Copperband butterfly

[Reef1ruler]

I have a large copperband butterfly in a 50 gallon FO system. Although I've only had him for a week He only eats live brine shrimp. I've tried frozen bloodworms,frozen brine,frozen mysis,pellets,and many different types of flakes. He looks interested in the frozen mysis and brine but never ends up eating it. Anyone with a copperband butterfly have any suggestions.

 

[Lavoisier]

As everyone agrees Copperbands are difficult fish to keep. In my 90g I was able to keep one for 4 years--it ate flakes and live brine shrimp...what a fish! The 90g cracked a seam while I was on vacation and I lost everything! I got another 90g and experienced an outbreak of Apistasia and I went through 3 Copperbands, the first two dying due to shipment stress. The third one thrived on the Apistasia but once he (she?) cleaned out the Apistasia the PO4 and nitrates spiked (the Apistasia were filtering the tank wonderfully) the tank almost crashed but the Copperband died--I believe he starved without the anemones. Bottom line IMO is that each individual fish will eat what he eats and that they are difficult to keep. I will add one to my new 600g build once the tank is established with plenty of various food sources. Good luck.

 

[RobH]

I had a Copperband awhile back that only ate frozen Mysis, from my limited food selection. I did get him eating flakes, pellets and even nori eventually. Trick was, when I put Thawed Mysis in the tank, he went crazy as did my other fish so it was every fish for themself! I started mixing flakes and other foods in with the Mysis, so during the feeding frenzy, he'd inevitably suck down other foods. Eventually he got used to eating different food and I no longer relied on Mysis. He would in fact eat almost any food I put in after that! He would also mess with my tangs and attack/eat the nori strips in there I had for the tangs.

I also had another Copperband after him and I tried the same thing, but I couldn't get him to eat anything and he died within a week.

 

[Reef1ruler]

I had a Copperband awhile back that only ate frozen Mysis, from my limited food selection. I did get him eating flakes, pellets and even nori eventually. Trick was, when I put Thawed Mysis in the tank, he went crazy as did my other fish so it was every fish for themself! I started mixing flakes and other foods in with the Mysis, so during the feeding frenzy, he'd inevitably suck down other foods. Eventually he got used to eating different food and I no longer relied on Mysis. He would in fact eat almost any food I put in after that! He would also mess with my tangs and attack/eat the nori strips in there I had for the tangs.

I also had another Copperband after him and I tried the same thing, but I couldn't get him to eat anything and he died within a week.

Sorry about your loss...I've tried mixing in frozen brine with live brine and frozen Mysis with the live brine but he always manages to pick out the live brine. He looks at the frozen stuff real long and slowly approaches it as if he was going to eat it...then he swims away.

 

[jimroth]

Keep doing what you're doing, mixing the live brine with small (hikari) mysis. Maybe some frozen brine shrimp as well. Eventually, the CBB will accidentally eat some frozen food and things will improve. I just did this successfull, although the CBB almost starved to death before it ate frozen. Fat and happy now. A friend who does this professionally said that they don't try new foods when they're hungry -- the live brine puts something in the gut and they try other foods. You can try live blackworms too, more nutritious, but my recent fish showed no interest at all.

 

[Reef1ruler]

Keep doing what you're doing, mixing the live brine with small (hikari) mysis. Maybe some frozen brine shrimp as well. Eventually, the CBB will accidentally eat some frozen food and things will improve. I just did this successfull, although the CBB almost starved to death before it ate frozen. Fat and happy now. A friend who does this professionally said that they don't try new foods when they're hungry -- the live brine puts something in the gut and they try other foods. You can try live blackworms too, more nutritious, but my recent fish showed no interest at all.

Thnx, i will keep trying mixing in the frozen with the live. He looks interested so maybe one day ill get lucky and he will go for it

 

[HumbleFish]

Live blackworms and raw clams on the half shell seem to be favorites of these fish. Just be thankful yours is at least eating something. The last 3 I've tried have all starved to death in QT. I've been told specimens from Australia tend to do better, but be prepared for sticker shock! :hmm6:

Edit: Also try Nutramar Ova (if you can find it), and this: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=10697&cmpid=03csegpl&ref=6111&subref=AA&CAWELAID=525409312&CAGPSPN=pla&catargetid=530005150000091169&cadevice=c

 

[Reef1ruler]

Clams are a almost a sure hit with CB, though I think oyster is better because it has less phosphate.

Neither worked...he still only eats live. My next attempt will be soaking live brine in garlic then frozen brine in garlic and see what he does.

 

[Aqualund]

Sorry, but why are you so serious about feeding brine? With the wide variety of things available and things you can use...brine is by far one of the least nutritious.

For mine... "Stewart" as my wife calls him...he gets what everyone else in the tank gets...a mix of squid, clam, shrimp, mysis, bloodworms, garlic and nori all chopped to like 1/8 inch pieces. This not only saves money and lasts forever, it also has plenty of nutrition.

And he's a pig. He eats every bit of everything in this mix.

I think I spend about $40 every 8 months to make this mix and freeze little portion pucks.

 

[tc2007]

Sorry, but why are you so serious about feeding brine? With the wide variety of things available and things you can use...brine is by far one of the least nutritious.

For mine... "Stewart" as my wife calls him...he gets what everyone else in the tank gets...a mix of squid, clam, shrimp, mysis, bloodworms, garlic and nori all chopped to like 1/8 inch pieces. This not only saves money and lasts forever, it also has plenty of nutrition.

And he's a pig. He eats every bit of everything in this mix.

I think I spend about $40 every 8 months to make this mix and freeze little portion pucks.

Did he eat your frozen mix from day one?

 

[Reef1ruler]

Sorry, but why are you so serious about feeding brine? With the wide variety of things available and things you can use...brine is by far one of the least nutritious.

