My fat copperband butterfly

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

The 1st CBB I owned I got lucky and while he didn't start eating until almost a month after getting him he eventually started eating PEmysis and I had him for 4 yrs then came home one day and found him dead, don't know what killed him or if it was old age or what but it really sucked losing him after having him for so long.

The 2nd one I never should of got. Basically a new saltwater guy in town (was around a few years ago and only for a few months) told me he could get one in for me for $15, the price was tempting so I took a risk and got him to order one in. When it came in he calls me and says something's wrong with my system I need you to pick it up asap. It looked ok but not great when I got there, but I ended up taking it hoping to save it. However 3 days after I got it it died, and it never ate.

The 3rd one I got I can only assume was cyanide caught. At the store I got it from he was eating mysis readily and continued to eat really well and get fat and seemed very healthy in my tank. I had him for just shy of four months, he had always ate well and he showed no signs of losing weight, or looking sick, then suddenly one morning I went to check on the tank and there he was dead Still looked fine (no odd body discoloration or damage) just was dead. No idea what else it could of been other then cyanide, he was a small CBB so I am pretty sure it wasn't old age or anything like that.

I'm glad yours is doing well eating worms and I hope he lives a long time for you, but from my experience it's really rare and unfortunately perfectly healthy ones sometimes just die for no obvious reason (guessing cyanide caught) and show no sign of anything being wrong before hand either.

All of my CBB experience has been like your third one...
Always fat, healthy looking and a voracious eater but then you go to freed your tank one day and you cant find it, then you finally see it...

After getting my hopes up with this fish a couple of times, I will not attempt another one.

If you can give a fish the absolute optimum care and it still dies, I just dont feel they belong in my tank...

[daniella3d]

wow that's really sad. Why are they so often cought with cyanide if this kill the fish each time or most of the time?

I am wondering if they are just fragile and die when they lack a certain food over time, or if they really all die from cyanide?

The thing is, without proper testing we do not know. If they die from cyanide poison then this is easily fixed by bying stock certified net cought, but if they die from lack of certain food in their diet, then this is pretty much hopeless and then it should never be imported.

Now I am pretty scared for my little one

Originally Posted by gobytron

All of my CBB experience has been like your third one...
Always fat, healthy looking and a voracious eater but then you go to freed your tank one day and you cant find it, then you finally see it...

After getting my hopes up with this fish a couple of times, I will not attempt another one.

If you can give a fish the absolute optimum care and it still dies, I just dont feel they belong in my tank...

[kien]

My last (literally) attempt at a copperband was a statistic as well sadly

Healthy and fat at the LFS for a couple of months. Healthy and eating well in my tank for a month. Go to feed tank one day and.. Ya, dead . It is especially frustrating when they go like that. Eating well and absolutely no signs of trouble right up to the night before they perish. There's nothing you could have done even if you wanted to because you went to bed thinking the CBB was healthy and happy as can be.

[daniella3d]

Are you sure it was fat because he does not seem to have the fat pad on the top of the head and body on that photo. Usualy when they are healthy they have a well plumped flesh or fat padding on the thop part and in your photo it seem to be rather pinched instead of bulging and well padded?

When I got mine it was also pinched on the top of the head and did not have fat on the top but now that area is bulging and I can see there is a bump there instead.

I think that when they don't have their fat reserve they are pretty much doomed. What was yours eating and how much a day? They seem to need a lot of food many times per day, but that's from seing mine so not sure.

Here is my goal for mine. See in the pic on that site how the top of the head has a bump, almost as if the fish has a hump? This is a really healthy copperband with a full fat pad:

http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/...Fish%20cd.html



here is another one showing a really thick fat pad on the top of the head:



And last but not least, a youtube video showing this fat pad nicely on this very healthy copperband (not mine but what I am trying to get with mine):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLfgF...layer_embedded

Originally Posted by kien

My last (literally) attempt at a copperband was a statistic as well sadly

Healthy and fat at the LFS for a couple of months. Healthy and eating well in my tank for a month. Go to feed tank one day and.. Ya, dead . It is especially frustrating when they go like that. Eating well and absolutely no signs of trouble right up to the night before they perish. There's nothing you could have done even if you wanted to because you went to bed thinking the CBB was healthy and happy as can be.

[fishoholic]

Still trying to find the thread but here is a pic. of my old CBB that I had for 4 yrs, can't tell if there's a bump or not but he always ate well and seemed healthy until the day he died.

[Lance]

I've had mine for nearly two years. I got him from a fellow Canreefer. At the time he was only eating fresh shellfish. Eventually he took to Mysis. Now he will eat any meaty foods, but no pellets or flakes. I soak his food in Selcon 3x per week. I still give him a fresh clam now and then for a treat. I put the clam meat in a container with very small holes in it so that he can get his snout in to get the food but the other fish can't.

[daniella3d]

Are you only feeding it 3 times per week?

I started the Prazipro treatment on mine. He's fat now but I surely hope that treatment will not compromise the fish appetite.

Interesting, I treated in my frag tank and the prazipro did not kill any of the flatworm in my tank. Is that normal? I was hoping it would kill them but not sure if the product is active or not.

Originally Posted by Lance

I soak his food in Selcon 3x per week. I still give him a fresh clam now and then for a treat. I put the clam meat in a container with very small holes in it so that he can get his snout in to get the food but the other fish can't.