New Copperband Butterfly - Advice/Opinions wanted

[P.Kelly]

My wife and I bought a 2" CBB today from a local death trap fish store (think big box store). There are no signs of lympho at this time and the fish just came in yesterday, even though I asked them to keep it bagged and call me, no such luck.

First, I want a CBB this size, as it will eventually go into my 92 gallon corner mixed reef.

Second, it is in a 20L quarantine tank right now at 1.016. In the QT are two pieces of LR from my display with some Aiptasia on them. I just setup the QT today.

I have a couple of questions...

1. My QT consists of a 20L with a 100w heater, a maxijet 1200 and an Eheim 2227 wet/dry cannister and single 20w T12 flourescent light. I've added to pieces of established LR with some aiptasia on it and a few mushrooms and a small amount of Chaeto. Any suggestions on things I should do differently, and why? I've never run a QT tank before.

2. I would like to "train" the CBB to eat the aiptasia and mysis or other frozen foods. How should I go about this process. I've put some mysis/spirulina mix in the tank without success today.

 

[P.Kelly]

Turns out it is is moot. The CBB didn't make it the night. At least the death trap gives a 24 hour warranty.

 

[mpoletti]

I bet that was a liitle too hard on the fish. First, it was caught and shipped, then acclimated, caught and brought home. On top of that, the salinity level was low and that might have stressed an already stressed out fish to death.

I understand the salinity thing, but when acclimating a fish it that much of a drop should be done over weeks time.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10485881#post10485881 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Marko9

I understand the salinity thing, but when acclimating a fish it that much of a drop should be done over weeks time.

I agree. You should of had your qt and normal salt levels and then if witness a disease with the fish then treat. IMO delicate fish like a cbb should be placed right away in the main tank.

 

[P.Kelly]

The salinity was that level because that was the level of the salinity from the store.

 

[xia]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=656975&highlight=coral+banded+butterfly

In case you want to try again.

 

[Pirate@40]

My CBB is doing great. My daughter named it Cheatos (a play on Cheetos because of his orange color). I ordered it from liveaquaria.com 6 months ago. I picked up an Australian one because I had heard the were hardier. I feed it mainly live California Blackworms that I get from wormman.com. All my fish love these. I went on vacation and my friend taking care of my tank killed the worms by keeping their water too deep so I was without them for a few days. During that time I feed Formula 1, Marine Cuisine, Andel and Butterfly Diet, etc. All the fish ate that stuff, but when the new worms arrived it was feeding frenzy time again as everything went nuts for the them. The CBB also likes clams. Sometime I get them fresh or sometimes I just use the frozen ones the LFS sells. He likes both. Generally I just drop in one or two a day depending on size. If you want to keep CBBs healthy in your reef, I'd highly recommend California blackworms and clams. I also have had great success with liveaquaria.com. Everything I've gotten from them has been healthy and met or exceeded my expectations.

 

[Nu2SW]

That sucks, Im sorry for the loss.


But why would a store run there salinity at 1.16, I mean hypo is 1.19 isnt it.

1.16 is extremely low.

 

[P.Kelly]

Dunno, the replacement I purchased at Exotic is going strong for a little over a week now.

 

[Justin74]

IME: Putting aside the other culprits; shipping/recieving stress, and even ich I would still be biting my nails for you and the newly aquired just due to it's size. It's pretty uncommon hearing success stories from those who have raised CB's from 2" or less. Much more success from those who get them when there 3" or more.

My guess is a few things. One their just babies and arent hardy enough to handle the stress of shipping/recieving. But there are still over half that do and my guess with these also is that they just havent developed a broad pallet range to have an interest in what were feeding it when not too long ago they were pickin at live pods and mysis in the wild. I think we would be much more likely to see success in the smaller ones if we were willing to provide it small live foods untill it matured.

This is my own personal gatherings and inquiry/assumptions about this fish. Ever since Ive been in this hobby Ive always kept my eye on them untill finally just last year attempted keeping them. Also asking LFS owners there success rate with this fish and there customers, the ones that make it long enough to make it to a customer that is

Ive had excellent result matching the tanks pH in fresh water and with some ich treatment, that challeted green stuff(till the dip is a nice vivid blue)and giving them a fresh water dip for a minute
(thats about all these guys can handle). Great way to fight ich before entry along with other nasties like flukes and stuff.

As far as a proper QT for fish, you do NOT want live sand or live rock. The purpose for a qt on fish is to be able to treat the fish accordingly with hypo salinity and meds like formaline, chelated green, copper, etc., which would also in turn kill the critters making your substrate "live". Best to go BB and use inert materials to provide cover and ease the stress of the fish like PVC cuttings, bowls, cups, feux rock, bubble diver and treasure chest etc.

How it is set up now is more appropriate for qt'ing corals, where the purpose is more for monitoring of unwanted hitchhikers and parasites. Hope that helps

-Justin

 

[juaninsac]

1.016 is a pretty typical SG for LFSs and wholesalers. Maybe closer to 1.018-1.019, but low nonetheless. Most bony fish are perfectly fine with quick salinity drops, but raises in salinity can be quite stressful. I've dropped the specific gravity from 1.024 to 1.010 in 24 hours time several times, with many fish that most would call 'delicate'--angels, butterflies, etc. without any noticeable change in behavior, feeding, or otherwise. You can keep it this low for several months, in fact. Raising it back up to normal salinity should be done slowly, however. There is no rush, so topping up with SW or using regular salinity SW for water changes will bring it up gradually over several weeks' time.

So why do LFSs do it? Well, for one, it is a cost savings. If you change a thousand gallons of SW a month, you're saving lots of money in salt. Two, the idea is that many parasites will have a harder time dealing with the lower salinities. Third, the lower salinity puts the ionic balance between the fish's cells and the water around them more in favor of the fish, reducing the metabolic demand on the fish.

I strongly disagree that a CBB (or any fish for that matter) should ever be added directly to a display tank. QT gives the fish a chance to recover from shipping stress and starvation without competition or aggression from other fish. It also eliminates the possibility of introducing disease to your established fish. If you've had luck adding fish directly to your tank without introducing parasites in the past, you've been lucky. It is not a fun issue to deal with.