Wanted Copperband butterfly fish
 

looking for a reef safe copperband butterfly fish in the Edmonton area.... Going in a RSM250. Hoping somebody knows or is selling one that eats food and not coral.

I wont recommend CBB to anyone. They are notorious for not eating....or eating but not eating enough....and ultimately die. I have seen tons of people try to keep these, myself included but only a few have been able to keep them long term......the odds are so far against you I will discourage the purchase of a copper band.

personally think a 60g is a bit on the small side as well.....just my 2 cents:)

It can be done, it's just not easy. If you want to take a crack at it, check out this post: http://glassbox-design.com/2011/tips-for-feeding-fish/. I've used this trick and it works well

Daniella also got her CBB to fatten up and be healthy by feeding live white worms. You can search for her post or PM her.

If no one has one on here, just ask your LFS to order you one, but make sure it looks healthy before you take it because it might be an up-hill battle for a vouple of weeks.

From sometime now, our local store are receiving some CBB from australia that are more hardy and easier to have them eat. Many aquarist report more success with that strain.

I know it can be done....but I think people under estimate the chances and how hard it can be. Not to be even attempted by the unexperienced IMO.

Just a question but has anyone on canreef been able to keep one for longer than a year?...or longer than 2 years?

i know of people who have had them for quite a few years , the chances are better on keeping one if you can get one thats lived in a aquarium for over a year.

still though i agree not to be attempted unless you have had experience with finiky fish or butterflys in particular.

I'll agree with that. The saying "Delicate as a butterfly" applies here.

LFS need to get with the program and stop bringing these in. I tried one as a newb and watched the poor guy starve to death. I know there are success stories, but too few to warrant the number that end up dieing.

I got mine in July 2008 so I've had it for over two years. Even in my 5 year old 120gal I have to feed it at least twice a day to keep it from eating my coral.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1999.jpg

Wow..that is good news....and he looks healthy, congrats.

I still wouldnt recommend them to anyone but the most dedicated and experienced.

I have 2 Copperbands, both eating well, including dry food. Here is how I got mine to eat.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=73021

I have now moved the larger one on the right to my big display tank. He now has to deal with other more aggressive tank mates at feeding time. So to make sure he gets enough, I use a turkey baster to get it right in front of him, so he can grab it before it gets gobbled up by other fish.

Great idea and thanks for posting this. I have had a copperband for about 4 weeks and he eats mysis and brine shimp like there is no tomorrow. He was getting hassled a bit by my yellow tang who has since found a new home but it was not affecting his food intake.
My concern is with the amount of frozen food I have been feeding. Prior to the copperband I only fed frozen twice a week, but now I am feeding everyday and I think my water quality is suffering. I will definitely give your method I try.

I have a Yellow Tang too, that thinks he owns the tank. I trapped him, and stuck him in the refugium for a couple weeks, when I moved the Copperband to the display tank. That allowed the Copperband to establish his favourite spots and hiding places.

But when I returned the Yellow Tang to the main tank, it didn't take him more than a few minutes to start waltzing around the tank, like he never left it, and start chasing the Copperband. Fortunately, the Copperband is very agile, and can do a 180 turn in a fraction of a second. The chasing only lasted less than a day, though, and the Yellow Tang just takes a passing lunge at the Copperband from time to time now, just to remind him who is the boss. The Copperband seems to handle it OK, and just moves out of the way when he see the Yellow Tang coming.

But feeding the Copperband in the main tank is a bit of a chore. The problem is that it is much deeper than the refugium where I trained him, and he is reluctant to go to the surface to eat the dry food. And my voracious big Bird Wrasse doesn't help, with his splashing and darting around at the surface, when there is food.

So I need to keep feeding the Copperband with a turkey baster. He eats fine, but it just time consuming. He really likes the freeze dried plankton (San Francisco brand, 68% protein), even more so than Mysis, but it floats up to the surface. I wish they made a Mysis or Plankton pellet that would sink to the bottom, he might go for that. He won't touch regular pellet food, though.

Hi ReefPilot,

Did you try using your medical capsule strategy in the main tank? If yes, what was the result.

I had the exact same experience with my yellow tang. He was hassling the CBB so I trapped him, banished him to bad fish corner of the sump for two weeks and let him contemplate his evil ways. But when I put him back in the display it was like he had never left and returned to his old self. Fortunately he has a very short memory and fell for the trap again.

Yes, I did actually, but the big bird wrasse soon discovered it, too, and scared away the Copperband. So, I have to keep using the turkey baster.

At least the Copperband is now trained to come to it. The problem is the Bird Wrasse (about 7 inches long, beautiful fish) also knows there is food there, and I need to keep trying to keep him away when I feed the Copperband,... not easy. I have even given the Bird Wrasse a few taps, with the turkey baster, when he gets close, but that doesn't seem to deter him much either.

So not sure where this will go. I am going to be setting up another tank, for frags. Maybe I will try catch the bird wrasse, and stick him in there for a while. He is now a bigger problem than the Yellow Tang.

to reduce aggressivness you will have to change around your aquascape , problem is he has territory established and even if you remove the tang he will establish the same teritory unless he is bullied out himself...... changing around the rock work will throw off his memory.


adding pvc for hiding places will hep alot as well, in a fishes mind its out of sight out of mind....cheers guys:)

Wow your yellow tangs are real jerks. When I introduced my CBB I removed my purple tang for just a week because it was chasing the butterfly. When I put it back in, it didn't show any amount of aggression. However, to this day, the purple tang still picks on my +2' snowflake moray...

My previous yellow tang was a real jerk too. I had a 75g about 5 years ago with a yellow tang in it and added a CBB to the tank to take care of some aiptasia. My tang stabbed him about a dozen times in 5 minutes and that was by far my shortest lived fish ever.