Copperbands Valentine's Day Lovefest - Not

[daniella3d]

yes I know and beleive me that I feel like a "Bi***" saying all these things (I am not like that) but it does upset me to see such thing and I could not just watch without saying my opinion about it. I don't know why it upset me so much..it's not my fish after all. Maybe I just love my butterfly too much so I get emotional when watching this video.

I just hope it turn out well.

Originally Posted by reefwars

so lets all be open minded and offer advice that will help (not that you havent because you have offered great advice) if theres a problem then lets not judge and label people "fish abusers" lets help solve the problem and help as best as we can


there are no tang police or copper police merely people who are concerned for our scaley friends and alot of times a kind word of advice will go along ways where as putting down peoples practises will just get your advice ignored.


ummmmm so lets all be open minded and do what we do best which is advise and pls dont take things to heart and get mad it really doesnt help but a positive attitude will go on and on and on and on

[Reef Pilot]

Daniella, I read your thread about your Copperband purchase. Sounds like you have had him for less than 2 months, which is certainly not a lot of experience with these fish. Sounds like he had a tough time too, and having to go through all that medication.

But I will give you credit for trying something new, the white worms, to get him eating again. Though not sure of the longer term effects of feeding these to SW fish,and hope you continue to get him converted over to other foods as well.

I have both of mine now eating freeze dried Mysis shrimp enriched with vitamins, as well as other frozen and fresh foods including clams. And they are really going after the food with gusto, no tentative bites. They stuff their mouths until they can't swallow anymore, and bits are sticking out the sides as they try to force it down.

On the behavior side with mine, I watched them quite a bit yesterday, and the bickering through the divider has almost totally stopped. There were a couple attempts by the smaller one on the left to start something, but the bigger one does not react now.

What is really interesting though, is how much they act in tandem. When one goes to the top looking for food, they other one goes up too, to have a look. And if one is hunting on the bottom, they other is too. When I come into the room, both come to the front of the glass to greet me. And sometimes they are both just sitting quietly on each side of the divider, like they are just hanging out together. Also, if one gets scared for some reason, if I make an unexpected movement or something, and goes and hides, the other does the same.

As I said before, I think this tandem behavior has helped the smaller one to convert over to new foods. Monkey see, monkey do, really works.

Again, not advocating having 2 Copperbands, but thought this behavior is really interesting. I am wondering if maybe I have a male and a female. If peace continues for a while again, I may just try removing that divider again to see what happens. Of course, I can put it back in a blink if it is doesn't work out.

Reef Pilot

[daniella3d]

How long I have my copper is a bit irrelevant in that situation. It is very easy to see that your fish are stressed in that video. My copperband was for about a month at the reseller, then I have it for about 2 months. Prazipro is not hard on a fish, it is even reef safe. I used it in my reef frag tank and nothing was affected. The flukes are hard on a fish.

The problem was not that he was not eating, but he was eating too little, just 3 to 4 mysis per day. It seem that copperband need a lot of food to be at their top health. They should really have that full fleshed fat pad at the top if they are healthy.

the white worms are quite fat but the important thing is not to overfeed and to give a variety of food. Mine does not care for mysis and will only eat it if he's totaly starving. You are lucky if yours accept dry food, mine would not.

I will not get him converted to anything else, as I tried many times and he does not care for anything else. Starving him to get him to eat something else will not work either as he does not mind getting very skinny and eating only to bearely survive when he does not like the type of food he's offered. That's why he was so skinny on mysis when I first got him...he was only eating just to stay alive. You can bring a horse to the water but you can't force it to drink.

So mine is very finicky eater..hard to keep and maintain, but I still love that fish and I am doing what it takes to give it a good life.

I don't understand if you fish eat so much, why are they still skinny after 3 weeks? They should be fat by now eating that much? Maybe they have internal parasites and you should treat them. Mine expealed a 6" worm when I treated him with prazipro. if fish eat a lot and still are skinny, then something is not right. Either they have internal parasites or they have been cougth with cyanide and are waisting away.

My yellow tang was skin and bones when I got him and after 3 weeks of good food he was fat as they can be, so that,s strange.

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Daniella, I read your thread about your Copperband purchase. Sounds like you have had him for less than 2 months, which is certainly not a lot of experience with these fish. Sounds like he had a tough time too, and having to go through all that medication.

But I will give you credit for trying something new, the white worms, to get him eating again. Though not sure of the longer term effects of feeding these to SW fish,and hope you continue to get him converted over to other foods as well.