CBB eating

[Ralph823]

Hi all,

I'm sure there are plenty of threads on this but I wanted to start my own instead of waking up an old thread again.

I just got a Copperband butterfly this weekend which is a fish I have had some interest in having but I knew how difficult they can be, I've been able to keep other butterflies like the pyramid for a few years and ended up getting rid of him because he nipped at some of my corals but I've always thought the cbb is a whole other animal.

that being said I was at the LFS early and they were feeding their fish (live brine) and this CBB was going ham so i asked if he ate frozen and they said "we can try" when they put the mysis in he went for it not as aggressive as he did the brine but still I watched him eat. so I made the possibly poor but executive decision to take him home and for 50 bucks i couldn't beat it.

anyways I took him home and have him in a 1.5 gallon critter keeper/Acclimation box in the DT but he has not wanted to eat the last two days. would it be easier to get him to eat in the DT and just release him with the rest of the fish or do I keep trying to get him to eat in the acclimation box. I've tried Mysis and live blood worms things that I get from standing water in my back yard that I feed all the fish one or twice a week. maybe @Paul B can Chime in here.

In the 180 DT i have hundreds if not thousands of feather dusters that have taken over my entire sand bed and rock work that he can eat until I get him eating worms and frozen foods.

also Before I get wrecked for not quarantining and just tossing him into the DT in an acclimation box, I tried quarantining fish for years and could only get 1-2 years out of supposedly long lived fish, I stopped quarantining about 5 years ago and have been able to keep fish for much longer, I have and orange shoulder tang that is going on 5 years, and that royal gramma in the back of the pic is going on 7 years from my old 32 bio cube that I never quarantined so it works for me. I've had an Achilles tang in this tank with no issues other than aggression which is why I no longer have him but he lasted 4 years with me un quarantined

 

[MugenReef95]

Try clams my copperband took about 2 weeks till he ate confidently I even soaked mysis in some garlic power from brightwell and tried that multiple times a day and he would take a bite here and there but after consistently doing it couple times a day for 2 weeks he finally went ham on it and eats very well now

 

[Ralph823]

Try clams my copperband took about 2 weeks till he ate confidently I even soaked mysis in some garlic power from brightwell and tried that multiple times a day and he would take a bite here and there but after consistently doing it couple times a day for 2 weeks he finally went ham on it and eats very well now

I have some clams in the freezer cus I buy them live and freeze them for the rest of the fish, I will try that when I get home from work, Did you get him to eat in the DT or in an acclimation box? also just ordered a new culture of white worms so hopefully hell eat that too.

 

[MugenReef95]

I have some clams in the freezer cus I buy them live and freeze them for the rest of the fish, I will try that when I get home from work, Did you get him to eat in the DT or in an acclimation box? also just ordered a new culture of white worms so hopefully hell eat that too.

I did have him free in the tank the first day no box

 

[JMFreefer]

I got mine Qtd from Dr reef he went straight into the display
He only ate clams on the half shell at first wouldn’t touch anything else
After about two weeks of only clams I got some mastick he didn’t touch it
So I made a few batches of mastick mixed with clam shavings and mashed it onto an empty clam shell after he realized there was clam in it he started to eat that
Made another batch of mastick with clam, frozen mysis, brine and red worms in it on the half shells
He ate that for awhile, then out of nowhere started eating all those from the water column when feeding my other fish
It happened overnight out of nowhere
And now he eats always no matter how I feed him. I also add selcon,vita chem and garlic every once and awhile
Mixing things he liked with new foods worked for me , he’s fat and seems healthy, at least to me. I am still a rookie at the fish game
Dr reef feeds mysis and brine but he didn’t touch it at first

 

[JMFreefer]

Also I will say I don’t have many fish with him yet … he was a slow eater so not having a bunch of others picking at his clam helped him get comfortable eating at his pace

 

[Patientman]

I've had much success soaking foods in "Selcon" to entice picky eaters ... but also understand that CCBs are a whole different situation. Hope it gets to eating soon for you .. would love to have one in my tank!

 

[Ralph823]

I did have him free in the tank the first day no box

I just moved him from the acclimation box to the DT and he started going ham on the feather dusters within 30 seconds so the should buy me some time until the white worms get here on the 1st and I can start feeding, I bought an extra culture just so I can start feeding right away. I will try some Mysis this afternoon also. maybe since he was eating frozen at the LFS he'll follow along with the other fish and pick at that too.

 

[Ralph823]

Update, I have a purple tang that can't catch mysis out of the water column and he's been like that for a year now so I've learned to deal with it. anyways I hang either a whole shrimp, wild caught Mahi eggs, or clam meat from a nori clip so he can get some meaty foods in and the CBB is showing some interest in the shrimp and picking the scraps that come off. I also stole two shells from our home decor (no one will ever know) and crazy glued them together to make a semi open "clam" stuffed it with fish eggs and mysis put it in a little divot in the LR so it looked more "natural" and the CBB and the purple tang were picking at it together this morning.

