New Addition, no experience. Copper Band butterfly

[Allentown]

Well my scribbled rabit fish and tommi tang have both acclimated well, eating, fat, happy.

So yesterday i went to the fish store thinking i might try a powder blue and drop it in the quarantine tank for 3 months (just for the heck of it), or come home with a pajama cardinal or a blenny or some obvious addition to a community tank.

Instead they had a really nice 3.5-4 inch copper band butterfly that did show interest in food and looked fat....i took a chance for $39.00 hoping he migh thelp control aptisia and were known to be some-what reef safe (if well fed.)

Well he is out all over the tank and picking at the rock about as much or more than the tommi tang. But of course, he ignores, flake, pellets and algae. If i put enough frozen brine shrimp in, he will get a few bits of that before the other fish gobble it all up. I also have a pretty descent pod population as i dump in a bottle into my fuge every 60-90 days and they seem to be establishing but...

I am keenly aware that i need a new type of food and need to return to the fish store for something more. What are some common items kept at lfs that i can purcahse to make sure he gets what he needs?

 

[reeferstace]

No QT?

 

[DevilishDukie]

Try mysis shrimp or clam half shells. Mine loves mysis! I have also try to feed that fish separately at times using a turkey baster to make sure it gets enough food

 

[Allentown]

Pics

Pics

Pics.

No QT, considerign this fishes need for lots of live rock, pods, bristleworms, etc it appeared to me that the qt process would likely kill the fish. Generally the only fish i was overly concerned with putting in a QT tank would be a white cheeck/powder blue/powder brown tang. The QT process seems to me to be counter productive as it often results in the fishs death so i avoid it accept for the very high risk specimens. i have in the past had ick outbreaks where all the fish fully recovered as they were understocked in a large tank with perfect water and nutrition, so thats my philosophy.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Live blackworms, fresh clam and fresh chopped seafood from the grocery store tend to be top foods for CBBs. Some eat mysis and enriched brine shrimp well also. Most won't touch flakes, pellets, or nori/algae.

It is good that your fish is looking for food and eating pods.

What's done is done, but CBBs can do just fine in quarantine, and it helps let them adapt to captive food without competition from the other fish.

 

[orangegoby]

my cbb loves garden worms, smaller ones . I use this as supplement right now while he training to eating regular food.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Pics.

No QT, considerign this fishes need for lots of live rock, pods, bristleworms, etc it appeared to me that the qt process would likely kill the fish. Generally the only fish i was overly concerned with putting in a QT tank would be a white cheeck/powder blue/powder brown tang. The QT process seems to me to be counter productive as it often results in the fishs death so i avoid it accept for the very high risk specimens. i have in the past had ick outbreaks where all the fish fully recovered as they were understocked in a large tank with perfect water and nutrition, so thats my philosophy.

CBBs are much easier to get feeding and acclimate in a QT.

Lots of folks have had your "philosophy"....until something serious and preventable happens, and it always does. The practice of buying difficult fish, like the CBB, without adequate research is also a big mistake. And you were going to add a PBT to a 60 gal. gal tank with a another tang and a rabbitfish??

 

[Allentown]

CBBs are much easier to get feeding and acclimate in a QT.

Lots of folks have had your "philosophy"....until something serious and preventable happens, and it always does. The practice of buying difficult fish, like the CBB, without adequate research is also a big mistake. And you were going to add a PBT to a 60 gal. gal tank with a another tang and a rabbitfish??

No, i was going to add the powder blue to my 135G with a rabbit fish and tommi tang.

The Quarantine is a 40G cube and has nothing in it except a blue damsel rock, live sand etc. If i were to have gotten a powder blue it would have been QT for sure.(used to be the main tank).

Looks like my main issue is going to be feeding with this fish, but he is fairly active picking off the rocks and even goes after a few bites of the frozen brine so im hopeful.

Mysis shrimp and claims from the grocery store seem to be the top votes so ill go with that and then add if needed.

I agree i should have researched more, however they have one in one of the frag tanks at the LFS that has lived for well over a year and doesnt get fed anything particular (they do feed the tank some shrimp for the corals..and from what they tell me, that sustains him (along with a couple other fish in that tank).

