my new little Copperband Butterfly fish
 

I've had this little guy for about a week now, the 33g long frag/ isolation tank has been his home since I got him. I know they are picky eaters so I've been watching him closely as to his eating, seems to poke around all the rocks and crevises and has pretty well cleaned up most of the tiny feather dusters. I have been putting mysis and brine shrimp in but as of yet he does not seem to interested in eating it. the cleanup crew look after anything not eaten by him or his 1 chromis tank buddy, I was advised to try him on white live worms, so I picked up a culture and put a few in for him and he seemed to eat them ok. How many of the worms should I feed to him at one time and should I use a feeding cone? :smile:
http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/...psdcde11c2.jpg

You should try to get him eating PE Mysis. That is usually one of the first foods they accept. A turkey baster helps to target feed. Chopped up bits of fresh clam usually works, too. But it does take some persistence.

Here's an old thread when I was getting my CBBs eating.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=73021

The best option is to never buy a fish unless you see her eating at the Lfs.
The is why it is better to buy a fish at a lfs than online even if you have to pay a little more.

Hey thanks for the tips & utube with the dry food method of dry food feeding. Can I use a film capsule I have the magnet set already? Oh ya I am trying white frozen mysis not sure I know what PE mysis is.
Cheers Laurie

I had a similar fish picky eater. Frozen mussels worked great. I would toss them in frozen and my Cbb would be nipping before it hit the sand

being hunters its easier to make cbb's find food then eat whats floating , like reefpilot said use the turkey baster , it makes the copper band think they are hunting.

mine eats from my fingers now and i started him with the turkey baster on pe mysis:)

he now eats brine,mysis,plankton and pellets:)

strongest eater i have :)

Yes, a film capsule will work or anything similar. As you are finding, CBB's like to poke their beaks into holes looking for food. I had fresh clam bits in there, as well as frozen PE Mysis, and they got used to going there. It contained the food, too. That made it easier to convert to dry food. There is no way a CBB would ever go to the surface for dry food, unless you used a method like this.

My CBB's didn't like the smaller Hikari mysis, although they would eat it. But they sure took to the larger PE mysis real fast. Most LFS carry PE mysis, too.

But you need to be persistent with new foods, a little at a time. They will initially spit it out, but if they are hungry, they will start accepting new food.

Thanks everyone for your help on feeding this little guy, he's very cool and I want to get him eating various foods before he goes in the DT.

lots of attention , get him use to you and friends with you and trust will help teach him to eat or trust what your giving is food:)

Be sure he is eating well and strong before moving him to your DT. Much more difficult to train on new foods when other faster and more aggressive fish are grabbing all the food.

Also, beware of yellow tangs, if you have one. They in particular seem to have a real hate on for CBBs.

You can also buy a few live clams and use the tip of a knife and skewer it to make a hole in the clam. Copperbands will almost always eat from that. Once he's comfortable eating from that then make your own clam using a clam shell and epoxy or super glue and put prepared or frozen food in it. Then if he's comfortable eating from that, I eventually built an opening and closing device using a nori clip and egg crate so once the copperband smells or sees the prepared food he's used to eating, he'll eat from there. I used egg crate so he could get his beak in there without any of the other fish being able to. Copperbands don't like to compete for food so once the other fish lost interest, it was ready for him. I feed him twice a day now now with chunks of shrimp and chunks of scallops. Its a long process and can be very time consuming so I wouldn't recommend it it to anyone that wasn't a very dedicated keeper because copperbands are one of the hardest fish to get to eat and require a fair bit of dedicated time just to that one fish. It can work though if you're willing to put in the time. There's nothing more frustrating than watching such a beautiful fish waste away from neglect.

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Oh no! I have a yellow tang in the 90 DT, if it's going to be too much for the CBB getting chased all the time maybe I'll get another one and the 33 long will become my other smaller DT. From what I read similar body shape can be an issue with tangs.
Nice picture Doug, thanks for sharing

He use to go nuts over that half clam. I bought them at superstore, Manila clams or something I think. Froze and halved them for the clip. The other fish use to eat all the parts of meat floating around from the copperband tearing it up. Of course, not sure if this trains them to eat ornamental clams. :lol: I never had any at the time.

Yes they will eat ortamental clams once they get the taste of mollusk. I had 8 clams with mine. As long as I fed on mussle a day the vlams were safe

The challenge is the first few days. After a couple weeks, the yellow tang should accept him and leave him alone. At least that's what happened with mine. If you can distract the yellow tang with a mirror, or picture on the side of the tank, that can help.

That's why the CBB has to be strong and able to escape. My CBB was very good at instant 180's and able to avoid the tang. Or you can remove the yellow tang for a while until the CBB gets acclimated to the DT. That is, if you can catch him. Again, it is usually only a short term issue, worst is the 1st couple days.

Live clams are a huge liability.

Hint: Look at the fish that share the water in the systems you purchase the clams from.

IMO, just freeze them for a few days then crack them open. Works just as well.