 

[Ralph823]

Update, I have a purple tang that can't catch mysis out of the water column and he's been like that for a year now so I've learned to deal with it. anyways I hang either a whole shrimp, wild caught Mahi eggs, or clam meat from a nori clip so he can get some meaty foods in and the CBB is showing some interest in the shrimp and picking the scraps that come off. I also stole two shells from our home decor (no one will ever know) and crazy glued them together to make a semi open "clam" stuffed it with fish eggs and mysis put it in a little divot in the LR so it looked more "natural" and the CBB and the purple tang were picking at it together this morning.

He is also constantly and actively hunting the pods and feather dusters in the tank so I have high hopes for this little guy fingers crossed.

I also have a batch of mosquito fish and molly fry being born once or twice a week so I can throw some in there and see how that goes

 

[Saralay]

After getting two of them to eat very very easily, I would say the major reason why they don't eat is stress.

Both time the process was the same, buy it, give it a H2O2 bath and straight into the DT tank. First 2/3 days they would follow Mysis or Artemia but not touch it, after that they would begin to try small pieces, and by next day they eat like pigs. A few days later they would approach everytime I'm in front of the tank, waiting to be fed.

Both times there wasn't any fish on it that may stress it like a tang. After those experiences I'm beginning to think that this should be one of the first fish added into a tank, if not the first.

If you have anything stressing it in your tank, take it out if you can until it eats properly.

 

[Paul B]

The first thing you need to do is get that fish out of that acclimation enclosure. Fish, especially copperbands hate that and probably won't eat. They need a secure place to hide especially in the first few days you have him and you are killing him in that tiny enclosure.

I never use acclimation enclosures and don't even have one. It is like a torture chamber for fish. Healthy fish have no problems acclimating in your tank with all the other fish as long as they can get completely out of sight and you may not see him for a few days.

They need that time to get used to their new "friends" and surroundings.

 

[Reef Wizard]

I just got my first CBB and he went on hunger strike for 4 days.

He didn't show interest in anything

I got some garlic guard and did frozen blood worms and he gobbles them up now.

And I will second what Paul said
This fish needs a more natural habitat so it can get used to surroundings and starts exhibiting normal feed behavior which is beak down in rocks tail fin up

I used a coral feeder and squirted blood worms into rocks for a few days the he saw that worms come out of that tube now he happily eats them from water column and cleans up any that falls past to the bottom.

Good luck they are cool fish for sure.

 

[Ralph823]

The first thing you need to do is get that fish out of that acclimation enclosure. Fish, especially copperbands hate that and probably won't eat. They need a secure place to hide especially in the first few days you have him and you are killing him in that tiny enclosure.

I never use acclimation enclosures and don't even have one. It is like a torture chamber for fish. Healthy fish have no problems acclimating in your tank with all the other fish as long as they can get completely out of sight and you may not see him for a few days.

They need that time to get used to their new "friends" and surroundings.

Hi Paul, he lasted int the box one day and I saw him get stressed and removed him, he is in the DT tank and nothing is really picking on him too bad other than a sailfin tang that pushes him out of "his" corner he follows mysis around and I have a 2 cultures of white worm getting here tomorrow and I am picking up some black worms today and live brine just to see if I can get him to eat. he is in a 180 with 200+ lbs of live rock 80 lbs of that I had "aging" in the ocean behind my aunts house in the Florida keys in a laundry basket for 6 months and there are plenty of pods and tube worms which he is constantly hunting for.

 

[Idech]

200+ lbs of live rock 80 lbs of that I had "aging" in the ocean behind my aunts house in the Florida keys in a laundry basket for 6 months and there are plenty of pods and tube worms which he is constantly hunting for.

Wow, that is so cool ! I wish I could get sea water like that. I never had a CBB but I can only imagine this is going to help a lot.

 

[Ralph823]

Wow, that is so cool ! I wish I could get sea water like that. I never had a CBB but I can only imagine this is going to help a lot.

i hope so

 

[karsa]

I also got my CBB from Dr Reef and it didn’t want to touch mysis for the first week or so. I first got him picking at mastik I pressed into the rocks. Then I started using a turkey baster to squirt my homemade fish food into cracks and he would pick that out aggressively. He eventually started eating anything I put in the tank with the other fish and now is first to top when I come to feed.

 

[Ralph823]

The first thing you need to do is get that fish out of that acclimation enclosure. Fish, especially copperbands hate that and probably won't eat. They need a secure place to hide especially in the first few days you have him and you are killing him in that tiny enclosure.

I never use acclimation enclosures and don't even have one. It is like a torture chamber for fish. Healthy fish have no problems acclimating in your tank with all the other fish as long as they can get completely out of sight and you may not see him for a few days.

They need that time to get used to their new "friends" and surroundings.

 

[Ralph823]

so LFS was out of blackworms i got some brine and he hammered them gonna mix it up with frozen gut loaded tomorrow and then some Mysis.

 

[Ralph823]

update,

He is eating frozen mysis mixed in with brine. white worm culture also got here, I ordered a second culture so I can feed right away and he eats those too