I picked one up recently, lasted a day. I was pretty bummed about it dieing, never mind the cost.

Oh, he tried... But my Copperband was too quick for him. He was very good with split second 180's and the tang could never corner him. Also, I pasted up pics of yellow tangs on the tank where the Copperband hung out, and that confused him too.

The Copperband learned pretty quick to avoid him, and after a few days, the tang slowly settled down, and just a few token lunges now and then. But the whole time, he never did touch the Copperband.

Now they are all a happy family..., most of the time.

Copperbands are my favorite reef fish and we're planning on adding one eventually.

Having great LR with hundreds of feather duster worms and countless copepods probably doesn't guarantee success with them but I *hope* it might give us an edge.

I wish they were more hardy because they are just so beautiful to watch, how could you not want one? I think the key is to only buy one that the LFS can proove eats a variety of food. Easier said than done of course.

Honestly I would think twice and if you still want one think twice more. I had one that ate anything meaty for over a month without sign of decline. Then one day he was swimming around and got stuck to a power head. The next day he was gone. Mine never ate any feather dusters or aptasia only a variety of frozen foods. He was fat when he up an died... RIP Gus :sad:

Yeah, I guess I've been pretty lucky with mine. Bought it off a fellow member 2 1/2 years ago. Wouldn't eat anything but shellfish meat. I fed it clams and mussels for the first 6 months I had it. To make sure it was getting enough food I drilled 1/4 inch holes in a small plastic box and put the clam inside. The other fish couldn't get their noses in the holes. Then one day out of the blue it tried some mysis and now eats pretty much any frozen meaty foods. It has also erradicated the tank of all aiptasia and dusters. If only it would develop a liking for majanos.

Copperbands were on my "no more" list as well. I once target fed mysis to aiptasia in my 120g just to get it ready for a Copperband. Had lots of those pests on the rock and then I bought one that was eating some mysis from the LFS. It polished off all the aiptasia in 2 days, and died on the third.

I only changed my mind because it is Irene's favourite fish and Paul at Oceanic posted one for sale that was eating mysis AND NLS pellets at his store. Bought that one right away. It is now doing great (knock on wood) and I make sure I target feed it some PE mysis every day just in case.

Anthony

I think the problem is food. Some people say he ate mysis...but how much and what type of mysis?? because when I got mine it was as skinny as they get and he was eating only PE mysis. The problem is they need A LOT of rich food, not just a few mysis here and there. I saved mine with live white worms enriched with Selcon and been feeding this almost exclusively for a year now.

I put it in quarantine when I first got him, did a treatment of prazipro because he had flukes and internal worms. Once that cleared up he got fat and happy eating white worms.

Now he eats a bit of mysis, of course live white worms, and on occasion some fresh mussels. I don't have any aggressive fish in my tank and anyone having aggressive tang, especially a yellow, should not get any copperband. They need a peacefull environment to thrive and that is an absolute must. They don't thrive on eating aiptasia either. Mine won't touch them at all. I guess the reason you often read "my copperband ate all the aiptasia and then died" is maybe because this is not a proper diet for them at all...might be even poison.

I am glad mine don't eat the aiptasia. He's my favorite fish and the king of the aquarium. I also have a niger trigger but he stay hidden all day and only come out at feeding time and he's not one bit aggressive. I got a foxface once and had to sell it because he was stressing the copperband. Copperbands also need good spots to hide from the light because they can't stand strong light and that stress them a lot. Before I got the copperband I got a yellow tang and that bastard sliced my poor male mandarin to death...never again will I have a yellow tang. I simply hate them.

No argument, they are not an easy fish to keep alive long term. Notoriously picky eaters, and do not do well in a competitive feeding environment...assuming they ever do accept prepared foods (which they can do, but not always).

I was fortunate to have one for almost 4 years and it ate every aptiasia in my 270G tank.............I added a mandarin goby, the copperband was dead in a week as the mandarin depleted the pod population...

I would suggest not even attempting one unless you have a mature 120G+ system, no other competition for pods, and ideally a low bio-load of non-competitive fish for it.

No need to give up on this fish (unlike some other beautiful fish....purple queen anthias are one), but definitely proceed with caution.

My copperband eats pe mysis, scallops, live blackworms, plankton, and Sally's angel and butterfly food, I have had her for about 18 months, I wouldn't say shes fat but she is healthy looking. I keep hearing about aggressive yellow tangs but mine is a sweetheart, I recently added 2 other tangs to her tank and she backed down to a much smalled powder blue, she is the wimp in my tank, I think they are all individuals. My regal angels don't like my copperband at all and the copperband did go off her food for a day once after being bullied by them.

I tried two that died after about a week when I had smaller tanks, a 33gal and a 50gal. Each of them was eating frequently and looked well right up until the moment that they died. My third CBB is over 3 years old in my 120gal (240gal system) and eats a wide variety of naturally occurring foods as well as mysis and grocery store clam up to 3 times a day. So I second Greg's recommendation for a large mature system without competing fish.