Copperband butterfly

K

Kies1

New member
Introduced this beauty march 16th. Cleared out my feather dusters and aiptasia within two weeks of being introduced. After that was picking on rocks, scavenging for food. I feed mysis, cyclopeeze and emerald entree. Copperband would not touch any of it. This past weekend tried a mussel and a clam on the half shelf, my wrasses went nuts. Copperband showed no interest. Have been very concerned if it has not started eating soon it will end up starving.

Well low and behold last night it tried some mysis! Saw it eat a couple pieces. Tonight I mixed mysis with emerald entree and it went nuts for it. Ate too many pieces to count. So almost 4 weeks in the tank and starting to eat prepared foods. I should say in between this time tried live brine shrimp and live black worms to no avail.

So hopefully with a little luck this guy is going to make it. Still early but looking very promising:bounce1:
 
My tank has been running for 1.5 years. Debated for the last two months whether to get a copperband due to a lot of them never eating. I was on an email list with my lfs and once they came in went in right away. I took a chance as it was not eating at the lfs but had my choice out of the three or four that came in. I decided to go with the fattest one. So I think the condition of the fish is really important. The second lfs in my area has them all the time but the health of the fish are never as good. So I think it is important to wait for a healthy specimen to come in.


Will see if I can keep it long term but it was good to see him finally start to eat
 
I wanna get one but been holding back ... I did an upgrade to a 180 & it will be close to 6 months..but not sure when to pull the trigger..!! are they reef safe or is it a hit or miss...??
 
I've been reading as much as I can about CBB's. Bottom line is that they are not always reef safe, but sometimes they are. No hard evidence, no double blind studies, but if I were to "swami" want the most probable situation is, it is that a CBB that is well acclimated to captivity and successfully adapts to the foods that we commonly feed, so it is well fed, and fed multiple times a day, then that specimen had a good chance of being reef safe. But a hungry one, it's going to start to pick and if it finds something it likes...

My own strategy, that I am going to try, is to not add anything that picks on copepods etc., save for a wrasse that eats flatworms, and then try it when my tank is mature.
 
So far for me in the 4 weeks it has been introduced has not bothered anything. i am sure it was getting quite hungry as well once the natural food source in the aquarium slowly began to become depleted. i now 4 weeks is not enough time to say it is reef safe, but at this point has touched nothing, mainly sps with some plating montipora and softies. Keep my fingers crossed it eats tonight when i feed the tank. Will keep you all posted on how things develop. It is one awesome fish. hope I can keep it long term.

i think the more mature your tank is the better chance you have. 6 months might be too soon but i am no expert. Be patient and wait for a healthy specimen. If they do not look healthy stay away. I know i passed on 3 or 4 until i found this one.
 
Just went through a trying time with a new copperband. I broke my rule and bought one without seeing it eat. It was several weeks before I could get it to eat anything other than microfauna off the rocks and live brine shirimp. The fish got thinner after I bought it. Someone advised to feed live brineshimp mixed with other foods, and finally that worked. CBB is getting fatter now, but I was a worried owner for a while, kept expecting to see it stuck to the vortechs in the morning.
 
jimroth said:
Just went through a trying time with a new copperband. I broke my rule and bought one without seeing it eat. It was several weeks before I could get it to eat anything other than microfauna off the rocks and live brine shirimp. The fish got thinner after I bought it. Someone advised to feed live brineshimp mixed with other foods, and finally that worked. CBB is getting fatter now, but I was a worried owner for a while, kept expecting to see it stuck to the vortechs in the morning.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear it finally ate for you. Mine now is eating mysis and emerald entree and competing with wrasses, angels, tangs and a foxface. My copper band wiped out all the aiptasia in my tank. As said earlier a good four weeks before eating any prepared foods. Love this fish.
 
