Copperband Butterfly Primer

[Dr Colliebreath]

Paul B,

You have indicated a couple of times that blackworms are preferable to bloodworms because the latter are not real worms but are mosquito or midge fly larvae or some sort of beetle. You also have indicated that earthworms are good food for a CBB.

However, I wanted to check something with you. While there is a form of food sold as "bloodworm" in the aquarium trade, there also is something different that is sold as live "bloodworms" for fishing. They are similar to earthworms and they "bleed" extensively when you cut them up. These bloodworms are used for fishing extensively along the East Coast (and probably elsewhere). Here is a Wiki article describing them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycera_(genus) . I assume these types of live bloodworms would be suitable for feeding to a CBB, right???

If you have a 10 or 12" worm, would you cut it into pieces to feed?

Thank you for all of the experience and knowledge you are sharing!

 

[Hal]

Question about chosing "the right" fish.
I have an opportunity to pick up a rather large Aussie CB from an LFS (6"). It is a magnificent fish! It came in last week and is aggressively eating brine out of the water column. Haven't seen it eat mysis or anything else yet. There is also a smaller specimen from the Phillipines that they have had in the store for over 30 days and it is eating well too.
I am assuming the larger fish may be heartier, and I have really wanted an Aussie CBB; however, I am curious if being older, larger and more experienced in the wild, could this be potentially problematic for adaptation to aquarium life? Also, although I know it is completely a fish-to-fish thing, could this also lead to a propensity to being less reef compatible than perhaps a smaller fish that has been "trained' to eat the foods we provide at a much earlier stage in life?
As you can imagine, there is a large price difference between a small (3") Phillipines-caught fish and the large Aussie fish, so I really want to make sure I am not asking for more problems than I am avoiding by getting the larger fish.

IME, the larger CBB's are more robust than the smaller ones. I lost 2 small ones before I picked out a big one, and it lasted quite a while (2 years) before succumbing to a tank water glitch that I had. My second larger one 4-5 inches from tip to tail has been in my DT for over a year now.

 

[carlosR]

I'd get the fish that seems the healthiest, swimming and eating with gusto rather than going by size alone. Next I'd choose a fish for color and just whatever fish "feels" right for me.
I rinse my blackworms daily. I'm getting a couple of the wormkeepers with my next order. It might make the job a little easier and with fewer losses of worms down the drain or in the parking lot. I just noticed that they recommend using chilled water for replacement water. I've been using our cold tap water without additional chilling, that's going to change.

 

[carlosR]

Do yourself a favor and order the wormkeeper with a blackworm order from Aquatic Foods. The keepers have made it so much easier to rinse and clean them. I almost get as much joy out of the worms as my fish do.

 

[carlosR]

Just discovered that my cbb loves Derasa clams. Devoured one overnight, bmmer.

 

[Paul B]

there also is something different that is sold as live "bloodworms" for fishing.

Yes, those "bloodworms" sold for fishing are saltwater worms common here in NY, those would be good but they are very large, up to about 10"

 

[Anemone0524]

Anyone see any issues with me picking up a CBB, and putting him in the sump while i train him to eat frozen mysis? Sump is 37 gallon, but only filled up 2/3's the way, so about 24 gallons. Is that big enough?

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

It depends on the sump and what else is there. Most have too many pumps and lines running around are not accessible enough to be suitable for a fish that is sensitive and difficult to acclimation anyway.

You would be better off with a separate quarantine tank with a couple of pieces of live rock to protect your dt.

 

[SkullV]

I just put a 4" Australian caught CBB into QT a couple days ago. It is eating flake and frozen so I started a Prazi treatment yesterday which will last 5 days. I am planning on doing a 3 week Cupramine treatment at .03ppm. Does this sound reasonable? Any tips to keep the fish healthy if it stops eating during the copper treatment?

 

[SkullV]

I just put a 4" Australian caught CBB into QT a couple days ago. It is eating flake and frozen so I started a Prazi treatment yesterday which will last 5 days. I am planning on doing a 3 week Cupramine treatment at .03ppm. Does this sound reasonable? Any tips to keep the fish healthy if it stops eating during the copper treatment?

Anyone?

