Copperband Butterfly

thanhjenn · #1 11-18-2009, 01:17 AM

I love this fish, but have always been afraid to buy it cause I have clams, sps, and lps. I was at fellow reefer house today and he has clams, sps, and lps with the copperband. What are your experience?

mike31154 · #2 11-18-2009, 01:26 AM

Mine starved to death. Difficult to keep due to eating habits. Definitely a beautiful fish, but due to the limited success in keeping them I'd like to see these left in the ocean. There are folks who have success with them, but statistically, it's a gamble.

Delphinus · #3 11-18-2009, 02:18 AM

Unfortunately true. Many don't do well.

FWIW, I had one with clams and LPS and SPS. You can take to the bank they won't bother SPS. Clams are hit and miss, some people have issues keeping them with clams, but mine never bothered my clams even though I fed it the occasional clam on the half shell. Mine did bother Acans and Blastos though, I ended up not being able to keep them, and yellow polyps too, a whole colony lost.

Mine lived for just under 3 years then died very suddenly one night back in the spring of this year.

SeaHorse_Fanatic · #4 11-18-2009, 02:49 AM

After losing more than one CBB over the years, I now have a small one that is eating frzn and doing great. My last one before this lasted 3 days, just long enough to eat the tank full of aiptasia rocks that I had cultured on purpose for it in a 120g tank. It ate every aiptasia & died the next day

It's my wife's favourite fish (along with Porcupine puffer, Bannerfish, and Jellyfish) so I gave it one last try & I've had it almost a month and its doing really well in a well-stocked (mostly lps) seahorse refugium tank where it is the biggest fish. I now have specimens of all four of Irene's favourite fish, so she's happy about that.

But yeah, not a great survival rate & I think they are more likely to much on clams (since that's what some people feed them to keep alive - manila clams from the supermarket).

Anthony

naesco · #5 11-18-2009, 04:59 AM

Although a few reefers have had success with the copperband, many dont't even after multiple attempts.
I would bypass this fish and save you and the fish grief.

robert · #6 11-18-2009, 06:51 AM

Well, last issue of CORAL magazine is dedicated to butterflyfishes. Interesting info. One of the things magazine points out is that keeping single fish of most of the butterfs species is impossible. Other one is that FOWLR wouldn't do either. They are predisposed to live in corals rich environment in pairs. Yes, feeding seems to be an issue, but one needs to also look at behavioral needs.

I have no experience with keeping butterflyfishes, but I found the info in the magazine very educational and I would suggest it to anyone who would like to keep these beauties.

gobytron · #7 11-18-2009, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

After losing more than one CBB over the years, I now have a small one that is eating frzn and doing great. My last one before this lasted 3 days, just long enough to eat the tank full of aiptasia rocks that I had cultured on purpose for it in a 120g tank. It ate every aiptasia & died the next day

It's my wife's favourite fish (along with Porcupine puffer, Bannerfish, and Jellyfish) so I gave it one last try & I've had it almost a month and its doing really well in a well-stocked (mostly lps) seahorse refugium tank where it is the biggest fish. I now have specimens of all four of Irene's favourite fish, so she's happy about that.

But yeah, not a great survival rate & I think they are more likely to much on clams (since that's what some people feed them to keep alive - manila clams from the supermarket).

Anthony

Must be one of the smaller guys from JL a while ago.
I got one too, by far the best and most promising of my three attempts at this fish...
I keep moving rocks from the back sump compartment in my aquapod which is rich in aiptasia and fanworms into my 95 gallon..
my CBB is eating frozen voraciously, but I just don't want to lose a 4th of these sexy fish...

whatcaneyedo · #8 11-18-2009, 08:57 PM

My first two locally purchased CBB died after about a week. However I'm suspicious that they may have been cyanide caught as they acted healthy and were eating right up until the moment they died.

I've had my present CBB for 17 months which I purchased at Ocean Aquatics.
Month 1 it ate all of my fan worms and spaghetti worms
Month 2 it ate all of my aptasia
Month 3 it began eating frozen mysis
Month 4 to present it started eating my open brains, acans and a photosynthetic sea whip. I've also seen it eat the occasional bristle worm.