Copperband Butterfly

[1bigstud]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.
Unfortunately the copper band didnt make it.
If i decide to get another one I will definitely use most of the techniques described here.

[mike31154]

That's unfortunate, but as evident by this thread & others related to Copperbands, the survival rate is low on these beauties. To be honest I have no idea why they're still offered for sale based on the high mortality rate. I too was tempted by the beauty of these fish & purchased one not long after getting into the hobby. Did fine for a while, but then I had the awful experience of watching him starve to death. That was enough for me to not ever consider trying to keep another.

[albert_dao]

The problem is that the Copperband is poorly collected. The wholesale value is relatively low and the collectors treat it accordingly. This is why you see them out there for $30 at the larger outfits.

Here's my take on it, if you have the opportunity to pick up a CBB that's stable and eating (3-6mo+), buy it and don't scoff if the seller is asking for 3 or 4 times the retail value. You'll spend that and more trying to get a good one from a store.

[reefwars]

Dealing with a 100% blind copper band as we speak result of poor collection and shipping

[wayner]

When it comes to Copperbands, I was told many moons ago from a fella who I consider to be quite knowledgeable that 80 percent of Copperbands that he brings in have parasites, mainly flukes, could be external or internal, sometimes its easy to pick up on symptom's like twitching of the head and body, sometimes there are no symptoms and they just wither away.

He treats all of them as soon as they arrive with Prazipro, it can be used as a bath or can be added directly to your tank with no ill effects on corals, or anything else for that matter., he swears by this treatment and says he lost very few after using this product.

So like everyone else in this hobby, I found it very hard to keep this fish for any length of time, they would always look very good in the beginning, even eating, then out of the blue., they would start to decline.

So a few years back I decided to try Prazipro, I added it directly to my Reef Tank, I know, risky business right, well, I don't know if I got lucky but the last Copperband I had was in my tank eating like a horse for 3 years before I broke the tank down.

I've used Prazipro twice now for Copperbands and have been successful both times, so, if you really feel a need to have a Copperband, I would give this method a shot as soon as you get him, I never waited for symptoms to appear. I treated as soon as I brought the fish home.

Just my 2 cents.

[asylumdown]

+1 on Prazipro. I use it on all of my fish in my QT procedure now. I think the moral of the story is that a copper band brought home directly from the store and plopped in to your community reef tank with no prep work is a disaster waiting to happen. Every time I've added CBB directly to my tank without QT where it's prophylactically treated for parasites and given extra special attention to help it eat, it has died. Every time I've done what I just said, it's thrived.