For mine... "Stewart" as my wife calls him...he gets what everyone else in the tank gets...a mix of squid, clam, shrimp, mysis, bloodworms, garlic and nori all chopped to like 1/8 inch pieces. This not only saves money and lasts forever, it also has plenty of nutrition.

And he's a pig. He eats every bit of everything in this mix.

I think I spend about $40 every 8 months to make this mix and freeze little portion pucks.

He seems most interested in brine thats why i am using it a lot

 

[Aqualund]

Did he eat your frozen mix from day one?

Yes. But this is not an isolated incident. In my coral farm, I have a total of 8 CBB for 8 different tanks to keep apstasia down...and all of them I received directly from the distributor (A&M), and all of them have eaten from day one.

Honestly a lot of people will say the CBB is a difficult fish to keep...almost to the point where they will write the fish off. I just haven't seen this. Feed often, and feed a variety...while having your chemistry correct, and you should have no issues.

And of course...either get them from a distributor or a reputable LFS.

 

[asylumdown]

Are there many other fish in the tank with this copper band? I only started having success with copper band's when I began quarantining them alone in an environment where the foods I was trying to get them to eat were available for hours instead of the minutes they are in a tank with food competition. It takes them a while to figure out they like frozen foods, but if you've got them in a tank with other fish, said foods are rarely around long enough for them to really do much sampling.

I went through 2 Copper bands before trying QTing my third in a tank by itself. It exhibited the same habits as the first two, not really eating anything, but kind of inspecting it, but since it was all alone, the mysis it didn't eat just blew about in the current (it was a tank transfer tank, so it didn't have a filter to suck it up either). It gave it all the time it needed to sample a bit here, sample a bit there, then figure out that it liked it better than being hungry. By the end of the first week, it was actively seeking out the mysis, and none would be left after a few minutes. I also just left a clam on the half shell in the tank the whole time (obviously throwing it out and replacing it at least once a day). It completely ignored it at first, but with no other fish or snails to eat it, and a small enough tank that it couldn't really get away from it, it eventually sampled it.

By the end of the 12 day tank transfer protocol I had a copper band that ate both large and small frozen mysis, frozen brine, clams, and scallop, and aggressively enough to compete with a tank full of fish. I lost him along with all my fish to a temperature spike, and when I replaced him I did the same thing with similar success. The major downside was that both fish went in to my display fully adjusted to a captive diet and had exactly zero interest in aiptasia. Not sure those are related, but if you know you're going to get a delicious clam every morning and a smorgasbord of frozen treats every evening, it probably makes eating aiptasia seem like a dumb waste of stomach space.

 

[Aqualund]

For me, each CBB is accompanied by the usual reef maintenance crew...tangs, and wrasses. There's anywhere from 5 to 10 fish alongside the CBB.

I think what I'm leaning toward for an explanation is one of two things....either they were malnourished and not properly fed/taken care of at the LFS, or they had a rough transit from the ocean to the home, and sometimes its too late.

As far as eating aptasia.. I've had a couple that took about two months before they started doing their job and cleaned them up.

 

[Reef1ruler]

Are there many other fish in the tank with this copper band? I only started having success with copper band's when I began quarantining them alone in an environment where the foods I was trying to get them to eat were available for hours instead of the minutes they are in a tank with food competition. It takes them a while to figure out they like frozen foods, but if you've got them in a tank with other fish, said foods are rarely around long enough for them to really do much sampling.

I went through 2 Copper bands before trying QTing my third in a tank by itself. It exhibited the same habits as the first two, not really eating anything, but kind of inspecting it, but since it was all alone, the mysis it didn't eat just blew about in the current (it was a tank transfer tank, so it didn't have a filter to suck it up either). It gave it all the time it needed to sample a bit here, sample a bit there, then figure out that it liked it better than being hungry. By the end of the first week, it was actively seeking out the mysis, and none would be left after a few minutes. I also just left a clam on the half shell in the tank the whole time (obviously throwing it out and replacing it at least once a day). It completely ignored it at first, but with no other fish or snails to eat it, and a small enough tank that it couldn't really get away from it, it eventually sampled it.

By the end of the 12 day tank transfer protocol I had a copper band that ate both large and small frozen mysis, frozen brine, clams, and scallop, and aggressively enough to compete with a tank full of fish. I lost him along with all my fish to a temperature spike, and when I replaced him I did the same thing with similar success. The major downside was that both fish went in to my display fully adjusted to a captive diet and had exactly zero interest in aiptasia. Not sure those are related, but if you know you're going to get a delicious clam every morning and a smorgasbord of frozen treats every evening, it probably makes eating aiptasia seem like a dumb waste of stomach space.

He is in a tank with 5 other fish(powder brown tang, clownfish, blue angel, pink tail trigger, and a clown trigger.) i am moving all the fish into a 75 gallon tank and when i do i will put the Cbb in its own tank and keep trying frozen food.

 

[thenewguy997]

Add some garlic to the mysis

 

[kelrn98]

Live blackworms!

 

[slief]

Easiest way to get the copperband to eat frozen food is to take a chunk of the frozen food and place it in a clam shell. Ideally a shell with both halves. There are also frozen foods that have some clam in them. If your fish doesn't seem to eat the regular frozen food out of the clam shell, try a fresh clam from the grocery store so you can get him eating from the shell and then add the frozen food the shell..

 

[Shivsreef]

Try using Garlic enriched or soaked foods that "coaxes" the fish to eat and can also help prevent infections as it builds up the fishes immune systems

 

[ChrisKirkland]

Have you tried PE Mysis? I got mine for DD and it came in eating frozen PE Mysis and Frozen Brine. He now eats clams, scallops, and raw shrimp all of which I get from Trader Joes.