In a tank full of aiptasia why are Copperbands difficult, would think they have a good food source? Don't they go for the aiptasia from the start?

Most CBB's don't live over a few months in captivity, even if there is aiptasia for them to eat. Also CBB's can eat tons of aiptasia fairly quickly so once it runs out if they are not eating frozen they can starve before the aiptasia comes back.

got my copperband now on mysis,brine,cyclopeeze,pacifica plankton and a few different types of nls and fauna marin pellets not to mention fresg clam once a week.plus he hunts all day too.

he came only eating mysis , and didnt touch the aiptasia. once he pulled in his first nem it was game on a light went off in his head and bam ate the whole tank free of aiptasia in no time lol


i was scared as hell to get one over the years because of their bad rep for food and sudden deaths, im hoping i got lucky i dont think food will be a problem for mine unless he decides to stop eating for some reason.


filefish is still a safer choice imo,but i like the cbb colors and personality more though.

I have had 3 CBBs. The first two were small and only lasted a few weeks and died. I decided to try a larger one which was eating very well in the fish store. I had few aipitasia which it never touched, but it readily ate mysis and seemed to be thriving. It also cleaned every single feather duster from every rock. Eventually it stopped eating, got thin and perished. No more CBBs for this guy.

I have had a matted file fish for around 12 months and it cleaned up all of the aipitasia, although I never saw him eating it, I have none left. He picks away at the rocks but does not touch the corals.

I've rarely seen any of mine eating aptaisia but it does go away. I've had 5 or 6 of these over the years and none have touched my corals, again, that i've seen. You can get one that does though, I believe Brett added one that went right for his SPS.

Yeah fish are hit & miss for sure. Do either the CCB or the MFF eat mojanos as well as aptasia?

Berghias were a waste of money. The seller told me unless you breed them they are useless. It takes many to eliminate Aiptasia. And if you don't plan to drop a huge wad of cash for a dozen I would consider fish.

I myself can't rid my tank of a couple. Aiptasia x is crap. I think my Aiptasia eat it cause they come back larger after the treatment and that's ****ed up.

Denny you know better! You know that cbb always die when they appear to be eating. I don't personally know anyone with success asides from claims on a forum that I can neither confirm or deny.

Avoid cbb.

CBB do not always die when they appear to be eating. I realize I am one of those pesky "forum claims" but I will have had my copperband 5 yrs next feb....there are pics in my 175g tank journal and he is still there in pics of my 300g upgrade

i know several people who have cbb's for yrs as well