Copperband
 

This little guy is two years old. This tank is his third home. A temporary home until the other tank is moved and back up and running. Just proof that with the right care and attention, these guys can thrive in a home aquarium. He is by far my favorite fish. Are there any other success stories out there?http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/29ea42fc.jpg
http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/ba47a533.jpg

Hi,

Great looking CBB. I agree, these are beautiful fish and adapt well to aquarium life. I've had mine for almost four years now, the only drawback is that it will only eat frozen food. Doesn't bother any corals but enjoyed a clam that I had at one time. This is a picture from Feb 09.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e18/staceyd72/CBB.jpg

MY CBB passed away after about a year this weekend.
It was eating voraciously the night before and was unable to swim on its own less than 8 hours after its last feeding.


Very sad....

exact same thing just happened to ours this weekend had it close to a year as well

From what I've seen with this species, success stories are few and far between. Consider yourself fortunate and I'm glad he's doing so well after two years. My experience was not as fortunate, I watched my purchase slowly starve to death despite my best efforts. If you could provide more details as to what entails the right care and attention, that would be beneficial. Seems to me it's more of a 'luck of the draw' scenario with CBBs. I'll never take that chance again, I hope you have continued success with yours though, they are a striking fish.

I've had mine for one year. I bought it from a fellow reefer. It eats most fresh and frozen meaty foods; will not touch flakes or pellets.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4051.jpg

I had mine for close to 3 years then one night he developed some kind of ulcer or tumour above one of his eyes and he was dead before morning. Stunned me how fast the decline was at the end..


I would actually have to say this is somewhat questionable. Those that do adapt seems to be OK but for some reason they are in a small minority. (VERY small minority.) The majority seem to be unable to adapt to prepared foods or just perish suddenly and without warning. Among those that seem to be doing OK, there seems to be a lot of stories like "he was fine and eating and growing for at least {1,2,3} years then suddenly one day he died" type stories.

I myself am torn, I would one day like another but the anecdotal evidence out there these days seems to suggest they might be not be suitable for captive care. :neutral:

We kep a coperband for close to 5 years. just found it dead one day, no apparent reason...

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...e1013/reef.jpg

got a new one 2 1/2 months ago and it's doing well too, eating mysis and eat all my aiptasias ;)

I had mine for around 2 months, found out he was an LPS chewer so I had to remove him. Won't be trying another one, to risky in my books.

Poor fish.. sounds like they are damned if they don't eat and damned if they do.

Typical Kirstie Alley Syndrome :lol:

I will have had mine for two years as of July. A lot of naturally occurring food was necessary for it to survive and settle in. In the first month it ate all of the fan worms and spaghetti worms. In the second and third month it took care of the aptasia. Into the fourth month it began eating frozen mysis shrimp and grocery store clam. In the months that followed it has noticeably took up eating bristle worms and pods too. Unfortunately it is also like zoaelite's and will chow on acans, trachyphyllia, lobophyllia and gorgonia polyps. Fortunately my MTS (multiple tank syndrome) allowed me to save them by moving them to another tank.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h.../Butterfly.jpg

As far as I'm concerned with CBB's it's almost 100% luck of the draw. I've owned 3 CBB's in total. I honestly believe most CBB's are cyanide caught and don't have much chance of survival. If you're lucky enough to get one that isn't cyanide caught and eats frozen and survives for over 4 months then usually you'll be ok. However it seems with this fish there are no guarantees.

The first one we got was about 2-2 1/2" when we got him and (please God hopefully I don't jinx myself by saying this) seems to be bullet proof. It has survived 2 tank moves, marine velvet, 2 weeks of copper treatment and high nitrates. I've had him now for about 3 1/2 years and he's about 3-3 1/2". He eats mysis and aptasia.

The 2nd one 4" I tried I got from a guy selling fish out of his warehouse and I got it for $10. However it was in rough shape when I picked it up and needless to say it only lived for 3 days.

The 3rd one I got was a small one 1" but it was eating mysis at the lfs when I bought it. He lived for almost 2 months was eating mysis well, then for no apparent reason he died.

I don't think there is any magical conditions that make it more likely for CBB's to survive. I honestly believe it's hit or miss/luck of the draw. I think good water parameters, ones that are 2-3" and eating mysis help, but really you never know with this fish.

Here's a pic. of my current semi-bullet proof CBB
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...n/DSC_1328.jpg