How to get a Copper Banded Butterfly to eat?

[rupes reef]

I bought a copper banded butterfly less than a week ago and it is nice sized, healthy, and is doing very well in the tank but i have yet to see him eat. I was wondering what you would suggest feeding. I have tried, blood worms, myces shrimp, pellet, flake. And i duno where would be a good direction to go from here.

[BurntOutReefer]

was he eating before you bought him?...try soaking some myces or brine shrimp in some garlic.....
Good luck...IME, they are very finicky eaters.....

[sunfishh]

PM Paul B he has been keeping marine fish since the 70's and CB Butterflys are his favorite.

[Freed]

Try some live black worms. They usually do the trick OR some frozen brine will usually get them interested in eating and then offer a few live black worms at a time and it will probably go for them sooner than later.

[gummi]

It's really hit or miss. From my experience you can't really get them to eat. More or less just give them time and it's up to them... do you have any aiptasia stalks that he can nibble on?

Blood worms and Mysis are the fav (you can also try cyclopeez) but they don't provide the fish the nutrition to survive very long. Also keep in mind that he may be eating bristle worms in your tank...

[t5Nitro]

black worms or blood worms are your best bet to get him to start feeding. Feed the other fish then target feed him and see if he has any interest. When I had my CBB, I did this and over a few days he snapped a few pieces of the worm. After that he started eating mysis shrimp faster than the tangs would.

[SkyPapa]

I've had mine for about 4 months and all he eats is pods and aiptasia .
I've tried everything mentioned above and it's not interested.
It seems to find enough pods as it seems healthy and has no competition for them.
I have 2 fuges with chaeto and other macro .

[snorvich]

They are problematical. Of things you can buy, black worms are the most likely. Not all of them eat aiptasia.

[sassafrass]

Freeze a mussel or clam cut it in half and place that in the aquarium ,I recently aquired one and that is what worked for me. The next step is to freeze some mysis shrimp into the empty clam shell that way it will get used to regular aquarium food and as the mysis melts and goes into the water column the CBB will get used to picking food out of the water instead of a shell.
Lee

[abulgin]

plus 1 on live black worms. That's all mine would eat for the first few weeks. Now he eats frozen mysis.

[atwinparadox2]

They are really finicky eaters. It's a good idea to have a QT tank for situations like this. Then you can observe them in the QT tank without everything else adding stress to the situation. Then you would be able to make sure the CBB is eating and ready to hit the main display tank, where he would AGAIN probably decide to stop eating. :D

But he is probably still stressed from the change. All other posts gave great feeding advice. It's like feeding a toddler, you just have to keep trying until they decide to eat. Also, unless he looks sick after this past week, then he might be picking up pods or picking at the rockwork at night. He might feel more comfortable when the lights are out. Have you tried feeding him with the lights out? Hope this helps.

[Pirate@40]

I've had mine for 18 months and he eats live black worms and clams on the half shell. I flush the worms daily with fresh chilled RO and I add a dropper full of Selcon every other day to the worm containers.

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13045279#post13045279 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by atwinparadox2
They are really finicky eaters. It's a good idea to have a QT tank for situations like this. Then you can observe them in the QT tank without everything else adding stress to the situation. Then you would be able to make sure the CBB is eating and ready to hit the main display tank, where he would AGAIN probably decide to stop eating. :D

.

I second the use of a qt. This is my third attempt with a cbb. this time it spent five weeks in a qt tank until it was eating mysis shrimp really well and is doing fine in the display tank now

PaulB brought up a good point when I mentioned the mysis. He felt these are not nutrious enough if that is all they eat and suggested trying to get the black worms also.