Feeding New Copperband and Kole Tang

[Buzz1329]

I received medium sized Copper Band Butterfly and Golden Eyed Kole Tang from Live Aquaria last Friday, 12/11. From moment I put them in my 75, they have been inseparable with no signs of aggression.

Two days before they arrived I stocked tank with bag of 1,000 pods (for benefit of CBB). Since then I have offered CBB: live baby brine shrimp, frozen mysis shrimp, live adult brine shrimp, live black worms (every other fish in both my tanks have gone nuts for this stuff), frozen formula one, prime reef, flakes and pellets. The CBB ignored them all, but did peck at rocks. I'm hoping he was finding pods to keep him going. It also sucked in some mysis, but spit most of them out. Second time through menu, and tonight it actually ate 3 live black worms! Woo hoo! Hope this is turning point, because I was running out of options.

Kole Tang is not eating much either. Not a lot of algae in the tank. I've offered nori on clips around bottom of tank and rubber-banded to small rocks, but no interest. I've fed frozen Formula Two, spirulina flakes . . . but no interest. Ditto with all the stuff I offered CBB. KT does scrape mouth on rocks but I'm not sure there is much there to sustain it. Next step is to try to find some transportable rocks in my other tank that have some algae on them.

Good news is that all the other fish, coral, and inverts in the 75 have never looked better. NO3 and PO4 were low but now with gut-busting feeding schedule have climbed to 0-1 N03 and .031 PO4

Both new fish still look great. But I would appreciate any other suggestions on what to feed these two?

Thanks,

Mike

P.S. We all do things a little different in this hobby. I have stopped QTing fish. May be a big mistake, but I have my reasons, and I respect your reasons for QTing. I am hoping, however, that this thread can focus on what to feed my two new fish, rather than an auto da fe on my idiosyncratic QT practices. Cheers!

 

[BryanS4]

Give the Kole Eye some time, mine was the same way for about the first week now he eats anything I put into the tank.

I also received a CBB from LA about three weeks ago and the only thing it will eat regularly right now is frozen brine shrimp. Its just the cheap San Fran Bay brand. It's starting to spit LRS which is what I feed all my tanks, so hopefully it starts taking that soon. Mine wanted nothing to do with live brine or blackworms either.

 

[Buzz1329]

Give the Kole Eye some time, mine was the same way for about the first week now he eats anything I put into the tank.

I also received a CBB from LA about three weeks ago and the only thing it will eat regularly right now is frozen brine shrimp. Its just the cheap San Fran Bay brand. It's starting to spit LRS which is what I feed all my tanks, so hopefully it starts taking that soon. Mine wanted nothing to do with live brine or blackworms either.

Re CBB, frozen brine, hey? I can do frozen brine. Thanks.

Good news re Kole Eye. It still looks healthy as hell so I guess I'll continue with current offerings.

may good be at you, which is to say muchos thankeros,

Mike

 

[apcoleman]

My kole eye was very picky when I first got him. The first thing he went after with gusto was the new era grazer. I would highly recommend them

 

[Fishfreak_MA]

My copper band did the same thing. About 3 days for him to try the live black worms. Now he will eat them off the fork I scoop them from the container with. He's funny as he almost has an anxious look as he waits for all the other pigs to fill up on whatever is on the menu before I put in the worms. He's even becoming more aggressive in going after them which is great considering they're not aggressive eaters. I've had him about 3 weeks and he is also now eating some mysis. At first he did the same as the gentleman aboves and spit it out but now he will keep 3-4 down before he decides he doesn't really like it so much. It's great to see so many of us getting them eating lately. I was really worried about it but he's doing extremely well and has become my favorite fish.

 

[mattgumaer]

Try fresh clams. I used little necks.

Matt

 

[MondoBongo]

that's a good sign that he's sampling. i've had two CBB's, one refused to eat anything and sadly died in QT, the other was nibbling myses the first day, and is now a happy resident of my main tank.

my advice would be to just keep offering things. selcon can be helpful too, since it stinks to high heaven and seems to help attract attention to whatever it is slathered on.

what i found is that the first few days in a new tank my CBB was tentative, similar to what you're describing. he would pick a few things, then move. after a few days he started feeding more reliably, then after about two weeks he would start showing a very strong feeding response.

i just kept offering small amounts, as many times a day as i could, and as varied as i could. his favorites were live white worms, myses, and nutramar ova (a type of roe that has been out of stock forever). he didn't show much interest in other things, and pellets/flake is pretty much invisible to him still.

 

[scooter31707]

My Kole didn't eat nothing when I first got it. What helped me was getting a 2 x 2 piece of Nori and rubberband it to a piece of rock. I guess it seem more natural to the Kole. After that he eats anything near him.

 

[asteele]

Hand feeding CBB

Hand feeding CBB

We got our CBB about 8 months ago - cleaned up aptaisa, then micro feather duster worms, but after that was having a hard time competing for food with other fish. So we started to hand feed - and it learned fast - especially likes frozen mysid cubes...

 

[Buzz1329]

Thanks for all the success stories. Amazing photo, asteele.

CBB is now eating live blood worms with gusto and picking at defrosted frozen mysis. Kole Tang is more partial to mysis than worms, but it's eating too.

Fish in my larger tank -- especially Tangs -- go absolutely berserk for the worms. Thank you, Paul B, for your posts/threads extolling the little critters, especially for CBBs. I bought a kit that allows me to rinse them with COLD RO/DI water 3x a week, and I keep them in my kid's old dorm fridge in basement. Even with rinsing they still stink, but spouse has no reason to open fridge so I'm safe so far. Kit cost $55 (including overnight shipping and worms, which seem to be growing at pace equal to what I'm removing for feeding). Purchased from http://stores.ebay.com/aquaticfoodsblackwormco/

Mike