What does your Copperband eat??

[MG21]

Just got a small one and he's in quarantine. Was eating mysis at the fish store. What else would you suggest?

 

[bigbenji]

Mine eats anything I throw at it. Flakes, mysis, aptasia, slow-sinking pellets, etc...

 

[64Ivy]

Mysis, Formula One, Enriched Brine Shrimp, Aiptasia , Spectrum Pellets, Clam & Oyster meat.

 

[dodger1v]

Mine will eat PE mysis only plus w/e aiptasia shows itself in the tank. She eats a little over 1 cube at each feeding.

 

[JRPhd]

It is rare for them to eat flake or pellets. Mine only eats PE mysis. As was mentioned to me feed them this and add a supplement like Selcon.

 

[Paul B]

I always feed cbbs live blackworms along with the other things mentioned except flake food which I do not feed to anything.
Paul

 

[MG21]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[crzy4reefs]

they are a beautiful fish......are they hard to keep? or like most fish if they are eating frozen or prepared already then they should do fine............i was thinking about getting a small one for my tank.........it will have 150 to go in to in a few months....

 

[Paul B]

I would not call a copperband an easy fish. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give them a 3. I have had many of them and although they all ate well I have never been able to keep one past about 5 or 6 years and a fish like a CBB should live at least 10 years. They are almost like a moorish Idol (but not quite as bad) in that they have a personality and each fish is different in their temperment and their diet. For some reason this fish will eat fine for years then all of a sudden stop eating and die with no outward signs of disease. I have autopsied a few and so far have not found out the cause.
Has anyone here kept one for 10 years? I would like to know.
Paul

 

[Paul B]

I figured I would throw in another picture. Here is mine at night, or with just the actinics on.

 

[jda]

I had one for 2 years. That was a max for me. It did eat some frozen formula food, but mostly just meat.

Sometimes they need to scavenge on the live rock for months before they start to eat even mysis. They are one species that I think does better in a mature reef rather than a barren QT tank.