Copperband Reef thread
 

Are they reef safe tell me your experinces and what you fed them and what size tank they where in

I'm very interested in this topic as I have one that is about 2-1/2" long. Had him about 10 days and all he seems to eat are the little feather dusters(?). Has not touched any corals at all. What do you guys get them to eat, he ignores all flake food.

I had great success with a small 2 inch specimin, live brine got him eating then I moved to frozen brine squished into a scribbing brush so he could pick, then hejust began to eat the frozen in the water column and then began to take shrimp, scallop and squid grated to a fine consistancy, contary to usual opinion I think small specimins will fare a little better as mine was more adaptable.

are they reef safe.........hit or miss.
i have had mine for around a year now,he is in a sps tank with 7 clams.once he nipped at one of my larger croceas and got his nose caught,but both survived.they will wipe out all featherdusters in your tank,if you have any christmastree worms they will target those as well.they are hit or miss for aiptaisia control.

IMO the key to keeping one long term is finding a good healthy one,that is eating prepared foods already at the store.it is also nice if your LFS QT's and treats them before you purchase it.

DO NOT buy one if it doent eat prepared foods in front of you at the LFS.

mine primarily eats mysis but is starting to eat some of the rods food.they also seem to do alot of hunting for pods after the lights go out.

agreed. getting it to eat prepared foods is the biggest hurdle. they may nip at clams. feathedusters are done. i have had a few and none of them seem to care about corals of any kind. mine is in a 180gal. mine will only eat mysis but it sampled mussel. i feed clam but he is uninterested.

ok thanks guys lest keep this thread going do u think they will eat snails, crabs, and shrimp

I have never heard one eating snails crabs or shrimp.

As said before:

1) They WILL eat all feather dusters they can reach
2) They MIGHT eat apstasia
3) They MIGHT nip at clam mantles
4) THey are difficult to get feeding perpared foods (The biggest revelation here is that THEY DO NOT TAKE FOOD FROM THE WATER COLUMN IN NATURE)... that goes contrary to how we typically feed fish. If you can overcome this by thinking about it I've helped over a half a dozen feed regularly in our clubs tanks.

Dave

It took 6 months, but mine finally eats mysid shrimp. I kept it going with live clams.

We add a copperband 8 months ago in the 265g reef because of aiptasia invasion. It ate all the aiptasias (and feather dusters, but it was not a problem because it was more invading then being cool).
We have 4 clams (2 crocea (small) and 2 squasmosa (1 medium and one monster) and the copperband never nip at them... neither at the corals...
It eats mysis and nips at krill piece (the krill of the triger and tangs, :lol: )
It will come eat in my fingers and snaps mysis all around.

[IMG]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b221/josee1013/reef.jpg[/IMG]

ok sounds good post some pics if you have some i was thinking of adding one in my 90 you can take a look at my thread in the reef discussion its called Reeftanks6 reef thread(pic intense)

Ok... here's a pic of mine.

[img]http://www.danj.com/reef/images/fish/copperband06.jpg[/img]

Dave

here is mine

[IMG]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b239/checkinhawk/Project%20150%20gallon/Picture913.jpg[/IMG]

beautiful i am defintly adding one of these to my tank hopefully when iam ready it wont nip at corals well see Take a look at my thread

Mine niped at pest anemonies, did not bother any corals, and ate pepaired foods and still died.....???? the fish disapeared never to be seen agen, such a shame was one of my favoite fish.

I've had mine over 2 years. Really likes PE mysis, but takes smaller ones as well. Took out all my small aiptasia ( I still have some in the sump and fuge, and I had to Joe's Juice the biggest ones.) He has left my 2 pink coco worms and my red/white coco worm alone. He seems to have trimmed the 2 large hawaiin feather dusters some, but they've been stable now for months. He definitely took out the yellow/burgundy coco worm I tried. And I think he inhibits my xmas tree worms, but they're hanging in OK. And I don't ever find any hitchhiker mini dusters anymore. He has not touched corals or inverts otherwise.

Mine bites the eyes off my snails...I still like her though.

Lisa