Quarantine Copperband Butterly?

[xxxbadfishxxx]

I am going to pick up a copperband butterfly from eddies, they should get some in the next week, maybe even tonight. As many of you know they are really difficult to get going. Some say that quarantining a CBB then introducing into the main can add to the stress.

what do you think? If the fish shows no signs of ich should i put him right in the main? I know this defies all rules of the hobby. I have never got ich from any local stores, although i have seen it from time to time.

 

[xian]

Chances are if the fish has ich you won't keep it out by QTing the fish. That is of course if you believe that the parasite is not in your aquarium to start with. I've had my hippo tang for 7 years. When I moved my setup he developed some ich. He's fine now.

Anyway...

You may have some luck with QT if the fish is a timid eater. If there are agressive tankmates you may have trouble getting it to eat. Either way good luck.

 

[Tom&Ben]

I have had two CBB.
My first lasted maybe a month, I think ich did him in. My second is still going strong after a few months.
The difference between the two is I brought the second CBB home in the bag he was shipped to the store in. This eliminated the stress of being exposed to a few different water environments in a short time. Ask for the delivery time and tell the store to keep one floating in the bag for you.

 

[Lakeside518]

I wouldn't recommend that. IMO I find it best to observe the fish, give it a good visual inspection. Ask to see it feed. CBB like mysis! I was fortunate enough to find mine in perfect health @ Eddies and he was an active eater.

When I think back on possible causes of death I'm left with these conclusions. Although he didn't look thin. The last several months I have only been feeding my tank once a day. A good size feeding. Also I had my pink/black cucumber die. It didn't affect any of my corals or nuke my tank in anyway so lucky there!..

I kind of wonder if it was lack of nutrition. Something he just wasn't receiving.

Hope this helps some.

Kris

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

Well i picked him up, very nice, pretty small, good markings and appears to be healthy with no signs of ich, nor did any of the others in his or surrounding tanks.

I picked up some Blood worms and already have the Hikarki (Spelling?) Mysis Shrimp. I will also pick up some little neck clams tommorow for him to nip on, i here that these are the three major sources of food for them.

I am acclimating him now with the lights out, so hopefully all goes well. He/she is truly a beutiful fish, and i hope all goes well with him. I know they dont have a great success rate, so im hoping for the best.

 

[ChrisBuono]

I've purchased and lost three CBBs in the past year. I really love them, but I needed to take a break from trying after the last. I quarantined only one (the middle one). He died during quarantine. The issue for me has been one of stress and being beaten to the food. I found all three to be timid eaters.

If I had it to do over again, I'd introduce it directly to a display tank -- being sure it was kept with other timid eaters (seahorse, most gobies, etc.).

As an aside, I'm a firm believer that every tank has almost all of the parasites and bacteria present that can stress or kill a fish. A tank with good, stable water parameters is the best way to prevent harmful infection.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

well to keep you updated he is doing better then expected, the tankmates are treating him well, which i was a little scared after what i like to call the "Jawfish Incident." He is picking off the rocks and even ate my favorite feather duster that i got as a hitchhicker from my original Liverock purchase 2 years ago.

i fed tonight a mixture of mysis and cyclopeeze with some guarlicguard mixed in. i fed the tank as a whole and then used a turkey baster to spot feed him. He is very timid, much like my yellow watchman when i first got him, he will stay in one spot until a peice floats by within an inch and he will go for it.

I may also try the clam trick when you get a couple littleneck clams and mix the concotion together and freeze them, and drop the clam in so he can peck at it as it thaws out.

i also may try littleneck clams as a whole and see how he does with them, i here they love them, but i question on whether i can get a real clam in the future if he becomes custom to eating them.

Do they eat Nori?

 

[xian]

As far as I know all butterflies are carnivores but that doesn't mean they won't eat it. As a rule you should treat any butterfly with caution in a reef due to the fact that they are prone to eating, corals, sponges and also clams. Watch your zoos too.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

yeah i will keep my eye out, for that very reason i only have some crappy zoos in my 50 for now, all the good ones are in the nano. Actually my 50 is not looking much like a reef after the move, Most of my xenia dwindeled to nothing, still there and is regrowing, but wish i sold/trade/gave it away before moving. I also have Yellow polyps, lavender shrooms, galexia, and GSP's, i will keep a close watch.

 

[Lakeside518]

He will only be timid for a couple days. Like any other fish in a new environment. Sounds like you have all the bases covered and he is in good hands

I will have my eyes open for a good specimen as well. I was very fortunate with my CCB he never once harassed my clams or corals. But yes, did whip out a couple of my feather dusters. I should have bought him a couple just for a treat. This time around I'll try adding a couple more things to the menu specifically for him.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

Kris, they still have one at eddies. I also brought some bloodworms, i here they like them.

 

[WinkeyWoneye]

While I was doing research on feeding my mandarin, I ran into a interesting thread somewhere around here. From what I had gotten out of the thread, people were saying blood worms, cyclop-eeze, and brine shrimp have no real nutritional value for marine fish. They will eat them, but do not get the nutrition needed for marine fish out of these foods. These and any other foods that cannot be found naturally in the ocean will not provide adequate nutrition and therefor should not be used for feeding marine species as a MAIN food source... IE..Dont bother getting your mandarin or CBB trained to eat these, as it does nothing for them on a nutritional value. Most people were recommending Mysis as the best food of choice for enticing mandarins, and I would imagine the same would go for CBB's. It said those foods are ok as a treat but not for a main food source. I dunno how true this all is, but its food for thought...literally Figured I would just throw it out there to share what I had found. If it helps it helps, if not ohh well. :lol:
Also I have read that adult brines are not nutritional at all but freshly hatched brine with the yolks still attached are very nutritional. :crazy1:
As for my mandarin, I have had no luck training it to eat mysis. I have a four-line wrasse, for almost a year now, that is a very picky eater also. I have only seen the wrasse eat pods and the occasional peck at a mysis floating by. I've only had the mandarin a month or so now, but both seem very happy, fat, and healthy so I'm not too worried about it. I'll just add a bag of pods to the main tank every once in a while to make sure the pod population stays high, until the new sand bed matures.

 

[xian]

Brine and bloodworms yes, but cyclop-eeze is an arctic cultured copepod. Very nutritional However too small to be an effective fish food, its meant for zoo plankton feeders.

Gut gut loaded brine are good food. I feed mysis krill cyclopeeze and phytoplankton daily. Phytoplankton will help keep the pod population high.

 

[archer8681]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8846410#post8846410 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xxxbadfishxxx
Kris, they still have one at eddies. I also brought some bloodworms, i here they like them.

I was at Eddies yesterday and when I was paying for some frozen food, the guy next to me was buying a CBB. Call them to see if they have another. That may have been the only one they had.

 

[xxxbadfishxxx]

yeah, i add the cyclopeeze for feeding the corals, i usually dose the nano with cyclopeeze first to get my sun polyps to open to be later fed with Mysis. I also add DT's phytoplankton every once in a while but not on a daily basis.

yeah, when i brought my CBB on Wed. they had two of them, i brought the smaller of the two.

anything else i should try feeding the CBB, i usually alternate mysis one day, and then either frozen Formula 2 or Formula 1 pellets, but im not sure if he will go for that.