Sustaining your Copperband Butterfly

Atomikk

Atomikk

SPS OG
Hey guys,

I know a lot of you have either contemplated or even tried to keep this beautiful fish but had some troubles. I wrote up a cool blog about how I managed to sustain mine, after seeing it loose a lot of weight.

Your questions and input is welcome.

http://blog.fragd.it
 
FWIW we had one and I think he used to call the turkey baster "Mama"! He was a very animated eater and would stick his nose right in to the opening of the baster.

Unfortunately we lost him after about 4 months. One day appeared normal, the next day gone.
 
I think what is important is to keep a healthy supply of pods for it. In other words, have a very nice refugium (that is gravity fed).
 
People make the mistake of feeding copperbands mostly mysis or other frozen foods which may be inapropriate. Copperbands eat worms. It should be the main part of their diet. I have kept many of them for many years and observed them in the sea. Their long snout is made for pulling worms out of holes. Frozen "bloodworms" are not worms, they just look like them. They are insect larvae and not suitable.
I use live black worms. It is their favorite food and I always feed all of my animals with a baster.
 
I do agree with Paul that live foods are best in any case. What I want to know from Paul is what makes 'bloodworms' so far from nutritional? Is it the type of porteins that they are not getting from bloodworms as they would be from live worms?

And john, here is a link to blackworms..

http://aquaticfoods.com/worms.html
 
Blood worms are not worms they are insect larvae. I would imagine they would be lacking in many nutritional aspects.
Blackworms although a fresh water animal do contain omega 3 oils similar to marine foods. I have been using them for over 40 years and if you want to get fish into breeding condition fast, they are the way to do it. Just about all of the fish I have ever bred were conditioned with blackworms. Damsels including clowns will get into breeding condition in a few weeks on a diet with a proportion of these worms. Don't feed them exclusively or your fish may not eat anything else. Also don't keep them in the refrigerator. Keep them in a shallow tank with an inch of fresh airated water and feed them. They will live for weeks and stay healthy. Also don't overcrowd them
 
People make the mistake of feeding copperbands mostly mysis or other frozen foods which may be inapropriate. Copperbands eat worms
Click to expand...

I'm going to disagree a bit.........they eat a wide variety of benthic invertabrates. After all, a lot of them will consume aptasia.

From fishbase.org......
http://www.fishbase.org/TrophicEco/...enus=Chelmon&species=rostratus&sortby=foodiii

They probably have a better chance of surviving longer on black worms because of the nutritional value over just mysis & brine. I do agree that worms are probably their preferred food, but the key is to get them to eat meater foods that they can fatten up on.

Imo, it's all about presentation & the baster is a good idea. These fish are pickers & not used to eating out of the water column. Any feeding mechanism that can be setup where the CBB can find & pick at food will work.

They can quickly learn to eat out of your hand faster than most fish & you can target feed them easier. You have to make a point of directly feeding them daily. They are much slower to react to food versus other fish & have a hard time competing.

If anyone wants to keep one for a long time(years) keep agressive tankmates to a minimum.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is putting these fish right in the display. The thinking is that they will have live rock to pick at & have food available immedaitely. They need to be trained to eat FIRST without competition in a QT seup. They cannot thrive for years just nibbling food off the live rock.

These are some of my experiences with my C.muelleri (4 years)which in my opinion is a much better CBB to try your hand at. It easts mysis, Formula1& 2, clam, scallops, chopped shrimp.
 
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Ed you are correct that copperbands will eat almost anything if you get the right copperband. Mine also eats bananas as I fed these to my moorish Idol. Copperbands have a very unique personality somewhat like a moorish Idol in that some of them will eat anything including flakes and some will eat almost nothing. I would never buy a copperband (or any fish) unless I see it eat in the store. Although they will usually eat any small meaty food, worms should be a part of their diet. They are all protein, mysis and similar foods are mostly indijestible shell.
Clams are also good as I also feed these almost every day.
( I eat them myself all the time)
I have always been a big advocate of live worms because when a fish eats a worm it gets the entire worm, guts and all. While clams are my second best choice, different parts of a clam offer different nutrients. The clam mantle is not as nutritious as the viscera or guts. Copperbands would almost never get to eat a clam in the sea but as I said they are almost as good as live worms. It does not seem to matter too much as I have kept copperbands for years by feeding all sorts of meaty foods. I try to dive with all of the fish I keep to see what they are eating in the sea. If you can't get live worms, clams and mysis will of course work.
Here is one of mine.
13094copperband.jpg
13094Copperband_002.jpg
 
Well said Paul..........I think these fish have two strikes against them due to where most are harvested, their delicate nature, & shimpment stress.

I have nothing against the black worm feeding it's just a more difficult food to keep handy for most hobbyists & fish do seem to get hooked on them. I've heard of freshwater discus owners having this problem. It definately seems to be one of the best foods to get problem feeders going & a great supplement as well as all the other options listed.
 
Agreed Big E. Live foods are the best as they would prove the complete nutrition for the fish. Also a varied diet, with addition of vitamins and amino acids, would help to sustain this beautiful fish.

I trained mine in a QT to eat bloodworms and mysis. That is why it knows what it is and why it darts right for them.
 
After about five months in my tank, mine perished recently. It was enthusiastically eating frozen mysis, occasional brine, frozen mussels and even flake after the first week or ten days. Then one day, months later and in otherwise apparent good health, it seemed less interested in food, and didn't seem to compete as much with the Potter's angel, foxface, or either anthias species I keep - aggressive eaters all - for food. And in its last couple of days, it ate none, before dying. Kind of discouraging and mysterious - since I was among the fortunate ones who actually got a copperband that was eating well, I thought it would do well for a long time. (All water params check out fine, and other fish appear normal.) Really a shame, it was a fun fish to watch.
 
I had a Copperbanded Angel for about 1.5 weeks. I tried feeding fresh clam and shrimp, formula 1, frozen brine and mysid, and forumula 2. He would not eat anything for the life of him, literally. He did demolish my amphipod and copepod population though. I think to keep a healthy copperband you just need a large supply of pods.
 
Mrwilson, that is another similarity between copperbands and moorish Idols. Both fish usually die the same, by refusing food for no apparent reason while in seemingly good health.
I think all of them that I lost, thats what happened and I have had many of them.
 
Could it be that they are not getting the varied diet that they need? For CBB's did they not have any fan worms that they could eat?
 
I think mine has been with me about a year and 1/2 now. Mine wont eat blackworms or bloodworms at all. He is also clam-safe. He eats mysis (will eat brine), and picks pods and worms off the rocks all day and night. I also make sure that I add aiptasia to the tank every so often for him to eat. I am pretty convinced that having a thriving amphipod/worm population and a larger tank are really key to keeping them healthy. I also like to rotate rocks out of my sump for him that have a lot of bugs on them. He gets so excited when I add a rock that he practically wags his tail.

Lisa
 
This is a question & not a criticism.........but why keep buying them when they mysteriously die for no reason? I won't ever buy a C. rostratus because I haven't read any true success stories.

I'd really like to know if, or how many people have any long term success with this species? I consider 5 years as the minimum for successfully keeping any marine fish.

It would be great if more people could chime in with how long they have actually kept CBBs & how many they have gone through.
 
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