copperband butterfly...
 

i've heard that copperband butterflies will eat aptasia... but when i talked to the person at the LFS were i got one, he said that they'll eat aptaisa if you starve them a bit. so my question is, are they known to eat aptasia only... or do they eat it as a last resort? also, i usually feed my tank frozen brine and the older inhabitants love it (2 clowns, 1 damsel, 1 cleaner shrimp). whenever i was at the LFS looking at copperbands (this was before my purchase of one a couple days ago), i noticed that the store feed them seaweed. are butterflies vegetarians?

What is the Copperbanded eating in your tank now? If it gets used to eating the frozen brine shrimp (which I've been told is nutritionally like feeding potato chips) it won't have much incentive for going after aptasia.

My CBB didn't take to frozen food right away, but did clean out the aptasia. It then took some coaxing for it to eat mysis shrimp (nutritionally excellent).

It may not take starving it, but I would hold off the frozen brine and see what it does.

but i have other fish already in there. the CBB is not eating yet because i think it's still aclimating. we just added him about 3 days ago. my clowns, damsel, and shrimp all eat brine. so brine is not good for them? is mysis better? i thought brine was fine.

anyone? :)

I tried to find a link for you but no such luck. However, apparently adult brine shrimp are 95% water or something to that effect. The only time brine shrimp have nutritional value is when they are larvae with yolk sacks.

I have read the same thing. But I cant remember what book I read it in...

I can only tell you what has been told to me to te effet that brine were like popsicle so not much nutient where mysis was a lot more thorough as food !
So there you go !

This is a common theme at wetwebmedia.com, where there are many FAQ's on feeding, from butterfly fishes to anemones. Mysis shrimp is mentioned quite often, if you search on it you'll find a ton of info.

A quote from the WWM FAQ on butterfly feeding:

The page is here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/bffdsfdgfaqs.htm

Hope that helps.

...

it's been about a week now since we got the copperband butterfly and i've never seen him eat any frozen brine that i feed the tank (i feed once every 2 days, about 1/3 cube), nor have i ever seen him pick at any aptasia. once in a while he pick at the rocks, but i don't see him eat anything. do copperbands eat algae, or any other things on the rock?

Mine didn't eat aiptasia either... :sad: But it took to mysis very quickly. At first, decrease the flow if necessary to allow mysis to fall onto the rock or tank bottom and he may pick at them.

They don't eat algae to my knowledge but will be eating the little bugs and worms from your rock and sand.

this really sucks... i bought the copperband to eat the aptasia in the tank and he hasn't eaten one. there's more aptasia and they're getting really big.

what else can i do to get rid of aptasia? should i take back the copperband, and then get the racoon butterfly? i'm not sure when we'll change into a full out reef tank, but i have a feeling that it won't be anytime soon.

peppermint shrimp have always worked for me.

i've heard that peppermint shrimp are less likely to eat aptasia than copperband butterflies, that's why i got the fish and not the shrimp. maybe i should get the shrimp also... that may increase my chances of ridding the tank of aptasia. thanks.

my copperband died this morning. i'm not sure why. it didn't look like he was eating what i was giving him, but i thought that if he was going to starve himself, then eventually he'd go for the aptasia. i guess he wasn't the type to eat aptasia :(

This product has been getting a lot of attention over at Reef Central. Don't know if you can get it here, or have to order direct from the supplier, but I've been thinking about giving it a try.

http://www.joesjuice.com

aiptasia
 

Sorry about your copperband butterflyfish. I have never owned one ,but I have read the trick to them is to get them to aclimate and eat . It seems reasonable that a well fed and adjusted butterfly would be motivated to eat aiptasia, after fasting, but aclimate and fatten him up a little first. Once "trained" the word is they are aiptasia eating machines...and then some small polyps, tubeworms,zenia.... etc, depending on the individual fish. The best obligate aiptasia eater is a nudibranch called: Berghia verrucicornis.
here is a couple of sites you might find helpful:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/in...a/aiptasia.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/nudifaqs.htm
From one rookie to another,
John

sorry about your CBB I'd love to keep one but I like small polyps, etc and hear they will eat the polyps. For aiptasia I just squirt a bit of white vinegar on them, do it again the next day on what ever bit of stump is left and that's one dead pest.

Doug

does white vinegar hurt the other fish in the tank? and also... how are you able to squirt it on the aptasia underwater? with a hospital type needle?

Sorry for not being clear, I just use a dispenser from the Sea Chem stuff, a syringe from the drug stor will work as well. I've not seen any thing else bothered by the vinegar, lots of people use Kalk paste with out any trouble too. I just find the vinegar is easy and quick. Just make sure you are as close to the aiptasia as you can get, if it shrinks down into a hole and you can see the hole you can still squirt it but you'll definately need to follow up the next day. Best if you can get a tiny needle and put it right into the pest. Some people say you have to remove the dead aiptasia after you kill it, I never did.

Doug

The vinegar will affect you PH a little to a lot depending on how much you use. I used to use vinegar in combination with kalk to keep my pH at the prober level while boosting my calcium levels.

Essentially, if you are getting rid of a couple in this method it should be no big deal. If you are going after 20 like in my tank it might affect your pH.

A pH meter would be handy.

Actually, an alk test would be better. The introduction of an acid to the tank will lower alk before affecting pH. If the pH drops, you already added too much. That said, I have added large quantities of vinegar (and hydrochloric acid) to my tank without any trouble. As was pointed out, if you're killing a few, the vinegar shouldn't be a problem.

