Copperband Butterfly Primer

[owenspackman]

My first Copperband never made it out of Quarantine back in June due to a bacterial infection. He ate black works like crazy, but he developed a bloody patch on his side, like many others have reported. He declined rapidly and died within days.

5 months on and my LFS had one in stock. I decided to rush him home after i was told he had been eating live brine at the store (i should have witness this and left him at the store if he didn't eat"¦.).

Into my quarantine he went, along with two small Ocellaris Clowns and a Dispar Anthias. They were already undergoing Copper and PraziPro treatments.

Day 1: Introduced, no issues with other tank mates. Didn't accept any black worm or frozen food.

Day 2: Still no interest in black worms. Picked up scallops and clams from the grocery store. Tried few small pieces of both. No interest. Made PVC feeder with holes, placed food and worms inside, no luck.

Day 3: Left clam on half shell in tank and attempted more black worms. No interest. No interested shown in frozen mysid or brine being offered to Clowns and Anthias. Completed large water change to reduce Copper level. No interest in feeder.

Day 4: Still no interest in any food offered. Picked up live brine shrimp, no interest. Completed another large water change to further reduce Copper level.

Day 5: Attempted more Clam soaked in garlic and black worms, no interest. Still no signs of interest in feeder.

Day 6: I froze Clam on the half shell, sliced it on the shell while frozen and soaked in garlic. Attached Clam to rock with rubber band, no interest. The CBB started thoroughly inspecting the rocks in quarantine, obviously appearing hungry and searching for while. Complete ignored all live brine, blackworms and clam being offered.

Day 7: I come home from work to find Clam untouched. I offer the CBB some live brine again and suddenly out of nowhere he eats every one. He must of got hungry enough to finally give them a go. He only had interest in the live ones, any that were dead were ignore, he was also taking them from the water column.

Hopefully he hasn't gone too long without food and caused himself some internal damaged. Now I will continue feeding with live brine and start mixing in frozen soaked in garlic in the hope he accepts it. I will also continue with offering black worms.

It was work the hours spend working with him over the past week. Thanks for the advice in this thread, i know it helped!

 

[jscarlata]

i brought one home this past weekend, its in my 30g QT tank now. the QT tank has discarded live rock from my main tank that i don't need. I've had the 30 running for a long time now using it to hold live rock and also kept it running because ive wanted to add fish to my display for a while, but never being fond of the QT process, i always balk on getting new fish. also, many months ago, added a few bags of pods form pods2go, so i know there's a lot of stuff in the tank, although i cant see any pods, there's only a hermit crab living in the tank, so i know they are in there.
All the CBB does is cruise the rocks hunting. i see him peck from time to time like my mandarin does in my display tank; does this mean he's eating? i also put small amounts of rods food in his tank while feeding the main tank, once or twice ive seen him grab frozen food from the rocks, but never from the water column. In the store he ate live brine.

 

[yrema]

Here's my CBB, he's around 2+ years old before I got him.

He's a darling - eats from my hand, although still a bit shy. He was originally trained to eat aiptasia on rocks and peeled shrimps. I'm slowly training him to eat other food as well. So far, he has tried eating anchovy fry and PE mysis aside from shrimps.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_qaJlsq3l0

another one

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCvKHxIkezE

My current tank is a 100g mixed reef, he's the only large fish in the tank. Other fishes are 2 ocellaris clowns, 3 pajama cardinals, 1 clarkii clown, 1 tomato clown, 1 yellowtail damsel and a red wrasse. CUCs include 2 lysmata shrimps, brittle stars, nassarius snails and ring cowries.

 

[fishfreak2009]

I picked up a large Indo-pacific copperband from my LFS a while back. He had been there a month in cupramine and prazi-pro and had been freshwater dipped more than once. He was only eating live brine. After quarantine he still only ate live brine. Once in the display he began eating live blackworms. About a week and a half ago he began eating frozen bloodworms after watching my yellow longnose butterflyfish eat them. About 3 days ago he learned to eat NLS thera +a after watching my regal angel devour them. He will only eat them off the bottom though. The other large fish in the tank really helped train him to eat other foods. He was the only large fish in the tank for over a month, and during that time span would only eat live brine.

The funny thing is that he trained the regal to eat bloodworms... :fun4:

 

[ohioreef71]

I'll try to keep this thread going. I purchased CBB he was eating ok at the fish store got him home and had him in QT for a few days stopped eating and developed ich. I purchased live black worms and have him in hyposalinity now. He is eating the worms like crazy. He will also eat frozen bloodworms as well. Still refuses everything else,mysis,brine frozen or live,rods,or a live clam. I'm going to do whatever it takes to keep this dream fish of mine. I am wondering if it is bad to just be eating the bloodworms. The live blackworms are hard to come by where I'm at. Any other tips would be appreciated.

 

[HiImSean]

Is there any physical distinctions between an Aussie CBB and a CBB collected from another location?