 

[eengmd]

Just an opinion, I would not do the copper unless I saw evidence of ich or something similar. I run a uv sterilizer, keep a bare bottom tank, and rotate out PVC tubes daily into fresh in my QT. I like prazipro and find that fairly safe. Just curious did you get this from NY aquatics? I saw they had an Australian copperband several weeks ago. I bought my copperband there and battled flukes in QT. I did not have ich though. Anyway, I thought I would share my experience since there are no other replies. My expeience there was neutral. I got a cooerband that ate but we lost several other fish.

By the way, I got mine started on blackworms and pe mysis.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

I just went through Cupramine during quarantine with a falcula/ulietensis that was eating well before I dosed and stopped during treatment. Mine didn't eat for 8 days. After 5 days of it not eating, I pulled the copper with a big water change and then Cuprasorb and it started eating a couple of days later. I don't think there is any other magic other than making sure your QT has an established biofilter before starting Cupramine as your regular ammonia tests won't read accurately.

I note that my fish ate on Saturday at noon, I went away until late afternoon on Monday, and then it wasn't eating when I got back. I don't know whether it would have continued eating despite the Cupramine if I hadn't gone away. Also, a saddleback butterfly in the same tank at the same time continued to eat the entire time the other fish quit eating (and was the beneficiary of the extra feedings I provided to try and get the other fish to resume eating).

Cupramine says to dose 2 drops per gallon on day 1 and then 2 more drops per gallon after 48 hours. I only use half the dose plus a couple of drops to get to .3. I used a 37 gallon QT.

I plan on using Cupramine on butterflies again, but this time I will use 1 drop for every 2 gallons on day 1, the same on day 2, the same on day 3, and the same on day 4, plus the additional few drops on day 5. This will ramp the Cupramine concentration up more slowly over 4 days and give the fish more time to adapt.

Since my fish resumed eating a month ago, it eats pellets almost exclusively (NLS) and some fresh clam, but it ignores Rods, Mysis, Arctipods, fresh scallop, etc.

Is your fish eating food aggressively? My butterflies will eat about as much food as I care to drop in the tank.

Good luck, be careful, go slowly, and make sure the fish and tank are well settled and ready (fish eating aggressively and biofilter established) before starting. Keep us informed on how it goes.

 

[Federer]

i've taught my CBB how to eat from my hand. i never knew they had such great personalities.

 

[Pylos]

I've just read though the entire thread. Do many of you keep clams with CBBs? I understand this fish has the propensity to nip at clams, but I'd like to know what kind of success rate there is for keeping both in the same tank.

Have any of you ever kept gorgonians with a CBB? Do they have a tendency to nip at gorgs?

 

[Mikey122687]

I have clams and they don't pick at it.

Also, i don't know why people are having a hard time keeping CBB, i always have success with it on all my tanks.

 

[RealReef7]

I have clams and they don't pick at it.

Also, i don't know why people are having a hard time keeping CBB, i always have success with it on all my tanks.

Not trying to be a a** hole but, what do you consider "success", i've kept few for about a year or two, its really rare to hear CBB living 5+ years.

 

[D5HP]

I got one in from Blue Zoo last week that died after a day.

It had some bruising on one side or a scale issue...it almost looked bloody.

The fish never ate a thing...including live blackworms.

I will not try this fish again without getting a specimen from DD...and I'd prefer the margined variety.

 

[Paul B]

Not trying to be a a** hole but, what do you consider "success", i've kept few for about a year or two, its really rare to hear CBB living 5+ years

In my reef they do not generally last anywhere near as long as most fish. And I consider anything less than their natural lifespan un-successful. I do not know their natural lifespan but I would imagine it would be somewhere around 15 years like most fish that size. If I keep one 5 years, that is better than "normal" captive copperbands, but it still stinks. I have had dozens of them and I don't remember any of them lasting over 5 years. So I consider myself an unsuccessful copperband butterfly keeper.
The one I have now seems fine, eats well and looks "happy". In a copperband world, that does not mean much, they, like moorish Idols just seem to run out of steam after a while for no "apparent" cause.

 

[Vlado4x4]

Would a CBB eat a a coco worm or a tree worm ??

Want him for aiptasia control, but i´m scared of him eating my coco worm, really nice worm !!!

 

[Mikey122687]

Not trying to be a a** hole but, what do you consider "success", i've kept few for about a year or two, its really rare to hear CBB living 5+ years.

3+ is good enough. I don't expect it to live forever