Copperband Swimming Upside Down?!?

[ScubaSteve]

Most people have already said it, but they are challenging fish and are probably one that should be left in the ocean. That being said, hes in your care now... So let's do our best to give this guy the best chance possible.

The upside down thing... Can you describe it? If he's struggling to stay upright, you might be out of luck. If he's just doing to the upside down thing for fun he's probably just messing around from being bored in a small tank. I had a long nose butterfly who did this all the time for s***s and giggles. Butterflies have a surprising amount of personality and do do this to entertain themselves.

Now, I actually recommend getting that leopard into the main tank. That's one fish I recommend NOT Qting. Is the leopard eating?

[NastayNatron]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Most people have already said it, but they are challenging fish and are probably one that should be left in the ocean. That being said, hes in your care now... So let's do our best to give this guy the best chance possible.

The upside down thing... Can you describe it? If he's struggling to stay upright, you might be out of luck. If he's just doing to the upside down thing for fun he's probably just messing around from being bored in a small tank. I had a long nose butterfly who did this all the time for s***s and giggles. Butterflies have a surprising amount of personality and do do this to entertain themselves.

Now, I actually recommend getting that leopard into the main tank. That's one fish I recommend NOT Qting. Is the leopard eating?

I would say hes not struggling to stay upright but it seems now like he's just messing around. Ill see if I can get a video of it. As for the leopard he eats like a pig and im feeding him 3 times a day. He is doing great. Im not sure if I should maybe just transfer him to the display and leave the copperband in QT for another couple weeks.. . .

[daniella3d]

If h'es eating well and seem confortable in the QT, why risk putting it in the display tank too soon? I would not do it unless the fish would seem very stressed but it does not seem to be the case here, so why risk?

There is no point doing a quarantine if it's not done long enough.

Originally Posted by NastayNatron

I would say hes not struggling to stay upright but it seems now like he's just messing around. Ill see if I can get a video of it. As for the leopard he eats like a pig and im feeding him 3 times a day. He is doing great. Im not sure if I should maybe just transfer him to the display and leave the copperband in QT for another couple weeks.. . .

[paddyob]

Just curious... I hear a lot of " he is entertaining himself." With all due respect, is there any science behind this or is this something reefers choose to believe.

What us hobbiest think are probably, more times than not, wrong.

It's nice to think he might he playing but I find it hard to believe.

Again, no offense. Just being realistic here.

I do agree with the fact it is too late for other options and do your best.

Even if it makes it through this, the road is full of turns yet. And realistically, there is next to nothing we as reefers can really do or tell you asides from other observations. Any guess to the issue is exactly that. A guess. If there are any marine biologists who specialize in fish illness, I am sure they would tell you autopsy would be the way to know.

Trying to diagnose a fish disease would be more difficult for us than diagnosing a human. Think of that. Humans talk.

I'm probably gonna get flack from all the experts in here. I feel for yah. And the fish. It's crappy.

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Most people have already said it, but they are challenging fish and are probably one that should be left in the ocean. That being said, hes in your care now... So let's do our best to give this guy the best chance possible.

The upside down thing... Can you describe it? If he's struggling to stay upright, you might be out of luck. If he's just doing to the upside down thing for fun he's probably just messing around from being bored in a small tank. I had a long nose butterfly who did this all the time for s***s and giggles. Butterflies have a surprising amount of personality and do do this to entertain themselves.

Now, I actually recommend getting that leopard into the main tank. That's one fish I recommend NOT Qting. Is the leopard eating?

[NastayNatron]

Here is a video of some of his daily activities.

http://youtu.be/zI0NP9mXRAA

[Reef Pilot]

Doesn't look normal to me. I have had 3 Copperbands now (and never lost one), and none of them ever did that. I would say something is bothering him, and he is trying to "shake" it off.

[paddyob]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Doesn't look normal to me. I have had 3 Copperbands now (and never lost one), and none of them ever did that. I would say something is bothering him, and he is trying to "shake" it off.

You have three CBB in your tank??

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by paddyob

You have three CBB in your tank??

No, but have owned three. First one, I couldn't get to eat, so I returned him to the lfs after a couple months. I didn't have a QT at the time, and threw him straight into my display tank with my other fish. He survived my bully yellow tang, but I couldn't get him to eat any food I gave him. I had a very mature tank, and he would pick away at the live rock, so was obviously finding some little critters to eat, esp early in the morning and at night. But he was slowly wasting away, so thought I better get him back to the lfs before it was too late.

A few months later, I set up a refugium (which I could temporarily disconnect from my display tank) and tried again, but with two this time. I had them separated with a divider in the tank, but was successful in getting them both to eat, and later converted them onto dry food as well.

You might remember this video. I took some flak from both you and Daniella at the time for having two Copperbands in one tank. But I actually believe that having both got them feeding faster, as they learned from each other, or at least seemed to be stimulated by seeing the other go after food.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fQjAZjafxM

I tried a couple times to remove the divider, but they refused to play nice. So I moved one to the display tank, and eventually sold the other. So I now just have one, and he is doing wonderfully in my display tank, eating dry food from the surface at feeding time with the rest of the fish, and then hunting aiptasia, or whatever he can find in the live rock the rest of the time.

I should mention, too, that I also have multiple Pearscale Butterfly fish in that same display tank, and they all get along fine. In fact, I believe it was them that taught my Copperband to go after aiptasia. He wouldn't touch them until they started to nip at them. It took the Pearlscales a few months, too, before they finally got the taste. But am really happy to finally have my display tank clear of aiptasia (was totally over run with them before).

BTW, I now have a proper QT set-up, and any new fish go through that for 2 months, before going into my display tank. Haven't added any fish for a while, but use it for crabs, shrimp and corals, too.

[NastayNatron]

Ok so I went out and got a bottle of PraziPro and some plastic Flower Pots. I did a 5g waterchange, added the planters as caves for the copperband and then dosed Prazi to the recommended dosage. After adding the Prazi the copperband went nuts swinging his head all over and scratching on everything he could. He seems to have calmed down now but is this normal after adding Prazi?

[daniella3d]

Ok, he's skinny and pinched on top of the head which is not good..he's twitching his head and that's often a sign of flukes. I would suggest a treatment or two of liquid prazipro according to instruction.

When I got my copperband he was twitching his head like that and he was skinny as can be. He was not eating a lot mind you...

I did a prazipro treatment for 10 days if I remember well and a very long worm came out of is belly...and Prazipro killed the flukes so he stopped twitching his head.

If your fish eats as much as you say he eats (like a pig?) then he should not be skinny and pinched like that, so maybe he's got worms like mine did.

He really does not look normal and he looks bothered by something. That fish does not look in good health at all.

Prazipro is reef safe, I used it in my nano with coral SPS, soft etc and it did not kill anything in my tank, not even the pods or the snail or the feather dusters. It does cut back the fish appetite for a few days but that resolve itself after the med is over. I think that is due to the worms being killed and expulsed. I think that light is too strong and the fish is obviously stressed.

Originally Posted by NastayNatron

Here is a video of some of his daily activities.

http://youtu.be/zI0NP9mXRAA