Copperband Butterfly

[hscoert]

I've had my CB in qt for 4 weeks now and he's doing great! I want to get him in my DT, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on what to do. I didn't medicate, dip, or treat while he was in QT because I know they are very sensitive, etc.
He's eating great, and doing very well. I'm just nervous about using any kind of medications and I don't want to run the risk of spreading any kind of disease in my DT.
I've heard of medicated baths, and deworming, etc, but I've never done any of them myself so if anyone has any detailed advice, I'm all ears.

 

[dunc101]

If you have some PraziPro, I would highly recommend it. It is perfectly safe and will not affect anything (except of course kill worms/flukes if the fish has it =) ). I also have a CBB in QT right now (right at 1 week, today). I currently have done my first does of PraziPro and he is eating dried and frozen mysis and doing great as well! Treating with something like cupramine is a personal preference. If you do treat with it, I suggest only getting up to .3-.35 instead of the suggested .5 level on the bottle.
I would also keep the cbb in QT for 8 weeks instead. This should give you ample time to see if any disease should arise. Good luck with your fish, these are definitely gorgeous fish!

 

[dunc101]

double post...sorry.

 

[hscoert]

Thank you so much. I have some PraziPro, so I'll start that tonight.

 

[Decadence]

In my experience, they aren't all that sensitive of a fish, just sensitive shippers and difficult to get eating. I have found that by having multiple forms of live food to offer your fish you can get them eating quickly and medicate as need be.

My CBB is the most aggressive fish in my tank, chasing away the other fish when I walk to the tank with the worm container... he absolutely loves live black worms. He ignores absolutely everything else. Being that this fish was the whole reason I set up a new tank, I did not QT him or medicate him, but rather placed him into my 20 long frag grow-out tank. He came in with lymph and it took about three months to clear up with regular garlic dosing and otherwise perfect water quality.

One recommendation for anybody else reading is to not QT your CBB if you don't have to as picking on LR in an established tank may stretch the amount of time you have to get it eating before it starves to death. Mine took three weeks to get eating.

 

[mgraf]

Got one a month and a half ago. No Qt, just put him right in DT. Picked at live rock and ate every feather duster in the tank, then aptasias, then began eating myisis. Glad the aptasias are gone, but I miss the feather dusters everywhere.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

My cbb went through PraziPro and Cupramine treatments just fine. I dosed the Cupramine at .35. The cbb did well in the qt. I prefer using a qt because it permits you to focus on getting the cbb eating without competition.

IMO, you have to be ready to feed live blackworms. Some will eat a variety of other foods, but live blackworms are the one food these fish seem to eat aggressively. Mine eats chopped seafood (scallop, shrimp, fish), clam, mysis and other foods, but its appetite for live blackworms is substantially greater.

You also need to ensure the.cbb gets enough food to eat. I feed something the other fish eat first, and then put in what the cbb eats.

 

[bbaz123456]

I dumped mine right in the DT too. He cleared 1500 gallons worth of feather dusters in a few days and does still consistently pick at the undersides of any overhanging rocks. But as far as I can tell has not touched any of my precious 8 billion aptasias. He's going on about 2 months and appears healthy.
I am not advocating skipping the QT.....

 

[bbaz123456]

Mine also does not seem to eat any prepared foods I offer.
Would any of you suggest I try to offer live black worms or just let him continue to pick until he starts to make a dent in the aptasia population?

 

[Decadence]

Offer live black worms if he is even remotely skinny.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

How is the cbb doing?

I would feed live blackworms. These fish can be difficult to get eating and keep eating, and there are many that subsist primarily on live blackworms. They are a pain to deal with, but in many cases are necessary to keeping a cbb. You can try weaning it off live blackworms later.

 

[milsj099]

if you see a copperband eating frozen thats good but not the battle,
ive tried twice and both teams the copperband was munching brine then suddenly just stops ....
the hardest part is to keep them eating

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

if you see a copperband eating frozen thats good but not the battle,
ive tried twice and both teams the copperband was munching brine then suddenly just stops ....
the hardest part is to keep them eating

Which is why I keep feeding mine live blackworms. I don't want to risk losing in while trying to force it to eat other foods.

 

[Hal]

I dumped mine right in the DT too. He cleared 1500 gallons worth of feather dusters in a few days and does still consistently pick at the undersides of any overhanging rocks. But as far as I can tell has not touched any of my precious 8 billion aptasias. He's going on about 2 months and appears healthy.
I am not advocating skipping the QT.....

It took my last CBB about 2-3 months to learn that aiptasia is food, but once it did, it was wonderful to watch. Patience.

 

[PincheReefTank]

I put mine through QT and treated it with cupramine and prazipro. It was housed with a royal gamma while in qt. In QT it ate frozen mysis and eventully grew to love arcti pods even more. After adding to DT I started offering it food in a feeder I made. Now after about a month trying it out he goes after and nibbles at pretty much anything I put in the feeder. When I have leftover food from the coral feedings, zooplankton mixed with oyster feast, ultra amin and cyclop eeze I'll take it and add some arctipods put it in the feeder and he goes nuts for it. The fish now goes nuts as soon as it sees the feeder in my hand. I got the idea from another thread on CBs. The feeder I made is just a 3/4" pvc cut to about 4" and capped at both ends (slipped on). it has three holes drilled in it just big enough to get his snout through drilled length wise across the feeder. Some of the other feeders I saw in the thread had more holes or less holes in various patterns all over the feeder but I ended up with just three in a straight line across the pipe cause I was having a hard time keeping the food in the feeder. Just add food and toss it in th DT till he figures out what it is (I leave mine in for an hour and remove it). And it does not matter if the feeder gets flipped over after I toss it in the tank the CB will find always find a way to wedge his snawz in to extract the food. Also, RIP to the two beautiful maximas I used to own that he efficiently devoured. In my experience these fish love live food, clams and pods were the first things to disappeare in my tank.



here is the thread on CBs with info on feeders
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/s...ighlight=feeding+copper+band+butterfly&page=4