Chelmon rostratus aka Copperband Butterfly

[hcs3]

In a seperate thread ron shimek speaks of their ability to happily eat aiptasia. this sparked me to do some research on the fish, as i have plenty of aiptasia to feed them. however, i cannot find much - if any - info regarding the care and natural diet of this fish. the best i've done thus far is locate it in my burgess atlas and a few websites written entirely in french. neither answered my questions.

basically, i have but few questions...

1. will this fish get wide-eyed (more so than they already are) once introduced into my t. maximma display? i know many butterflies are specialists at eating clams, so this worries me.

2. what about LPS? if they love aiptasia, will E. anchora tempt it once the aiptasia is all gone?

if you can answer those 2 questions, or relay me over to a quality link, i'd much appreciate it.

oh ya, for the record, my 6 peppermints don't seem to think aiptasia is part of their diet, and kalk has proven to be useless in the battle.

TIA

henry

[Kirbster]

Henry,

I'm no Ron Shimek, but I've dealt with a lot of Copperbands in reefs, so I'll shoot off my three cents worth:

1. Most Copperbands I have seen have been annoying to the point of damaging clams. Outright eating never seemed to be a problem, but "picking" was.

2. I have never had a real problem with a copperband eating an LPS. The occaisional pick at a brain's mouth doesn't seem to be a big deal.

OTHER PROBLEMS:
They will knock snails off the walls and eat them. Almost every Copperband I have had has been a snail maniac.

I would say about 70% of them have a taste for Aiptasia. I have seen some that were old and healthy and wouldn't look twice at an aiptasia.

At MACNA last September, Greg Scheimer mentioned that Chelmon muelleri from Australia is a hardier, more aggressive Aiptasia eater. Also uglier in my opinion.

Finally, I feel it is very difficult to add a Copperband to an established tank. Especially if there are Tangs in there that are going to bother him. This seems to have bad effects on them and inhibit proper eating. When I put Copperbands in reefs, they are the first fish in.

IMHO, of course,

KA

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"You must unlearn what you have learned."
-Yoda