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These fish have notorious reputations for short lives in captivity, so firstly I strongly discourage the purchase of this fish unless you have a suitable environment to sustain it. .
CBBs feed on zooplankton in much the same way as a Mandarin. They will spend many hours of the day cruising around the rock-work hunting for food. Without a sufficient population of zooplankton a CBB will usually die of starvation or malnutrition.
I believe a minimum tank size of about 75g with 100lb of live rock is ideal. More live rock and a refugium is definitely going to be more beneficial. The tank should be seeded with zooplankton and a sufficient amount of time should pass to allow the population to grow and stabilize.
CBB are partially reef-safe, and are known to pick corals on occasion. This comes down to the individual fish. Some will also eat aipstasia, but this is far from guaranteed. However, All CBBs will wipe out any feather dusters, tube anemones or tube worms your tank may have in a matter of days/weeks. I have also seen mine attack small bristleworms.
CBB's are very prone to the Lymphocytis virus. There is no known cure, but it's seldom fatal. They should be treated to prevent onset of a secondary infection causing mortality. When in QT try to provide zooplankton and enriched frozens to ensure the health of the fish. I'd advise against using copper, as it makes it very difficult to provide zooplankton that won't immediately die.
Before purchasing a CBB, please do some research on existing and future tank mates. It's important to reduce the chance of aggression or voracious zooplankton predation by tank mates as CBBs can be quite delicate and easily intimidated. Zebrasoma (Yellow, Scopas, Black and Purple) tangs are not an ideal tank-mate as they will more than likely be aggressive towards a CBB because of the similar body shape. Mandarins and 6-line wrasse are also non-ideal tank mates because of their voracious zooplankton eating.
Once in your tank, you should try to supplement the feeding of the CBB with enriched frozen meat. The CBB will likely be picky and only take a few kinds of frozens so test a few different ones (mine only eats blood worm and brine, not mysis). Once they become familiar with your feeding they will happily accept food directly from your fingers or a device you may have employed.
My experience now? I am keeping a CBB in a 125g tank with 200lbs of live rock. The only other sufficient zooplankton predators in my tank are a pair of Bangaii Cardinal. I have a sump/refuge with 30-40lb of live rock. I have 2 Zebrasoma Scopas tangs in the tank also, who occassionally have issues with the CBB. Fortunately the CBB is bigger and doesn't seem to be too concerned by this. If I re-did this again I wouldn't have any Zebrasoma tangs.
I believe it's important to mimic the natural habitat of all our fish, so I do not strive for a spic-n-span SPS dominated reef that has become so popular. I refuse to keep SPS in my tank and have gone for a softies/lps dominated reef. This has allowed me a bit more lee-way when feeding and keeping a high nutrient environment for macro-algae and zooplankton to thrive. The large amounts of zooplankton provide the majority of my CBB's diet, and I merely supplement this with feedings once a day.
My CBB also has an odd habbit of racing back and forward across the front of the tank in the evenings. No ideal why it does this but it doesn't seem to have any negative effects on the fishes health. Perhaps it's just doing some exercise. They are a fairly intelligent, and highly interactive fish. A real treat to have if you can keep them healthy for sure.
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