Interesting, I never noticed a drop in my pH but I didn't check my alk after killing a dozen or so aiptasias... I'll do that if I have any more to kill.

Doug

If you ever get another butterfly, try getting the LFS to feed the tank so you can find one that's already eating frozen food. Butterflies are usually picky eaters, but don't let that discourage you. They're beautiful fish.

Re: aiptasia
 

thanks for the articles! :D i was reading the first article that you posted and it says that you can use hermit crabs (red legged "hairy" hermits). has anyone ever used these hermits before? also... can i find these guys in vancouver? i'm also thinking about getting a peppermint shirmp (not only for the aptasia, but also cause i like the way they look). do these shrimp "play nice" with skunk cleaner shrimps?

Red legged "Hairy hermits? Well there are scarlet legged hermit crabs which are great algae cleaners etc, but there are also the bigger hermits which will eat everything, I doubt they are reef safe. King Ed has both. Peppermint shrimp are a risk in my opinion, they can be great in a reef or they may eat polyps etc. I've had them in my reef and not had any trouble but then I moved some stuff around and they started eating some star polyps and a montipora digitata. Nice thing about Peppermint shrimp is that they spawn all the time if you've got more than one, and all those little shrimp larvae add alot of natural food to the aquarium.

Doug

For critters, go to J&L, they have the best price and always have them in stock:
http://www.jlaquatics.com/static/livestock/janitors.htm

From my experience, red leg hermits aren't reef safe. They were jacking shells off my snails and grew way too fast. IMO blue leg hermits and red scarlet hermits look safer to me, their legs and claws look more flimsy. But then again, they're crabs, don't expect any of them to be 100% reef safe. Another thing I noticed was when the red leg hermits got together. They go crazy and start messing with the snails, at least mine did.

BTW, I don't think hermits eat aptasia.

I will never overload on blue legged hermits again. I lost at least 20 snails to these guys. I even added miscellaneous empty shells to the tank in hopes they would use those, but they still went after my snails. I have about 4-5 now.

lol, i only have 1 emerald and a blue legged hermit now in terms of crabs. gave away my red legs, they were too aggressive for me. a lot of ppl say scarlet hermits are 100% reef safe though. Maybe that's why they're so much more expensive than the other ones.

right now... i have some zebra crabs and blue legged crabs. the zebra crabs are really aggressive. i think they ate all my snails. i've never seen the blue legged ones attack my snails, so i'm guessing they a little nicer.

do the scarlet hermits eat aptasia? i'm mainly trying to get rid of my aptasia. they look so ugly, and they're taking over most of my rock. my shrimp barely has any room to roam around on the rock now.

Theres another threat about aiptasia on the board, some people inject kalk mix, some inject lemon juice, I just squirt them with vinegar one day and then a second time the next day, someone pointed out though that I should keep an eye on my Alk though so keep that in mind.

I'm pretty certain that scarlets aren't known for eating aiptasia although I could be wrong.

Doug

I've had my Copperband for about 4 months now, and he's FANTASTIC!

Got him primarily as an Aiptasia wrecking crew but also because they are so beautiful.

You can't imagine how much Aiptasia I had in my tank, it was a freakin plague for almost a year. I'd easily guess more than 100 heads.

The Copperband (Cooper) didn't seem to touch the stuff for weeks, just grazed among the rocks. Now 4 months later you would need a microscope to find a single Aiptasia. Cooper is the fattest Copperband you'll ever see too! The Aiptasia just started to dissapear week to week.

And I consider myself really fortunate because he also eats pretty much any other frozen food I feed the tank, mysis, enriched brine, mixed, etc, which is good because there isn't any more Aiptasia for him to feast on.

This was also my second Copperband as I lost my first to a tank poisoning in the summer. The first one was a juvenile (about 1.5-2" long) and didn't seem to ever eat the Aiptasia in the 3 months I had him. The second one (Cooper) I got a little larger (about 3") as I read that adults were more likely to eat Aiptasia than juveniles (didn't know that at the time of the first purchase). Now Cooper is 4"+ and looks very happy and healthy.

PS.. I also have added several Peppermint shrimp over the past year and feel they also have contributed to the demise of the Aiptasia. Although I'm certain they seriously couldn't keep up with it before Cooper arrived, and also they seem to have no interest at all in the larger Aiptasia, whereas Cooper took on any sized foe. It was a one-two punch that the Aiptasia just couldn't win against.

But good advice has been given. Do not attempt another Copperband unless you find one that has been in the LFS for at least 1-2 weeks, is eating frozen foods and is an active swimmer/grazer with good coloration/markings. Once you find one that fits that description, you should have yourself an excellent tank inhabitant, and hopefully one that finds Aiptasia as yummy as Cooper!

I had a similar experience as 'CanadaWest'. My tank was sooooo overrun with aptasia that you literally couldn't see rock. I'm sure there were thousands. I tried peppermint shrimp, with no luck.....they probably couldn't keep up.

I finally got a CBB, and the first 2 died :cry: , but the third one I got did great, and now I can't find a single aptasia in my tank anywhere (except the sump), and he's doing great! :biggrin: :biggrin:

I don't know why the first 2 died, but I know the LFS was having a hard time keeping them alive at the time too.