My go with some copperband butterfly's

[Reef1ruler]

So awhile back I had a copperband butterfly in my old reef tank. Being one of my favorites I was determined to get it eating. After 2 weeks I finally got it eating pieces of chopped up shrimp from the food store. When it was time to move it into the display everything was great...untill my yellow tang brutally killed it!!! It was very sad and a lot of work to get him eating frozen so I took a break from copperbands for a little. Now while I was walking through one of my local fish stores I saw two baby copperbands, about 2 inches. I just had to have them, and they looked like they liked each other's company and I dident want to seperate them, so I got them both. Now I have a 100 gallon mixed reef(mostly sps) and no more yellow tang so I figured now is a good time too try again. The guy at the store said he got them eating some mysis(I dident have time to watch them feed as I had to get home for Valentine's Day). I put them in a 10 gallon qt and they look very healthy! I'm very happy with these guys and am determined to get them eating like my last one. Today is day 1 and they already get into a "feeding" kinda mood when I tried with some mysis shrimp. Although they dident eat any today I believe I can get them too soon as they were very tempted even being in the tank for only 10 minutes. Wish me luck with these guys and any tips you current copperband owners have would be great! And of course any stories and pictures of these fishes would be great!!!

 

[Reef1ruler]

Here is a picture

 

[bps619]

Awesome! I'm planning on getting one as well.

 

[Reef1ruler]

Awesome! I'm planning on getting one as well.

If you do your research and provide a close to ideal home(as you should for all fish we take from the ocean) they can be hardy fish and very rewarding to keep! Make sure to post a pic when you get him!

 

[oseymour]

To get mine feeding, I went to the store and got some fresh clams, I shucked it and used a rubberband to hold it to a magnetic frag holder. Keep open as how a clam would look in nature. The copperband tore it up.

Obviously feeding whole clams raised my nitrations so after a few days I went to half a clam, them to slices of clam, then to slowly introduce it to mysis and Rods food and LRS Reef Frenzy......now 3 months later it eats anything I put in.

 

[ThRoewer]

Best foods to get them eating are worms - that's what they pick out of crevices in the wild. Blackworms should be ideal.
The trick is to get them to take floating food.

In the past I put a pair of Chelmon together the hard way by sexing them. I first had the female and after she did well I went to hunt down a male. Starting out with little ones is of course the easier way.

 

[fishfreak2009]

I have a copperband currently running through quarantine with a regal angel, a pair of milletseed butterflies, and a threadfin butterfly. It's actually funny that the copperband taught all the other guys to eat NLS pellets. When I found him at the LFS, he had been there since October and was eating NLS the employee threw in for the anthias I was considering. I saw him chow down on pellets and knew I wasn't leaving without him. He's even fiesty enough to compete with the tangs and angels in the big tank. Just waiting for him to finish quarantine.

 

[Reef1ruler]

I have a copperband currently running through quarantine with a regal angel, a pair of milletseed butterflies, and a threadfin butterfly. It's actually funny that the copperband taught all the other guys to eat NLS pellets. When I found him at the LFS, he had been there since October and was eating NLS the employee threw in for the anthias I was considering. I saw him chow down on pellets and knew I wasn't leaving without him. He's even fiesty enough to compete with the tangs and angels in the big tank. Just waiting for him to finish quarantine.

Wow you got lucky! I'm still having trouble with mine eating and considering taking the risk and putting them in the display tank. Hoping that all the live rock and the other fish will encourage them to eat.

 

[kmbyrnes]

I am trying a CBB again as well. Previous tries didn't work out so well. But his time, the fish was eating mysis 10 mins after hitting QT, even though it ate at the LFS just 30 minutes earlier.
In the past I have used clams, oysters and mussels from the grocery store to get various fish to eat. Whatever it takes.
Good luck!

 

[Krispifsu]

I also use clams in the shell and live black worms with my CBB and he eats aggressively with both of these.

However, I also wanted him eating mysis from the water column as I feed this multiple times per day with the anthias I keep. To get him started on eating mysis, I started in the bare bottom QT and I actually turned off all pumps so the food settled on the bottom. He started off picking at the mysis that had sunk to the bottom and then I slowly added more and more flow and now he will actively eat from the water column.

Mine seems to prefer the clams and black worms, and mostly only eats the larger mysis floating in the water column and ignores the smaller pieces.