Copper Banded Butterfly diet?

[Glimmerman911]

What do Copper Banded Butterfly fish eat?

What have people gotten them to accept?

[Outerbank]

Try buying small scallops. Cut them into small pieces about the size of brine shrimp. Should work. Mine also likes mysis, brine shrimp, small pieces of shrimp.

[Freed]

Frozen mysis and black worms he can not get enough of.

[Glimmerman911]

So far no luck with mysis but I just got him so I will keep trying, thanks for the advice.

[Freed]

Usually frozen brine shrimp WILL work but there is no protein or any substance there. At least it will get it to look at food, usually. Then after it starts eating the frozen brine you can mix in some frozen mysis. Black worms worked wonders for me.

[Glimmerman911]

I will have to look for some black worms havn't seen those before, just blood worms

[Blazer88]

That's a tough spot to be in, Copperbands usually don't do well when they aren't eating before you buy them (from what I hear). I was told to track down live bloodworms and that should entice them to eat. Mine was eating frozen Mysis at the LFS before I brought him home. He'll eat that out of my hand without hesitation.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I have two in a 400 G tank and all I feed the tank is small pellets for the small fish and sheets of nori. Mine are mainly niping at my LR which I have about 400 lbs of. I beleive they have eaten some of the small pellets I feed the tank as well as some of teh frozen brine I feed on occasion. You can get a frozen brine that is fortified with vitimans and other nutreients as they are basically a poor source of nutrients.

I've had mine going on about 3 months now and they are doing great. I originally got them to help with my apstia problem but I haven't seen them touch any of them. They are thining out so maybe they are eating them, just not while I'm around. :rolleyes:

[Glimmerman911]

I got mine for aiptasia as well. He is picking at the rocks ocassionaly so hopefully he is getting something.

I couldn't check for eating at the LFS because I flew this guy in from a vendor.

[DamienHanna]

Try a frozen clam. Mine loves Mysis and Aptasia but goes nuts when I drop a frozen clam in the tank. I buy them at the supermarket (they're called littleneck clams or something like that) and I thaw one out for a few minutes in warm water, Crack it open and drop it in. The Copperband goes to work on it!

I was convinced I had a dud when I put him in my reef at first cause I had tried to train him to eat Aptasia in the quarantine tank and he never paid them a second glance. Within two weeks of entering the reef he had cleared the place of aptasia; he then went to work on all the worms in the tank inclduing my feathers which I knew were doomed. They do much better in a reef due to the proliferation of worms and various pods and critters to pick on.

He roams the tank all day poking his nose into rocks and nipping at various things I can never see; very active even at night. When I feed my Sun Coral after drak he hangs around and picks on the left over pieces of chopped meats...

[Glimmerman911]

Did he eat large aiptaisia? How big?