Any hope of persuading a CBB to take non-mysis foods?
 

Since the summer I've had a copperbanded butteryfly in my tank.

I'm a *little* concerned because the *only* food it will take is mysis. Historically, any fish I've cared for that exhibited such a strict monotypic diet eventually would run into troubles. Cardinals and mandarins, in particular, I've lost due to some kind of intestinal distress.

Has anyone been able to feed their CBB's anything other than mysis? I was hoping it might develop a taste for NLS pellets since all the hoo-haw about those pellets made me think it had promise ... but so far, no-go. I don't know how hungry I can make him in order to encourage him to try other foods, without bordering on the cruel.

What about putting in a clam once in a while, just as something different for him to munch on? Only thing is I don't really want him developing a taste for clams since there are 4 tridacnids in the tank and so far he leaves them perfectly alone.

Is there any hope? He doesn't have to eat flake like the others do, I just wish I could feed something with a little variety.

Or any suggestions for other frozen foods that might be good enough to offer once in a while, besides just mysis?

Surely you must have some LFS in town that have small coral covered with aiptasia. Just kidding.

Tony, the guys that told me to feed the Manila clams to my copperband, were aquarists that had them in tanks with ornamental clams. Thats was their solution to the copperbands sampling them.

I never did put any clams back in my tank after I started to feed them, so cant comment how how it would go. I, like you, have a hard time grasping how they can tell the difference but its what these guys told me. Several being advanced aquarists.

Mine also never ate much else besides mysis or the clams. He once ate bloodworms but quit. He did eat a type of frozen plankton on occassion.

Mine loved Fenners recipe for homemade frozen food.

I had good success with buying bulk clams from superstore. Most of them would survive in the sump in a basket so I'd just take one out every couple days and run it under hot water until it died. Then I'd crack it open just enough so the CBB could get it's beak in there while most other fish couldn't. He'd feast for hours. If you keep rock in your sump too, you probably notice small feather dusters grow all over. Every once in a while I'd take a smaller piece out put it in the main tank. He'd clean it up within a few days. Good luck.

So basically so far nobody's saying that they had one that would take flakes or pellets ... I'll take that as a "don't even bother trying" perhaps. And make up some Fenner food, or similar .. or try the clams. Sounds like a pretty keen idea actually ...

I was thinking of a small PVC capped off with holes drilled, that he could sneak his snout in and grab some food. A CBB feeder similar to a nori tang feeder .. but maybe those little clams would work well too.

Thanks all!

PS. Anyone else with some experience to share? Thanks!!

Tony - no experience with a CBB but I do have a huge a$$ Naso tang and all he eats is nori and occassionally I put some grape calurpa in the tank. That's it - he won't touch anything floating in the water column, no clams, no spiralina(sp), no homemade goop, pellets - nothing else. Short of force feeding him somehow that's his diet. I've had him for over a year and he is fat and has good colour but I know that I worry about his limited diet. I thought of maybe going snorkelling in the tank and showing him (jk) but every other fish in that tank with the exception of the Conspic Angel eat out of the water column and eat a variety of food.
Sorry no suggestions but maybe your PVC idea will work.

Ruth, all my naso would eat for the first 1 1/2 was nori and then right out of the blue one day he started eating flake, from then on he would eat anything that I put in the tank.

Thanks Marie. There may yet be hope for my guy. My completely unproven theory is that as he was large when I got him and has gotten even larger in the past year plus he was probably older when he was caught so will only eat things that resemble his diet in the wild.

mine eats bloodworms soaked heavily in garlic and vitamins - I know not an ideal diet choice but he samples all frozen foods in the tank and sometimes seems to eat some, plus it will also eat fresh sliced off bits of scallops and of course clam from the local seafood shop:biggrin:

Never say never. From page 2 of the following thread:
http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=29859

Obviously not an easy species to convert to pellet foods, but at least in some cases it can be done.

HTH

I did seriously give it a try and I do feed pellet in every few days so if he ever changes his mind, it's there for him.

I have a Dendrophyllia coral that I feed mysis to and he is fully aware that if I feed that coral, he can steal the food from there. So sometimes I will feed the coral the NLS pellets as it eats just about anything and the CBB will try to steal the food, thinking that its mysis.

However he spits it out every time! He simply will not touch anything that's been dried.

I've resorted to putting in a mussel, clam or oyster every now and again so that he has something else to eat besides mysis. Starting to get used to the strange looks at the seafood counter when I ask for "one mussel please."

I tried frozen clams but he won't even touch those. He will, however, eat the formerly-live ones I buy from the supermarket.

If there's a trick to getting them to broaden their tastes I'd love to hear it. Unfortunately I'm not very good at deliberately starving fish in order to get them to try something new. In this case I don't hold out a lot of hope it would work anyhow, he has a very strong will.