 

[fishfreak2009]

I picked up a large Indo-pacific copperband from my LFS a while back. He had been there a month in cupramine and prazi-pro and had been freshwater dipped more than once. He was only eating live brine. After quarantine he still only ate live brine. Once in the display he began eating live blackworms. About a week and a half ago he began eating frozen bloodworms after watching my yellow longnose butterflyfish eat them. About 3 days ago he learned to eat NLS thera +a after watching my regal angel devour them. He will only eat them off the bottom though. The other large fish in the tank really helped train him to eat other foods. He was the only large fish in the tank for over a month, and during that time span would only eat live brine.

The funny thing is that he trained the regal to eat bloodworms... :fun4:

Sad to say I lost the copperband a few days ago. Even eating bloodworms and NLS, he continued to shrink. I moved him to the refugium and was feeding him 7 times per day with no competition from the other fish and he still shrunk away. He went through 3 rounds of prazi when I got him so I don't think it was worms.

It's kind of sad. Lost the copperband, but every other fish in the tank is obese, all the little fish including the mandarin, and the bigger fish including the other 4 butterflies, all 5 dwarf angels, the sailfin tang, the regal angel, and the moorish idol.

 

[SDguy]

Is there any physical distinctions between an Aussie CBB and a CBB collected from another location?

Aussie ones are a more yellow orange than copper orange, turning basically almost pure yellow at the edges of the fins. IMO they also have slightly more pointed dorsal and anal fin tips.

 

[aquaph8]

Here's my newest baby

 

[HumbleFish]

Well, over the last few years I'm batting 0-2 with these fish. Lost the first one to Velvet, the second one basically starved to death - both in QT. I've located what I believe to be a better wholesaler, and I'm hoping third time is a charm. :thumbsup:

My question is: I am thinking of ordering a medium to large one, but was wondering if there is any advantage to ordering a small one instead? Thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Paul B]

I am not sure of an advantage but I like to get them small, like the size of a fifty cent coin. They grow rather fast and the young ones seem to take to captivity better. I would also feed live blackworms.

 

[HumbleFish]

I am not sure of an advantage but I like to get them small, like the size of a fifty cent coin. They grow rather fast and the young ones seem to take to captivity better. I would also feed live blackworms.

Thanks Paul. No one sells blackworms locally, but I'll have a month's worth on hand once the CBB arrives.

 

[Hal]

I hate to disagree with Paul, but my experience has been that the bigger ones had a better survival rate for me. That could've just been coincidence, or not.

I will point out that Paul seems to do an exceptionally good job of feeding live black worms, and I'm sure that helps.

 

[Mental1]

I have to second the black worms. I did not put my guy in a QT but I have a pretty empty tank in the system. He did have bugs so he got a few fresh water dips and I prozipro'd the whole system. He's fat and happy - he's in my 65g display in the kitchen with a matted file, a tomini tang, a bluespotted toby and a green mandarin. They all love the blackworms but I had to cut down how often I was feeding as cyano is taking over.

 

[Paul B]

I hate to disagree with Paul, but my experience has been that the bigger ones had a better survival rate for me.

Hal, you are not disagreeing with me, I said (I) like to get them small. That doesn't mean everyone else has to like it. :beer:

 

[Kies1]

I just recently added a CBB to my 90 gallon system. Did not eat any prepared foods for a good month. Tried everything and I thought he would be a goner. Tried live black worms, clam and mussel on the half shelf, PE mysis, Hikari mysis to no avail. I just kept feeding the tank and out of the blue one day decided to eat teh enriched PE mysis and Hikari. i soak both in Vite Chem and now after about 6 weeks he is competing for this with every other fish in the tank. i would say out of the three i had to chose i picked the fattest one and the only one that seemed to be picking at the live rock.

Bought it the day it came in to the LFS not eating, which i knew was a risk. i was over feeding the tank for about 4 weeks until he finally started to eat. Now i am slowly getting the Nitrates back down in check. The key is i think starting off with a healthy specimen. my thinking was the fatter the better lol.

 

[Curtis1]

Well, sadly I failed at my first attempt w/CBB. Mine only lasted about two wks !!! I had a few Aptaisia and Feather Dusters. He picked all of them out of site. But would never eat anything else ? I overfed the tank, everything trying to get him to eat. I generally do better with smaller fish. The smaller the better is what I like. My Mandarin was so skinny(Emaciated) when I brought it home, my LFS said to let him know if it didn't make it and he'd replace it. Plus he gave me a free Royal Gramma at the same time in as bad a shape. Both have survived and are now beautiful fat and sassy !!! I even had to try to get him to coexist w/ Yellow Tang. Made it over that part of the hurdle, just never ate ??? So, how many have you all tried ??? Be nice to be able to buy them already trained to eat.

 

[thenewguy997]

Are they reef safe? Other than eating dusters etc. I know they can pick at zoas thats okay.

My lfs was adamant that you couldnt have one in a reef tank although time and time again i see them in reef tanks.


At the end of the day i got into this hobby for the fish i can do with a little coral damage..

 

[Paul B]

You can't keep them in a reef! OMG, am I bad then?
I have only been keeping them since about 1974 so I really don't know. :worried:

 

[thenewguy997]

You can't keep them in a reef! OMG, am I bad then?
I have only been keeping them since about 1974 so I really don't know. :worried:

:lol: im convinced!