I hold your opinions to a very high regard, but I have to admit... I don't think I would feel comfortable feeding worms as a staple diet. As a supplemental item I could see it being a great addition to my feeding schedule though.

internesting thought...I have to get some crickets today for our reptilies. I will ask if any of these types of worms contain oils. These worms are usually breed, and not wild caught which will eminiate chemicals/pesticides.

 

[Paul B]

I don't think I would feel comfortable feeding worms as a staple diet. As a supplemental item I could see it being a great addition to my feeding schedule though.

For most fish I would not recommend a complete diet of worms either but copperbands can get most of their food from worms as that is what they are supposed to eat. They need a little of other things to get calcium, iodine etc. but a copperband should have worms.

Crickets, beetles, mealworms etc are not a good diet for salt water fish. They do not have the proper oils and their shells may not be dijestable as they are made of chiten.
(When I started keeping fish in the 50s and 60s fish food was dried ants in a can.)

I do not buy earthworms but when I used to feed earthworms I would just collect them. They could also be frozen. If you live by the sea you can buy (or collect) saltwater sand worms or blood worms. These worms are perfect food but they are large and need to be cut up. They also freeze well. They are about fifty cents each and grow about 9" long.
For me, live blackworms are perfect but I realize some people can't get them.

It is not the fishes fault if you buy it and do not have the proper food for it. It was happily eating something for a few years in the sea and does not recognize the foods we are trying to feed it in a tank.
I have a tank full of butterflies that I collected. They only eat worms. I wish I could wean them to something else but they are being very stubborn, in the meantime, I have to give them worms. If they don't convert to something else, I may return them to the sea next summer.
Most of us feed our fish commercially prepared foods because it is convenient and many of us have nothing else but sometimes we can get creative.
Commercial foods are sold to make money. They are pckaged for the convenience of the consumer and the producer but it may not necesarily be the best thing for the fish.
Have a great day
Paul

PS do not gut load worms

 

[ecomdesign]

I went to the reptile store today and they couldn't tell me off the top of their head if any worm is full of omega or oils. I'll take pauls advice and consider it a dead end.

I did find out though that my brother-in-laws father has just started a worm breeding farm. Apparantly there are different typs of earthworms. I'll have to check with him on what types he breeds. I cant see that it matters though...

 

[Paul B]

Basically, if it's a real worm it should be full of oil. Many things are called worms like mealworms and bloodworms but they are beetles

 

[ecomdesign]

he breeds european night crawlers and red wriggelers. I check online and cant find any info on which contains more oils. I am making some mush and I will add 5-6 of each to the mix.

 

[Paul B]

The night crawlers are great. (I don't know anything about red wrigglers but it reminds me of an old girlfriend) :crazy1: Hold up the "head" end under a faucet of cold water and squeezs the worm from top to bottom. If you do it correctly, all the dirt will exit the worm. I would not mush them up, but freeze them and slice bite sized pieces off. If you mush them up, you will lose most of the insides of the worm and be left with skin which is not bad but I would freeze them first, it's easier and mush less messy.

 

[Crustman]

Here's my CBB. It is a great fish for my community. Eats PE mysis mostly and inverts on the rocks and live sand.

I don't see how they can catch and sell these for only $29

 

[Crustman]

I did not quarantine my fish. It has a green mandarin, Fox face, Yellow Tang, Goldenhead sleeper, Coral beauty, Yellowhead jawfish. Pseudochromis, Clarkii clown, Clown goby and 2 blue devils as tankmates. Main problems were with the Tang. First few days and nights and the Tangs scalpel was out. The Goldenhead sleeper came out after the CBB was introduced. Have 3 clams also, small maxima crocea and larger squamosa. No problems with these or any corals. Mandarin and CBB do not compete for food because Mandarin chases and eats PE mysis now. Guess I got lucky with my CBB

 

[Paul B]

Crustman, Very nice

 

[Crustman]

Thanks Paul

 

[Crustman]

Do these eventually go after the large tube worms as in my pic. No luck with Aiptasia yet.

 

[Paul B]

Copperbands are not like a lot of other fish, individual copperbands have a personality all their own. Some eat aiptasia some don't some even eat flakes but very few.

 

[Keyvan S]

I have a very large Xmas worm rock, I'm I taking a risk of loosing my Christmas Tree Worm Rock by introducing a CBB.....

 

[carlosR]

Nice photos Crustman! Paul, so the CBB is a natural worm eater in the wild. That makes sense and so does your posting about foods. I'm lucky in that I have access to live worms. As time goes on I notice that my CBB is exploring his new world and taste-testing a lot of things. I love this fish.

 

[carlosR]

I just remembered something I thought I might post for some of you dedicated fish-keepers who can't go buy worms in a LFS.
Years ago when I was in to killies and native fishes, I used to collect live foods including worms. Some of the places I got tubifex worms from included discharge waters, lazy streams not from pipes, of sewer treatment plants. If you go downstream after the water runs through swamp vegetation (o.k. wetland vegetation) the worms found there are very clean. They just live in in a high nutrient load zone. Daphnia were widely available in ponds including the third and fourth treatment ponds at the local sewage treatment plant. Some of my kid's fondest memories are of netting daphnia when they were little...
So for the adventurous ones out there, don't say I can't get no worms because my LFS doesn't sell them. If you live in an area where they have trout hatcheries, beautiful tubifex worms live in the raceways. I mean those babies are bright, bright red and very nutritious.

 

[Paul B]

Sounds delicious, go for it

 

[llamart]

Had this Aussie CCB for six months, and he has been a perfect tank mate. My tank was ravaged with aptasia and he took care if it in one month, and haven't seen one in the main tank sense. He also loves Mysis but won't touch anything else that comes his way.