copperband eat mysis shrimp?

shabreeson · #1 01/08/2008, 09:09 PM

Over the past few months I have been having problems with aptaisa spreading throughout my tank. and I didn't wish to get peppermint shrimps for various reasons.

so I did a good few hours of research online and got a 3-4 inch copperband from my local fish store(made sure it ate both live black worms and mysis before buying it).

I didn't have much success feeding it mysis shrimp so I fed it the live black worms, and now after some trickery(which I will explain for reference lather in this thread) I fed it brine shrimp.

My question:
I am wondering if brine shrimp is a good enough diet for a copperband butterfly fish indefinately.---the reason I don't have time to coax it to eat the mysis is because I am going to school really soon and I wish my parents to feed him the brine rather than taking care of the live black worms(they have enough to deal with).

I am happy to report that all the aptaisa are gone.

How I coaxed him to eat the frozen brine:
he loved to eat the live worms after a few days so what I did was, using a syringe, I sucked up the black worms and injected them into a clear plastic cup that I set up at the bottom. he then associated that cup with food and I put the dark brine with the dark worms and he ate both. not only does the cup help with the food converson but it wastes less food.

checkinhawk · #2 01/08/2008, 10:53 PM

brine has very little nutritional value for him.feed him PE mysis or try something like rods foods which has all kinds of meaty stuff in it.you can also get some cubes of 50/50 mix of mysis and blackworms that mine liked as well.

Dakota Reef · #3 01/09/2008, 02:09 AM

checkinhawk,

Can you tell me how to find the mix of blackworms & mysis?

customanimalart · #4 01/09/2008, 12:47 PM

I would like to try to find one that will eat prepared foods and aptasias (Large and small---beginning to spread rapidly through my reef {softies and zoanthids} tank of 55g)

I have a coral beauty, 2 ocellaris, 2 blue devil damsels (the hot blue colored type) 2 chalk basslets and a mandarin. Will This fish co-exist with what I have?

Dakota Reef · #5 01/09/2008, 12:57 PM

Shouldn't be a problem with the other fish you have in the tank, although the blue devil damsels are aptly named. Most will eat aptasia although a few don't. Biggest challenge will be to make sure it eats other foods once the aptasia are gone.

jda · #6 01/09/2008, 04:59 PM

My current copperband won't touch aiptasia. It only rarely eats mysis. It mostly eats off of the reef. I have had it for 11 months.

checkinhawk · #7 01/09/2008, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dakota Reef
checkinhawk,

Can you tell me how to find the mix of blackworms & mysis?

one of my LFS has them,i forget what brand it is(i believe it is sallys brand)

customanimalart · #8 01/09/2008, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dakota Reef
Shouldn't be a problem with the other fish you have in the tank, although the blue devil damsels are aptly named. Most will eat aptasia although a few don't. Biggest challenge will be to make sure it eats other foods once the aptasia are gone.

I was definitely going to have my LFS hold one for me for a few weeks to make sure it was disease free and what it would and to see if it would eat aiptasia AND other foods.
I have to say, my coral beauty and clowns run the show in my tank. Even the Chalk basslets keep my blue devils at bay. I think it's funny!