Copperband Butterfly Primer

[Eldredge]

Originally posted by nicks387
I have a cbb I have had for a month now. My tank is a 300 gallon with a 120 gallon tank for a sump. The sump is just used for holding live rock and my zeo reactor so its more like another tank. The reason I keep him down there is my PBT picks on him when hes in the display. Anyway he has cleaned out all my aptaisia from all my rock but wont eat anything else. Could he be surviving on something else down there or should I get him out?

The first one I had in my 125 wouldn't eat anything but the aptasia and tube worms. Once they were gone, he eventually starved to death. I never could get him to eat anything else, and the 125 didn't make enough to support him apparently. The one I have now eats some frozen food, and is growing and doing well. Good luck.

[Paul B]

Very interesting as we humans also react VERY well to oils such as omegas.

We as humans can only take a very small amount of vitamin A and D but fish are used to eating other fish which are loaded with oil. A fish like a shark is about one fifth liver and that is almost all oil.

[Amoore311]

Hey Paul, just picking your brain here about the earthworms.

Do you buy them, or just pull them out of the ground and toss em in?

I've got experience with reptiles, and earthworms are frowned upon for them because they can lead to parasites. What about any other insects for the fish? Meal worms, wax worms, super worms... any experience with any of these? Do you gut load the worms at all?

I hold your opinions to a very high regard, but I have to admit... I don't think I would feel comfortable feeding worms as a staple diet. As a supplemental item I could see it being a great addition to my feeding schedule though.

[Paul B]

I've got experience with reptiles, and earthworms are frowned upon for them because they can lead to parasites.

The only problem with land worms is you don't know what the worms have been eating or if they have been exposed to insecticides or grub poisons. If I use earthworms I hold them under a faucet with the head up. Squeeze the worms to clean out their gut. You can also keep them damp for a couple of weeks in clean rotting leaves to purge their system. I used to freeze them and break them in smaller pieces. I don't feel any paracites that would live in a land worm will live in saltwater.

I don't think insects would be a good food. I believe they lack calcium and oils and are mostly protein. Worms are the only non saltwater animal I know of that have the needed oils in them.
I feed live blackworms every day.

[M. L. Fish]

Aside from what it gets from picking at the rock, my CBB will only eat clam meat. I got it from a fellow reefer who shut down her tank. Because I have several aggressive feeders in this tank, I had to come up with a feeding method where he would get his share. I bought a small plastic box with a lid on it and drilled several small holes in it. He can get get his long, narrow snout in the holes and the other fish cannot. Works great. He is fit and healthy.

[Aqua Keepers]

Originally posted by M. L. Fish
Aside from what it gets from picking at the rock, my CBB will only eat clam meat. I got it from a fellow reefer who shut down her tank. Because I have several aggressive feeders in this tank, I had to come up with a feeding method where he would get his share. I bought a small plastic box with a lid on it and drilled several small holes in it. He can get get his long, narrow snout in the holes and the other fish cannot. Works great. He is fit and healthy.

Got pics?

[rick8335]

Thanks for all of the great info

[TerraC]

Here's my CBB. I've had him 6yrs. Survived 1 tank upgrade and 1 house move. His fave food is mysis but He eats live and frozen brine, angel & butterfly mix from SF Bay, cockle in shell and grazes the live rock all day. He likes a nice bristleworm and takes out any fanworms that enter the system.

he's a model citizen, ignores any other fish and my clam. follows me around the tank.

[melev]

This issue of Reefkeeping Magazine features the Copperband Butterfly fish.

Copperband Butterfly fish, Chelmon rostratus
http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index....-fish-profile-

[G. Price]

.

[G. Price]

.

[mikenam]

anybody ever see death of a cbb by Vortech MP40? Yesterday when feeding my cbb it got stuck on the side of the vortech. i used a long algae scrapper to set it free. Today when i got home i noticed i didn't see it. Normally it is swimming in the front waiting for food. I looked btw all the rocks but couldn't find it. then i looked at the MP40 and there it was. Seemed like a painful way to die.

are those fishes weak swimmers or sumthing? Is the Vortech that strong?

now to watch my aiptasia make a come back.

[ryshark]

Sorry for the loss, that really sucks. I have two MP40w vortechs and so far no fish have been stuck to it. I would hate for that to happen to my Copperband, but I don't think it will because he is pretty big, over 5". How big was your CBB?

[Eric the half-bee]

I saw someone asked earlier in this thread about keeping more than 1 CBB. I added 2 from the same holding tank from LFS last week and they are behaving so far. One interesting thing I noticed one AM before the lights came on was the pair grasping each other by the "snout" and turning in circles. Neither one was injured. Anybody else witnessed this behavior?

[ryshark]

This is a total guess, but it sounds to me like there will be some aggression issues down the road.

[Breathe13stars]

I ended up getting a copper banded one time because the guy at my lfs told me i should have no problems that was before i knew how hard they were to keep. He ended up dying on me in about 3 weeks but while he was alive he was a great fish my peppermint shrimp would get on him and clean him only fish ive seen him do that with. Till this day i have no idea what killed him my water was perfect.

[ryshark]

What was it eating and how often?

[scrapING]

Alot die of starvation and some are caught with cynide witch after a few months destroies thier liver and then they die.

[Breathe13stars]

I had him eating brine shrimp i was putting in a little everyday he would eat but he would never eat alot i also had some sea weed and algae in there for him. The last days of his life he didnt move around alot and just basically died there. i did notice red patches around his gills i dont know what caused it.

[ryshark]

Brine alone is not a healthy diet, that probably caused his immune system to be weak and die. I don't know of any which eat seaweed, they are carnivores. Some people have luck with live blackworms or bloodworms to get them to start eating other stuff besides brine.

[Dodge250]

iceemn360 i need to ask some questions about your amazing tank I have a rose anemone which by no means looks as happy as yours but mines still happy I just want to know how do u keep your sand so clean how do u keep your anemone so happy what type of lighting do you have how come your threadfin doesn't kill any corals and how come my anemone found a spot at the bottom of the tank and it's mouth keeps on opening huge but it still shows long puffy tentecles if u can answer any of these questions I would be greatful Sorry it's so long

[Dodge250]

Oh and also how many times do you feed your nem and what do you feed it

[kellon16]

hey how long did it take your cbb to start eating? or did they eat right away my salfin beat mine up a little i put him in yesterday but i got the salfin out and put him in the sump. what are my chances? he was eating for a month straight at the lfs with no problems so i thought he was a good buy

[ryshark]

I would go buy some live blackworms, mine loves those. I would also pick up some PE mysis and Hikari mysis and try those. Figure out what it will eat. If those don't work you can try a clam from the grocery store. Live wiggly blackworms are awesome and cheap if you can find a lfs which sells them.
To answer your first question, mine started eating as soon as I added live blackworms and PE mysis. The first few days it did not eat the brine, regular mysis or bloodworms. Now it eats all of those.

[kellon16]

alright thank i dont think i have seen any live black workms, i have been feeding rods food and mycis and cyclopes he has been eying all of it but still hast touched it