Copperband Butterfly Primer

[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.....

Any advise!:worried:

 

[OneArmedBandit]

I have a feeling that the X-mas tree worms would eventually come under attack... Feather dusters and worms usually don't fare well in a system with a Copperband. -Steve

 

[carlosR]

I am freakin amazed at how the little neon goby cleaned up the lymphocystis spots on my CBB. If you have this problem, get one of these fish. Also today I saw my cleaner shrimp working over the CBB, very nice.

 

[ecomdesign]

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.

Give the homemade mush a try. My CCB only ate tubifex so I made some last monday. I used fresh salmon, tuna, clams, scallops, shrimp, along with frozen mysis, tubifex, blood worms and nori garlic and some reef plus. Now he eats like a pig. He gets right in there with my clowns! Sounds crazy, but I have enough to last months. My wife think my fish eat better than we do, and shes right...

My brother in law is supposed to get me some earth worms, but he keeps forgetting. I lookfoward to trying them.

 

[carlosR]

I'm going to try a "mush" like yours out today. Maybe that will move him along from strictly live worms.

 

[ecomdesign]

if you can get earthworms add them too as paulb has mentioned in this thread. Thats what I wanted to do but I couldn't get them in time and I had all the fresh seafood sitting in the fridge.

 

[wfournier]

I thought I would throw this out there as I found it interested, I was feeding my tank a mixed food made by a local reefer. Included in this is some sort of leafy green vegetable (I'm thinking spinach) my copperband picked at it a couple times and then ate it! I thought were supposed to be carnivores.

 

[kb27973]

I have had my CBB for about a year now. I just read an article in Coral magazine that said that Butterfly fishes should ideally be kept in pairs. Anybody know if I can add another to an established CBB? Will it be war like with Tangs or will they be happy to see one another?

Thanks for any info as I really wouldn't mind getting another of these beautiful fishes.

Ken

 

[carlosR]

I haven't seen mine eating any greens but I have noticed in the month and a half that he gets more adventurous regarding foods and the tank. Perhaps it's an evolution in behavior as the fish gets more comfortable in captivity. Mine picks at the live rock quite a bit, has started on aptasia, and this morning was tussling with some critter in the substrate.
Back to the original questions posed about keeping this species:
75 gallon tank, power compacts, lots of live rock, soft corals and a couple of LPS.
Tankmates include: Oscellaris clownfish, yellowtail damsels (mutual aggressivity), blue tang, coral beauty (at first big problems, now sorted out w/only displays and posturing), Bangaii cardinalfish, neon goby (his cleaning station, cleared up the lymphocystis), cleaner shrimp (cautious reserve on both parties).

 

[Crustman]

They say yellowhead sleeper gobies should be in pairs but my sleeper and CBB is fine. I don' think my Yellow tang could stand another CBB with everyone else in a 65 gallon. Next cbb that you add might not be an ideal tankmate if you got lucky with the first.

 

[carlosR]

The CBB has finally discovered aptasia in a big way. These last couple of days he ate down my mondo-sized aptasias. I guess it just takes time, let them settle in and explore. Hey maybe next it will be frozen foods.....

 

[loglew]

Wanted to share a video of my copperband that I've had in QT for about 5 weeks. Just a little info on the setup its a 55 gal sort of cube style tank with a 15 gallon sump that I've dedicated to OT'ing all new fish. Currently in the take there are a pair of clowns, (they are always in this tank, came with the tank and don't want them to interrupt my breeding pair in my DT) a blue hippo tang that just got done battling ich, six line wrasse , the copperband and a neon goby. Everyone will be headed to the DT after another 3 weeks ich free.

When I first got the copperband he had a very sunken gut and would hardly eat anything. But after a very dedicated QT effort he is doing great enjoy.

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[Lightsluvr]

My experience

My experience

I obtained a CBB when I upgraded to our 350G tank last Summer. I had eliminated almost all aiptasia through the introduction of Berghia Nudibranchs, but I wanted to nip any aip reinfestation in the DT.

I guess we were lucky, because not only did our CBB have an appetite for aips, but also took immediately to frozen food, PE mysis, Emerald Entree and almost anything else we feed.



He hangs out in the folds of a huge toadstool mushroom, where the hosting occelaris clowns tend to ignore him. His only adversary in our tank is a large Desjardins Sailfin Tang. The Tang will chase the CBB like a heat-seeking missile for a moment and then quit...If the CBB stays away from the Tang's cave, aggression ceases...

LL

 

[carlosR]

Nice videos and great how they are eating. Mine has finished off all the aptaisia and today was trying out the dried foods. He didn't seem too excited about it but the point is that given time they will experiment.

 

[Jkraft136]

DO CBB's usually bother Clams?

 

[wfournier]

DO CBB's usually bother Clams?

mine does, I tried a clam and within a minute my CBB was trying to pick at it.

 

[OneArmedBandit]

Clams... one of their favorite foods. -Steve

 

[Crustman]

My 2 Tridacnas are fine so far. I have never seen the CBB nip at corals either. Large fanworm is fine.

 

[seafansar]

I've tried a few CBB's. The first one I got was really big and ate mysis just fine. This made me think that the stories I had read about them being difficult to get eating were crazy. I stupidly sold that fish, cause I was moving. Next I tried 3 more small ones. None of them would eat! I tried mysis, blood worms, pellets, flakes, squid, clam and mussel on the half shell, live brine, live ghost shrimp, aiptasia, and live small feather dusters. Nothing would work. I got very disappointed. Then one of my LFS's said they get theirs eating all the time cause the place they get them from handles the fish well and they are all hand caught out of the wild, so I asked them to order one for me. When they finally got some in, I noticed they are all big ones! And they all ate mysis just fine. So I have a feeling that the bigger the better when it comes to CBB's surviving in aquariums.

I've had mine for a few weeks now and he eats PE mysis out of the water column, has almost eaten every aiptasia in the tank, and will eat any frozen I put in a mesh bag/clip. He won't eat anything floating except for the mysis, but he'll eat it if it's in the mesh.

 

[tibob32]

So I just got my first copperband today. I had the LFS order it. It was pretty expensive, but it's a big healthy 2" specimen. It was picking at the LR over there. I put him in my SPS reef. He had some run-ins with the foxface, but nothing very bad. I'll make him a feeder tomorrow and try him on mysis. Wish me luck. Pics to come