Copper Band Butterfly

Rothie · #1 01/20/2006, 10:04 PM

I have been considering purchasing one of these for quite a while.I have read that they are difficult to feed.Did yours take to prepared foods well?Is there any problem with them bothering LPS or clams?What about eating snails and small crabs.It will go in a 300G reef with a couple of fairy wrasses,some cardinals,and some gobies and a blenny.Any info is appreciated.

Capt_Cully · #2 01/20/2006, 11:19 PM

I adopted one from a friend who had him for 3 years. he was eating prep foods for him, but since moving him, i haven't seen him actually eat a thing. he appears to be picking off pods, but not a whole lot. time will tell, but he still looks good and is quite active. just my experience.

dhoch · #3 01/20/2006, 11:26 PM

I've had mine for what 3 weeks now, and it's feeding well

Here is what I did:
1) go get some mussells at the store
2) get a Nori/Seaweed clip and some rubberbands.

I opened the mussel enough so the CBB can get it's nose in but none of the other fish can. Then I use the rubberband to attach it to the clip and put in the tank (this can take some patience).

Put this in a spot where the CBB is know to frequent and hope fo the best.

Mine found the food almost immediately (as did a lot of other fish), but only he could get at the food.

Now I use other foods in there (squid, blood worms, mysis).

Dave

NexDog · #4 01/21/2006, 08:11 AM

Great idea, might try it for my new guy.

Rothie · #5 01/21/2006, 09:36 AM

dhoch-Does the rubberband go between the 2 halves of the shell?

dhoch · #6 01/21/2006, 03:10 PM

I usually loop it about 3-4 times, and at least 1 time in side (holds it on better.

Dave

phoenix · #7 01/21/2006, 04:56 PM

There are vendors that sell copperbands only after they are eating - phishybusiness.com is one. I have had them in the past and they can be finicky but the mussel trick has worked well. I have also had them take to mysis pretty quickly. I would recommend only getting one that is already eating.

deansreef · #8 01/21/2006, 05:51 PM

anyone house 2 cbb's in their reef? i have 1 cbb in my 180- and would like to add another

Rothie · #9 01/21/2006, 05:52 PM

phoenix-
Do they ship well?I have no problem with shipping-99% of my corals,fish,and clams are mail order.Phishybusiness is an excellent vendor.

phoenix · #10 01/21/2006, 09:24 PM

Rothie
I have gotten several fish from Serdar at Phishybusiness and all of them were well packed and eating usually later in the day. My experience with copperbands were that if they were eating before they were shipped, they usually do well

SuperNerd · #11 01/21/2006, 11:50 PM

Do the ones from phishybusiness go after aiptasia?

NexDog · #12 01/23/2006, 04:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by dhoch
I've had mine for what 3 weeks now, and it's feeding well

Here is what I did:
1) go get some mussells at the store
2) get a Nori/Seaweed clip and some rubberbands.

I opened the mussel enough so the CBB can get it's nose in but none of the other fish can. Then I use the rubberband to attach it to the clip and put in the tank (this can take some patience).

Put this in a spot where the CBB is know to frequent and hope fo the best.

Mine found the food almost immediately (as did a lot of other fish), but only he could get at the food.

Now I use other foods in there (squid, blood worms, mysis).

Dave

I couldn't ge mussels but I got something like small cockels (not sure what they are really but you see the shells all the time on the beach). These ones were fresh. Packed in a plastic container with saltwater so they were still alive and closed tight. I soaked one in boiling water for a few minutes just so it opened a few millimetres and then inserted a nori clip inside it so it's clamping down and keeping it open just under a centimetre of so. I wrapped a rubber band round it just to be sure it stays on and placed it in the Copperband's favourite corner.

It swam right past it for 30 minutes or so but now it is just devouring this shellfish like it hasn't eaten in weeks (which could be true!). I'm checking it out right now as it goes in time after time. It's going in really deep too so it's halfway in there sometimes. I'm very happy.

dhoch · #13 01/23/2006, 05:48 AM

Congrats!!!!

Glad to hear that it worked. In general I try for frozen stuff (too worried about introducing some pathogen into the tank), but you should find that you can do that now that you have him eating in a "feed location"

Dave

NexDog · #14 01/23/2006, 09:03 AM

Yah, thanks for the tip.

Question, how often should I change out the shellfish - every 2 days?

dhoch · #15 01/23/2006, 12:04 PM

I don't know.

What I did was let it eat all it could out of the first one I put in and then convereted over to what I thought would be a reasonable amount of frozen (inside the shell)... I didn't keep feeding mussels.

Dave

NexDog · #16 01/23/2006, 06:45 PM

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for all your help - this thread was so invaluable