Copperbands, To Acclimation Box or Not

Bepis · Jul 25, 2024

Hey everyone haven’t posted in over a year but I am hoping back on the forum more and more slowly but surely. I’m going to be getting in a quarantined batch of fish and it includes a bonded pair of copperbands. In the past I introduced my copperband without an acclimation box allowing my purple tang to chase it for a week before things settled down. And we are back to the very same situation. I’m considering the implications of trapping 2 ultra active fish, that require picking at the rock, in a decently small box. Now I’m decently experienced and I think I made up my mind but what would you do?

jrmailo · Jul 26, 2024

Over a month ago I added a copper band directly into my display. However my resident Achilles tang would not leave the copper band alone for weeks on end. Even after I caught and removed the Achilles for a week or so, he would go back to bullying the copper band once he’s back in the tank. The copper band was stressed and gradually ate less and less. 2 days ago I removed the copper band and put him in a temporary home and he has since regained his appetite.

As long as that the pair of copper band is already feeding, and If your purple tang stop chasing them after a week or so, it’ll probably be fine. Also, since you’re adding a pair, it will probably disperse the aggression a lot.

If things doesn’t look good remove immediately. During the first week of trying my copper band was injured and had bacterial infection. I had to go catch him at 2am to medicate…

Tamberav · Jul 26, 2024

Bepis said:
Hey everyone haven’t posted in over a year but I am hoping back on the forum more and more slowly but surely. I’m going to be getting in a quarantined batch of fish and it includes a bonded pair of copperbands. In the past I introduced my copperband without an acclimation box allowing my purple tang to chase it for a week before things settled down. And we are back to the very same situation. I’m considering the implications of trapping 2 ultra active fish, that require picking at the rock, in a decently small box. Now I’m decently experienced and I think I made up my mind but what would you do?

Put egg crate in the tank and trap the tang jerks on one side and put the copper bands in on the other. This way both are separated but not in small boxes.

Nibs · Jul 29, 2024

Imo the acclimation box will only increase the stress. Better off just putting directly Into the display and hoping for the best. If you have trouble getting it too feed try tying a small rock onto some fishing line and smashing chopped oysters and clams into crevices and just lower it near where the Copperband hides. All the best

Premium · Oct 6, 2024

My 2 cents on the subject. Recently went through the same situation. New Cooper band. Powder blue tang kept him trapped in 1 small corner of the tank. Fish was was stressed. Turned out the lights for a day and things were a bit better the next day but the copperband couldn't get out of the corner to hunt and peck the rocks. So I put him in a larger iso box for a day. As soon as I let him out blue went at him again. So the box wasn't a huge success. My thought was as long as I can keep the copper band strength up he's got a chance. So I went to the grocery store and got 5-6 live mussels and fed it to him. To my surprise none of the other fish knew what it was and it allowed the CB to feed on it all day. When putting the mussel in the tank i cracked shell with the back of a spoon and removed minimal shell so that if the other fish got curious only the CB could get at the meat. The next day I opened the mussel and fed again. This time the other fish figured out it was food butthe CB got his fair share and I figured he's gonna have to figure out how to compete for food in the tank. I fed this way for several days while waiting on some Masstik. Over these days the powder blues aggression got less and less & the CB Strength improved. Once the Masstik arrived i noticed early in the AM the CB is picking rocks while everyone else is sleeping so I took half a leftover mussel shell and placed the mastik inside the shell the CB had it picked clean before lights came on and this has been our early morning routine for the past week. Hopefully some of this is helpful. Wish you luck. Love my CB and my tang gang. As I'm sure you do as well. As this post is several months old I'm sure things have played out but perhaps the information will be helpful to others. I know I combined R2R for answers when I was new to the situation and hopefully you'll post an update and let us know how things played out

exnisstech · Oct 6, 2024

Premium said:
My 2 cents on the subject. Recently went through the same situation. New Cooper band. Powder blue tang kept him trapped in 1 small corner of the tank. Fish was was stressed. Turned out the lights for a day and things were a bit better the next day but the copperband couldn't get out of the corner to hunt and peck the rocks. So I put him in a larger iso box for a day. As soon as I let him out blue went at him again. So the box wasn't a huge success. My thought was as long as I can keep the copper band strength up he's got a chance. So I went to the grocery store and got 5-6 live mussels and fed it to him. To my surprise none of the other fish knew what it was and it allowed the CB to feed on it all day. When putting the mussel in the tank i cracked shell with the back of a spoon and removed minimal shell so that if the other fish got curious only the CB could get at the meat. The next day I opened the mussel and fed again. This time the other fish figured out it was food butthe CB got his fair share and I figured he's gonna have to figure out how to compete for food in the tank. I fed this way for several days while waiting on some Masstik. Over these days the powder blues aggression got less and less & the CB Strength improved. Once the Masstik arrived i noticed early in the AM the CB is picking rocks while everyone else is sleeping so I took half a leftover mussel shell and placed the mastik inside the shell the CB had it picked clean before lights came on and this has been our early morning routine for the past week. Hopefully some of this is helpful. Wish you luck. Love my CB and my tang gang. As I'm sure you do as well. As this post is several months old I'm sure things have played out but perhaps the information will be helpful to others. I know I combined R2R for answers when I was new to the situation and hopefully you'll post an update and let us know how things played out

Good info. I'm acclimating a second CBB now. I think I have a male and Female. I feed the acclimation box first and all the tangs come cover and try to get to the food. It seems to be working very well because the CBB in the box doesn't shy away and actually starts to eat more aggressively. The CBB in the display is the only one that gets food out of the holes in the box. I did do a long observation QT in another tank but not everyone has that option so an acclimation box is better than tossing it in the DT and hoping for the best.