I'm in the CBB club too. I just bought mine last Wednesday the 9th. It will be one week tomorrow, it has already wiped out all of the feather dusters and aptaisia. I have seen it take a bite or two of Mysis, but for the most part, it's still not eating. I'm gonna get some Emerald Entrée tomorrow, see if that works. So far I've tried, two kinds of flake, two kinds of pellets, cyclop-eeze, reef chili, phytoplankton, frozen squid, krill, Mysis, brine shrimp, marine cuisine and homemade fresh clam smoothies. It's a young fish, my Tang pretty much accepts him now.It has not bothered anything else. I really hope that he/she starts eating soon. I'll be watching this thread.
 
Likewise, I am a CBB club member. I bought mine 11 days ago on April 4th. I also broke my own rule of "don't buy if they don't eat." Hopefully, she will start eating soon.. I am happy to hear from CBB owners that theirs are eating well :)
 
luck with cbb

luck with cbb

Over the years i've had 3. first 2 didn't last a month as I basically got them the day they got to the lfs. I lucked out on the third. He was amongst 4 others and the only one I saw eat at the store.Now he eats my homemade seafood mix readily and is the fattest one i've ever seen. They are an awesome fish and consider yourself lucky if you can get one acclimated.
 
It's SO hit or miss with this fish. I once brought one in that would come to the top begging for food. I've also brought in plenty that either randomly picked or never ate a thing. As stated, you really should consider yourself very lucky if you get one eating, and then consider yourself a lottery winner if you have one that eats prepared foods haha. In my experience, the first thing they will voluntarily eat is mysis and/or brine, and they sometimes prefer to "pick" at them from the bottom of the tank, or in-between a rock structure. They seem to like it when I use the pipette to "blow" the shrimp around, as if they were alive and moving. And conversely, they sometimes get frightened from the moving water/sight of the pipette, so it's a double-edged sword. Like I said, I've only had one come straight up to the top of the tank and eat right from the water column; all others have been a challenge. To the OP, you seem like you've got a good specimen, and good luck with it, really would like to hear of this fish being kept long-term!
 
Will keep this thread updated as time goes on. My CBB at the moment is eating actively out of the water column. I do soak the food in vita chem and Amin omega from bright well. Switch between the two. Use a turkey baster to put the dethawed food in the tank with all power heads running. This makes the mysis shrimp appear to be moving as well(alive) maybe to the CBB. Will see how things go but right now it looks very promising. Keep my fingers crossed. Nice to see some success stories with this fish. I did try both hikari and pe mysis, now eating both.
 
Great fish, not aggressive, another great addition that keeps unwanted pests either out of my tank or under control. Keep him well fed 2-3 times per day and it should help reduce or eliminate polyp picking if any. All my fish are fed enriched brine shrimp w spirulina.
That's the one thing that all my fish love.
Coopperband, mandarins, pipefish.......
It's great for all the critters and corals too.
Add a little garlic extract to the food once in a while or when introducing a new fussy fish.
It stimulates their appetite and immune system.
It's worked for me so far.
 
Last edited:
Sounds like you are on the way to success. I have found that the Australian endemic ones have the highest probability of working.
 
Mine is Australian and I agree they seem to do better. It is 1.5 years old.

Mine likes a chopped seafood mix - scallop, shrimp salmon and clam. I just chop it up with a knife, freeze it in a ziploc bag, and pare off slices to feed. It is a lot of good, meaty food. Mine also likes mysis and spirulina brine. It ate live blackworms but I stopped feeding them when it was eating enough of the other foods.
 
Have a CBB in QT right now. Will be done on the 26th. He's eating frozen mysis shrimp and brine shrimp so we're hoping he stays away from out featherdusters and clam....
 
SS_Sean said:
Have a CBB in QT right now. Will be done on the 26th. He's eating frozen mysis shrimp and brine shrimp so we're hoping he stays away from out featherdusters and clam....
Click to expand...

I think your feather dusters might be in trouble. Hopefully the clam will be ok.
 
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