My copperbanded butterfly eats EVERYTHING!!!

daniella3d · #1 01-16-2011, 01:15 AM

Have you tried some live food? Mine was very skinny and I got him fat again with live white worms. Either live white woms or live blackworms would probably take his mind off of your coral.

Mine gobble up live white worms as if it was popcorn. I had to feed it 7 to 10 times per day to bring it back to health but it was worth it. Now I feed it 3 to 5 times per day with PE mysis and white worms.

Mine does not want to toutch aiptasia at all and it does not toutch coral.

I do not really want to start feeding it live clam or mussle because I have a crocea and I am afraid that one day he'll realize that a crocea is something eatible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

I've had the wretched little beastie for 2.5 years now. Right off the bat it would eat fan worms and spaghetti worms. After about a month it started on aptasia followed by frozen mysis shrimp and raw grocery store clams/mussels. After that it was all down hill. It begun eating the mouths of of my acanthastrea, trachyphyllia and lobophyllia which all had to be moved. With them gone it went after the pseudopterogorgia polyps which I moved... then it ate and killed my orange plate coral before I had a chance to stop it. At some point it even begun eating bristle worms which is fine with me. But just today I watched it take a big nip out of the mantle of my derasa! Upon closer inspection I see its been going after the derasa for some time now as there are missing bits all around the mantle. So my remaining clams are now in the frag system with all of the other coral that I had to separate.

I've been feeding the butterfly PE mysis once every day. There are only three fish that eat it in my tank and I feed a cube about the size of a regular gaming dice each time. I add a bit at a time so that nearly all of the food is consumed and not lost to the sump. Apparently this is not enough and so I'm going to begin feeding at least twice a day now in hopes that the CBB will leave whats left alone...

whatcaneyedo · #2 01-16-2011, 01:42 AM

Its possible the butterfly was picking on the other clams but I think I would have noticed. I watch the tank pretty closely especially if things aren't doing well. At this point I'm not ruling anything out and I've changed a few of my practices to see if the deaths stop.

I don't recall ever hearing of a butterfly ceasing to eat coral/clams after it has started. Have you? How long have you had yours again? Mine didn't begin to eat aptasia until month 2 and left all of my coral alone for basically the first year.

daniella3d · #3 01-16-2011, 04:27 AM

Mine is still young and I only have it for a month. I surely hope he'll start picking at aiptasia but when I tried to give him one he just chewed on it quickly and then spit it out twice.

Unless his taste changes, he's not liking the taste of the aiptasia.

I do have a clam and lots of coral, so hopefully he'll not eat them later on. I was told to starve the fish in order to get it to eat aiptasia, but with so much feeding, he's not interested. Maybe that's the key?

What I am wondering is if yours has started to eat coral and clam because it's too hungry? After all it did not start to eat aiptasia until you had it for 2 months, then maybe the feather worms and other pods were exhausted and that's why he started on the aiptasias. Then when the aiptasias were gone he started on something else because he's hungry. could be?

That would explain the shift in diet..he's hungry? In any case, trying to feed it more and some live worms is surely worth a try.

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

Its possible the butterfly was picking on the other clams but I think I would have noticed. I watch the tank pretty closely especially if things aren't doing well. At this point I'm not ruling anything out and I've changed a few of my practices to see if the deaths stop.

I don't recall ever hearing of a butterfly ceasing to eat coral/clams after it has started. Have you? How long have you had yours again? Mine didn't begin to eat aptasia until month 2 and left all of my coral alone for basically the first year.