My CBB after consuming every aptasia in my tank ate mysis as well as nori. Never touched a coral. He was perfect. Then he sucumbed to the sucking action of a vortech.

After you introduced the mussels, clam,etc. did he develope a taste for your "real" clams?

So far has shown no interest in those..

Tony, try soaking the pellets for approx 5 minutes in some of the clam juice, to soften them up, and add a bit of extra flavor. This usually works on most finicky freshwater fish, and is at least worth a shot on your CBB.

Hmm, interesting. I'll have to try that.

Dumb question though .. where does one get clam juice? Is this something you can get at the grocery store?

The only clam juice I know about is Clamato (yum yum) :) But I'm going to assume Clamato won't be appreciated by the CBB. ;)

Use the juice from the fresh seafood that you are feeding. Oyster, clam, mussel, whatever. Sometimes just softening the pellet up a bit will make a big difference with fish that tend to spit the pellets out, and with the added taste of fresh seafood mixed in, you just might be able to convince this fish to stop spitting, and to start swallowing. IMO the fact that it is already taking the pellets in is a huge plus, you're already half way home.

Tony you can buy clam nectar in the grocery store - I use it for making clam chowder but it is available in cans and jars.

Cool, I'll look for it. Or try .. um.. draining the clam or oyster or whatever, next time I feed one. (For some reason I can't help but think "ew!" as I type this in..)

Mine eats nothing but mysis and frozen clams. If it accidentally bites some flake food while eating mysis it spits it right out.

Tony, if yours readily accepts mysis, then the "juice" from frozen mysis would also be good choice for pre-soaking the pellets. It may take some serious effort on your part, but the fact that your fish will already take the pellets in is a big plus.

Many of the more difficult to feed species can sometimes be "trained" to take dry foods, some individuals are easy to train, some are quite difficult, but in the long run it usually works out to be in the fishes best interest.

Oh .. sorry if I said something incorrect. He doesn't really take the pellets, only by accident. I.e., if I feed my dendrophyllia NLS pellets instead of mysis, he might think I'm feeding it mysis and he might try to steal some. If that happens though, he'll spit it out. He won't chase down any food that isn't mysis. If I feed mysis and flake at the same time, all the other fish go into a frenzy and gobble up everything that they can, he somehow can tell which is mysis and which isn't, and will only go after the mysis.

Ok, gotcha, thanks for clearing that up. Even still, if he does take the odd pellet, and that pellet suddenly has a softer perhaps more natural texture/feel to it, AND it's suddenly more palatable due to being soaked in mysis juice (something that this fish does seem to relish), you just might be able to eventually persuade him that it's worth swallowing. :)
Or not ..... but IMO it's worth a shot.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Don't feed your Dendro NLS Tony. It has an ingredient in it that makes them vomit (I suspect the copper ingredient at the end of the list). Other than that, fish love it and no ill effects there.

King Albert, marine salt mixes have more copper in them than NLS, so it wouldn't be that.

I'll wait til 3 AM to dig up the RC threads Neil.

:P

Oh... well .. Ok I won't feed them that anymore then. I thought it was kinda nice to feed it something that wouldn't get stolen by the mysis fiend (the CBB).

I can try feeding it some Cyclops-Eeze flakes.. man nobody in my tank will touch that stuff. Must be stale or something. (I'm actually thinking of tossing the container .. that and the freeze-dried stuff .. useless. Only thing anybody will touch is the frozen kind.)

Quick update (in case anyone's interested :) )

So on Wednesday I was able to buy some NLS "Finicky Fish", hoping that with a name like that, there would be hope for my CBB taking it. I soaked it in with some mysis for an hour or so, then offered it to the tank.

Unfortunately I was not able to successfully seperate the mysis from the pellets afterwards, so there was still a mix. The CBB shunned the pellets and picked out all the mysis bits. Won't chase down the pellets, only the mysis.

So on Thursday I found some clam juice at Co-op. There is was, a jar of opaque liquid literally called "Clam Juice." (On the back it says - "Ingredients: Clam juice.") So I tried soaking some pellets in this stuff for a few hours and tried offering those to the tank.

May I just say, by the way, clam juice reeks. Took a sniff of it and ... yup. This smells like clams. Quite putridly strongly I might add. :lol:

Mr. Finicky STILL shunned the pellets, although the stinky pellets were a hit with everyone else (tang, hawkfish, 6line, angel) who all went berserk chasing after them. So I'm hoping a few more tries of this and he'll observe the others and maybe make the mental connection that it might be OK to try eating.

I'm interested! Keep us up to date as I would love to be able to get my CBB eating pellets! Although, the idea of clam juice is absolutely revolting!