Copperband just died looked fine

MRCORAL · #1 02/17/2006, 02:56 PM

Well I have had him for myabe 6 months a real pain in the butt because he only wanted brine shrimp. Today he went in a corner and died. All levels are in check. Water changes once a week. Is it possible he did not get enought from just the Brine?

jumboshrimp18 · #2 02/17/2006, 03:11 PM

possibly...samething happened to me after about three months. Another possibility---although somewhat remote--would be the latent toxic effect of capture using cyanide. Brine are not the natural diet of copperbands and in themselves are not that nutritious.

MRCORAL · #3 02/17/2006, 03:36 PM

That is all the fish ate for 6 months.

davocean · #4 02/17/2006, 06:41 PM

That's been one fish I've never had good luck with.
Too bad because I really like them too. I've had 3
Mine also only ate brine, and seemed to eat well, but still got that sucked in gut and died.
I'd like to hear some success stories on long term survival and what the trick is to keeping them.
Are they like moorish idols needing sponge in their diet or something?

JENnKerry · #5 02/18/2006, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by *******
That is all the fish ate for 6 months.

I'm sorry to say but that is what did him in. Copperbands are feeding specialists and need a varied diet of high quality foods. Clam meat is appreciated along with live black worms.

deansreef · #6 02/18/2006, 07:37 AM

Jenkerry.

where can one purchase live black worms?

smcnally · #7 02/18/2006, 08:12 AM

I would rule out the latent effects of cyanide capture. I have always read that it will kill them much faster than 6 months. Mine died 2 weeks after I got it and was eating very well. I found that cyanide poisoning was the most likely reason for mine. But I think 6 months sounds more like starvation of some sort. It could be anything else though.

JENnKerry · #8 02/18/2006, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by deansreef
Jenkerry.

where can one purchase live black worms?

I'm not 100% sure on that. You might want to PM PaulB. He's the guy with the thirty year old reef. He has had big success with the black worms.

fgarvine · #9 02/18/2006, 09:08 AM

Still COULD be a cyanide side effect. Not enough studies done on its intermediate effects. The sucked in gut while voratiosly feeding is a red flag to me. Could be gastro stress or infection? I would get a M-Bio to autopsy it. Most will happily do it for free.

Martin's Reef · #10 02/18/2006, 12:00 PM

Mine is 19mo old and is eatint well mostly P.E. Mysis shimp with selcon and Extrem garlic soaked in. P.E. Mysis have High crude protien in it and seems to help the fish..

Martin

Gobie · #11 02/18/2006, 12:03 PM

Only buy one that eats a variety at the store. Hard to find, I know.

Martin's Reef · #12 02/18/2006, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gobie
Only buy one that eats a variety at the store. Hard to find, I know.

Vary hard to Find but worth the wait!IMO Took me 3+ years to find a good one.

Paul B · #13 02/18/2006, 07:43 PM

Quote:

I'm sorry to say but that is what did him in. Copperbands are feeding specialists and need a varied diet of high quality foods. Clam meat is appreciated along with live black worms.

No they are not like moorish idols but they also have some quirks. They really need something in their diet besides brine shrimp. They will live on live black worms and clams. Besides that I also feed them plankton but I have never seen one that would not eat worms. I don't know where to get them in the Carolina's but here in NY I can walk to about 9 stores that sell them. They are in every pet store. Maybe someone sells them on line. You can keep them alive indefinately bu puting them in a little fresh water and feeding them a couple of drops of Selcon every day. If you don't feed them, they will turn into a smelly mess of dead slime in a couple of days.
They should also be fed a couple of times a day as should all fish with very small mouths in relation to their body size.
If you can't get live black worms, you may not want a copper banded butterfly. They will eat a lot of other things but after keeping a few dozen of them, I think black worms are the secret.
Have a great day.
Paul
This is the only picture I have of my copperband.

roons · #14 02/18/2006, 10:01 PM

any tangs in your tank? twice mine did the same thing, eating fine , next day hiding in back corner, morning dead.....................i was told even if the tangs have stopped bothering him , just the stress of being around them eventually kills them....................

