Copperband butterfly feeder

[jmann]

Anybody have any pics or ideas on building a CBB feeder that actually works? Thanks

[stugray]

What do you want to feed it?

I have had CBBs eat bloodworms, Mysis, & frozen green mussels.

Stu

[jmann]

all of the above, but I want it to be so that the CBB is the only one that can get to it.

[dahenley]

take a 1 1/4 cap and a 1 1/4 plug. sand the plug with sand paper to where you can put the two together easy. if they are a little tight then you will never get them apart. drill some 1/4 holes in the cap. (you might want to drill the holes in the cap before you sand. this way it doesnt airlock) now you have a feeder that wont float. put a cube of frozen blood worms or mysis (my CBBF likes mysis more than bloodworms, some like blood worms better.) because your butterfly has a beak it can get in the feeder.

when i feed, my butterfly would go to one corner of my tank away from the other fish. i would drop the feeder in that corner and then start feeding my fish. the cubes will dissolve and the butterfly will eat. mine was in a area around a powerhead so the current would actually pull some of the food out of the feeder. now my butterfly will eat all frozen and some flake foods. it still likes frozen better. after a few days, it would start to come around the other fish but held back. now it is in there boxing for food and trying to eat more than the rest.

i hope that helps

[jmann]

Thanks dahenley Yeh mine likes mysis and I've had him in a Qt for a month now and he eats fine, but I was worried about him getting his share in the 240 DT, where there is a naso, yellow tang, angles and chalk basses and they are all agressive eaters. I had one before I moved and had to sell him, that I had on clams and when the frozen clam opened up a quartewr of an inch he was the only one that could get into it, but I can't get this one to look at a clam hardly, so am trying to figure out how to make sure he gets enough to sustain him, as most die of starvation after a matter of months. I well try your feeder until he gets to where he can hold his own, if ever.

[dahenley]

my tank is a 240 also. i have a powder blue, yellow, sailfin, cromis, 4clowns, hawk fish, damsils, and a few more. My copperband was eating with in a week. (eating with the rest of the fish) i didnt have a QT tank so your already up one on me and most people. it should do fine.

[jmann]

How long have you had him? If he can hold his own in there that is good.

[dahenley]

this is my second. my first i had for 1.5 months (i installed a few new powerheads on mechanical timers and it kicked on for about 30min to a hour and when i woke up the next morning he was sucked up against the powerhead.... RIP) this one i have had for 2-3 months now. no problems.

[jmann]

dahenley I am not critizing, just want to run this thought by you. I have 30+ yrs doing this and heard that there was a feeder being made from clear tubing with holes in it at the bottom so you could put some mysis in it and the copper band would be the only one able to get them. Your first CBB probably starved, because not even a tunze would be strong enough to hold a healthy one stuck to it. CBB need to be fed 3 times a day and in a community tank they usally do not get enough from the feedings when they have to compete with all the others. Look at his belly area, it should be full looking and not as narrow as his sides or even hollow looking behind the gill area. 98% of them starve in a matter of months in a community tank unless it is fed regularly and it has a high pod population in the DT and no wrasses or mandarins that scour the rocks all day looking for pods. In the wild they eat small clams and I have tried everything to get this one too, but he won't even hardly look at them. I have had 4 0r 5 over the years and have always been able to get them on clams, then you drop a frozen one in and it opens up a 1/4" and he is the only one able to eat it as it thaws. This has to be done in a QT by himself though. You might go back to your feeder in the big tank for him. Good luck

[dahenley]

I take all the information that is out there and make my choices from that. i try not to ever get offended at anything so dont worry. i will throw my feeder back in the tank and see what happens. i have never fed clams so i will probably end up going to get some and try that.

i dont have any wrasses or mandarins. i do have 1 scooter blenny.

all my fish are plump, :)
i feed roughly 3 cubes of frozen food, type 1 pellet, type 2 flake, cyclopeeze flake, and one other type of flake. and at night i just do some flake, pellet, and maybe one frozen cube with some frozen cyclopeeze for the coral to feed on. i have some seaweed for the tangs during the day for a snack.

(my old butterfly had a hard time eating because he had cauliflower on its mouth. so i am sure it was malnourished.)

thanks for the info, i will look at my butterfly to see how it looks later.

[jmann]

Sounds good. You can't do the clams in the DT. You have to do it in a QT first to get him on them, only him in the tank.

[dahenley]

for the clams. are they reef food or are you talking about fresh from a market or grocery
i am interested.

[jmann]

I am talking about the small manilla clams live from the grocery stores, but make sure you freeze them first. To get him started on them you need him in a tank by himself. You start with a thawed out clam you have opened up completely, until he is eating them. Then you start leaving them more closed until you can just drop a frozen one in a tank and when it starts to open he well start eating. If the clam doesn't open when thawed, throw it away as it is no good. This has to be done with the larger size CBB, as they are able to tear the clam meat out of the shell, the small ones can't.

[SMOOTHIE]

Baby food jar

[dahenley]

:thumbsup:
thanks! i will give that a try and see how it likes it.

[lostintheocean]

my cbb is the most agressive feeder in the tank. He eats food that floats on the top and it makes a loud sound. he is the only one who eats this floating food, usually half the bloodworms float , if that helps

[lllosingit]

take a 1 1/4 cap and a 1 1/4 plug. sand the plug with sand paper to where you can put the two together easy. if they are a little tight then you will never get them apart. drill some 1/4 holes in the cap. (you might want to drill the holes in the cap before you sand. this way it doesnt airlock) now you have a feeder that wont float. put a cube of frozen blood worms or mysis (my CBBF likes mysis more than bloodworms, some like blood worms better.) because your butterfly has a beak it can get in the feeder.

when i feed, my butterfly would go to one corner of my tank away from the other fish. i would drop the feeder in that corner and then start feeding my fish. the cubes will dissolve and the butterfly will eat. mine was in a area around a powerhead so the current would actually pull some of the food out of the feeder. now my butterfly will eat all frozen and some flake foods. it still likes frozen better. after a few days, it would start to come around the other fish but held back. now it is in there boxing for food and trying to eat more than the rest.

i hope that helps

I read a post the other day...where the person built something like that but also used a magent to hold it to the side of the tank. Shouldn't be to hard to do.