Copperbands in a Reef

[reefmandan]

Hi Guys,

I'd love to get a CBB, and I know people have very mixed reviews on the degree of reef-safeness that these guys are. I want to ask for those reefers who do, and have successfully kept these guys in a reef tank, what did you do to ensure success?

[LoJack]

I would say moderately reef safe. One of the most reef safe in terms of butterfly's.

I had no issues with mine ever touching SPS. But they liked to nip at the flesh of LPS, especially acans and blastos. Zoa's are usually on the menu but I never kept zoas in my tank, so that didn't matter. I have an SPS dominated tank with a little bit of LPS here and there and the Copperband never nipped enough to kill or damage anything ...

The biggest issue is getting them eating. You need an extremely mature tank for success unless you see them eating frozen at the LFS. Very very very hard to get eating. If you have an LFS where you can buy live blackworms, you will have a much better chance at success.

[Tracey2]

My copperbands are all different, one nips a bit at acans but doesn't touch the zoas in her tank, another in a different tank is my big suck, she prefers to eat from my hand and doesn't seem to touch any coral, my third I don't know how she survives, I never see her eat anything but she must find something in the tank, I have had her for about a year.

[Scythanith]

I had good luck with a CBB for a good two years. My tank was an LPS & softie tank and I never observed picking. The tank was well established and had a flourishing copepod colony. I don't know why it died, but just wasn't around one day.

[straightrazorguy]

My CBB eats out of my hand. I keep her well fed; she gets clams on the half-shell, and allkinds of frozen foods. I've never seen her nipping at corals of any kind.

[reefmandan]

Is there anything you guys have done when first getting your CBB to help your success? Maybe feeding certain things in QT? My system is fairly established, and I dumped a bottle of pods in my chaeto ball a few months ago and don't have any fish that actively consume them.

[Reef Pilot]

Need to put them in QT first, where they can be trained to take frozen mysis first, and then later dried foods. If you put them into the display tank right away, it is much harder to get them to eat, because of the other fish grabbing all the food and scaring off the Copperband. Here is a vid how I got them to eat dry food. This was back a few years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fQjAZjafxM

[toytech]

These fish are very slow eaters , I actually picked one up today . It was eating frozen Mysis at the store , but they kinda chew there food , spit it out and suck it back in until its small enough . My first choice for a reef safe butterfly .

[Reef Pilot]

Actually, the best butterflys for me are the Pearlscales. Did a great job of eradicating my aiptasia (better than the copperbands), and much easier to feed. And reef safe, too (contrary to what you might read on the internet). I have one in each of my tanks, along with softies, LPS and SPS, and they leave the corals alone. Again, though, need to get them feeding first in a QT, and then transition to a display tank. But once trained, they accept frozen, dry, pellets, or basically anything that your other fish eat.