MRCORAL · #15 02/18/2006, 10:02 PM

Yes a yellow tang but they were buddies

FSOL · #16 02/18/2006, 10:16 PM

I've had one for a month now and it has never come out to eat. I think it's feasting on my pods, because when lights are on it usually never comes out in the open to swim. It's always going through rocks picking at stuff. At nights, when lights go out, it comes out and starts hunting.

So far so good. I plan to throw some worms in the tank and see if it'll eat worms at least.

MRCORAL · #17 02/18/2006, 10:19 PM

I would do it soon.

FSOL · #18 02/18/2006, 10:26 PM

Unfortunately most LFS don't sell that stuff. I gotta drive 30 mins to get to one that does.

I did try feeding live brine shrimp (or was it mysis, I don't remember) and it wouldn't eat it.

raddogz · #19 02/18/2006, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Paul B
No they are not like moorish idols but they also have some quirks. They really need something in their diet besides brine shrimp. They will live on live black worms and clams. Besides that I also feed them plankton but I have never seen one that would not eat worms. I don't know where to get them in the Carolina's but here in NY I can walk to about 9 stores that sell them. They are in every pet store. Maybe someone sells them on line. You can keep them alive indefinately bu puting them in a little fresh water and feeding them a couple of drops of Selcon every day. If you don't feed them, they will turn into a smelly mess of dead slime in a couple of days.
They should also be fed a couple of times a day as should all fish with very small mouths in relation to their body size.
If you can't get live black worms, you may not want a copper banded butterfly. They will eat a lot of other things but after keeping a few dozen of them, I think black worms are the secret.
Have a great day.
Paul
This is the only picture I have of my copperband.

Question for Paulb - I am lucky enough to have family in the lfs business who sells black worms, but what about frozen bloodworms?

jimbo045 · #20 02/19/2006, 12:05 AM

I hear they are hard. They can slowly be dieing for days, you can notice there skull getting thinner and thinner. JD

Paul B · #21 02/19/2006, 06:36 AM

Raddogz, frozen blood worms would keep them alive but I doubt they would eat them immediately. You could probably teach them to eat blood worms if you mix a few with live blackworms. Copperbands inspect their food closely and sometimes I wonder what they are thinking about. Once you get them to eat live black worms, they almost go into a frenzy eating them and you can introduce other foods with the worms like clams and mysis.
If you can get a bunch of live blackworms, put them in a shallow plastic container, round sides are better because they crawl up the corners about an inch and a half. Put in a little air and feed twice a day with a few drops of Selcon. Feed the butterfly about 8 worms a feeding (for a small fish) I only feed with a turkey baster in front of the fish. You can not just dump black worms in a salt tank. They die before they hit the bottom and then most fish will not find them. Feed a few at a time.
Jimbo045, is correct, these fish will just die all of a sudden for no apparent reason. Especially if they just eat shrimp or try to get anough food by scrounging pods which they do not eat. They are looking for worms. They love spaghetti worms but will eat all of them in a few days.
Have a great day.
Paul

Stevenx2 · #22 02/19/2006, 07:25 AM

Sorry about your loss!
I want to get one myself and have been reading quite a lot about their nutrition, I hope I have luck with mine!

deansreef · #23 02/19/2006, 07:30 AM

the two copperbanded in my reef eat mysis brine and prime reef flake

Dean

reverendmaynard · #24 02/19/2006, 08:37 AM

Is there no kind of worm that can be introduced live and will stay alive in the tank?

Freed · #25 02/19/2006, 08:45 AM

Hey everyone, don't know if you have posted in my poll yet:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=774135

but please do. Looking for all info on your experiences with these guys. Thanks, Jeff