tips for a Cooperband Butterfly

[steallife904]

I have tried 2 so far with no luck. First one seemed to be eating and even ate aptasia in the tank but had an ICH outbreak that ended up killing everything. Tank sat empty for months and started back with a few fish. Add another butterfly and I believe this one decided he didn't want to eat. I would see him kinda pick at Mysis but never really go after food.... he lasted a week and died yesterday. Are these hard to keep and is there any tips I should do to be successful? I should add that the only other fish in my 150 right now are a longnose hawk and mandarin dragonets so he had no one taking food from him. Just reading up on them it seems they can be hard to keep but I really like them and wanted opinions on being successful with one.

 

[fairl80z]

That fish is relatively hard to keep . They either do very well or very poor .

 

[welshintheusa]

I had mine for 2.5 years. She loved mysis and i hand fed her Aptasia which grows down in my sump every day. Sadly she stopped eating, and then 2 days later started violently shaking. Sadly i euthanized her. I did not want my fave fish to suffer. If you can get them to eat, most of the time they are fine. Make sure you see it eating, before it leaves the lfs.

 

[MondoBongo]

i've had mine for a few months now. doesn't seem to be that hard to keep.

1. make sure they're eating in the store before you bring them home
2. quarantine them, with prazi, they're fairly susceptible to internal parasites
3. make sure they're not the subject of harassment.
4. feed them a variety of foods, whatever they will eat. PE Mysis is the staple for mine, but i also feed live white and black worms, PE Callanus, and whatever else i can get him interested in.

 

[steallife904]

ya I messed up not making the store feed it in front of me... I feed the tank frozen Mysis and frozen Rods food. So would think one would od the trick. Just have to make sure its eating in the store next time.

 

[scooter31707]

Might want to start thinking about quarantining all your fish. I believe the only way the Longnose and Mandarin are alive because they are very hardy when it comes to fighting disease. So you probably still have ich in the tank, that's why other fish are dying. I recommend letting the display tank go fishless for 72 days.

 

[jminick2]

blackworms or whiteworms