My copperbanded butterfly eats EVERYTHING!!!

[daniella3d]

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.

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.