I mainly wanted him for aptisia control (although i know thats hit or miss).

 

[Paul B]

Live blackworms, fresh clam and fresh chopped seafood from the grocery store tend to be top foods for CBBs. Some eat mysis and enriched brine shrimp well also. Most won't touch flakes, pellets, or nori/algae.

I agree with this. I also don't care if you quarantine or not as that was not your original question.

 

[hey_frag]

Your rock looks very new?!?

 

[MrTuskfish]

I agree with this. I also don't care if you quarantine or not as that was not your original question.

Feeding is part of acclimation. IMO & IME, passing on acclimation opinion and experience fits the thread, especially the threads title:"New Addition, no experience. Copper Band butterfly". Comments like mine are directed not only to the OP, but all the other folks that read the thread. After-all, this is a forum. IMO & IME; CBBs are shy and picky fish. The acclimate and begin to feed much better in a QT than in a DT; because of the competition, bullying, and general mayhem of an established DT. Anyone with " no experience" with this fish should be given the benefit of any appropriate opinions. However, Of course, I never miss an opportunity to stress the importance of quarantining new fish.

 

[Paul B]

Mr Tuskfish. Your comments are of course correct and can be added to this or any other thread, as was my comment. I didn't advise to quarantine or not quarantine because the OP asked:

What are some common items kept at lfs that i can purcahse to make sure he gets what he needs?

I was only trying to answer "that" question. I also could have said that IMO a copperband should not be put in such a new tank with all that new, clean rock, or a copperband should not be purchased by someone without sufficient experience or a copperband should not be put in a reef without prior knowledge of it's food requirments. But I was just trying to answer his specific question.
I also feel with such a new tank that that fish "should" have been quarantined even though I never do, But I would with such a new tank.
I just didn't want to get into another big quarantine debate because we both know how they turn out. :beer:

 

[MrTuskfish]

Mr Tuskfish. Your comments are of course correct and can be added to this or any other thread, as was my comment. I didn't advise to quarantine or not quarantine because the OP asked:


I was only trying to answer "that" question. I also could have said that IMO a copperband should not be put in such a new tank with all that new, clean rock, or a copperband should not be purchased by someone without sufficient experience or a copperband should not be put in a reef without prior knowledge of it's food requirments. But I was just trying to answer his specific question.
I also feel with such a new tank that that fish "should" have been quarantined even though I never do, But I would with such a new tank.
I just didn't want to get into another big quarantine debate because we both know how they turn out. :beer:

I just can't pass up a good QT opening. But if the beer is on you...............

 

[Allentown]

Im not the least bit offended by the advice to QT. Its good advice overall even if i do ignore it with my first 3 or 4 fish. (I probably wont add any more without a proper QT from this point going foward...although i have misgivings about putting something like a goby or blenny in there with that yellow tail damsel.

I put in 200lb of base rock in this tank and i have another 100lbs of cultured but alas, i decided to cook it by letting it sit on the front porch for 60 days and its currently re-curing in my 40gallon with live sand, a fluval 204 and a Reef octopus BH 100 skimmer. I was planning on letting it all sit in there for 3 weeks but i have been moving about 10lbs a week over into the main display tank (well only 2 rocks so far and probably another 2 this weekend). After 3 weeks or so is up, ill be adding the whole 100lbs over into the main display for a total of around 300lbs, about 30 days after that, ill be removing nearly all the biomedia out of my fluval 404 and ill be running intermittent carbon only and using it as a loop circulator.

I saved a toal of 5 rocks that didnt get cooked. One is in my refugium (covered with corralline) one had the leather coral on it, one stayed in the old tank and was never cooked, and two smaller ones that are some where in the pile.

In all fairness, on day one the copperband spent 80% of his time nosing around the rock that the finger leather came over on that was never cooked, so obviously i would have been better off if i had saved more of the old rock and not re-cured it.

This is not my first butterfly, but compared to the aurgra (lost to the great ice storm of 04 along with a coral beauty and a fox face lo) , i imagine this copperband will be much more of a challenge.

 

[Paul B]

I just can't pass up a good QT opening. But if the beer is on you...............

Of course it is :wavehand: