I just got a copperband butterfly and was wondering if anyone else has one and tips on getting them to eat. I have seen him niping at pods and stinging aptasia but was not able to get him to eat frozen brine or mysis shrimp. Any suggestions? <StartFragment> 75-Gallon Oceanic Tank (48â€Âw, 20â€Âh, 18â€Âd), 33-Gallon Sump, Coralife Protein Skimmer Prime Single Stage Drop-In Chiller, Eheim Wet/Dry System Model 2227, Outer Orbit (48â€Â) Metal Halide, Blue Acentic and Lunar Lamps <EndFragment>
Can't help you with that but someone will chime in and get with you soon. I just wanted to say WELCOME to the board. Marti
A lot of people have problems getting them to eat. If they are being harrassed, they usually will never settle in and eat. Those that have the most success feed Mysis as you have, but you could try adding a little garlic powder. Just use a little bit. And then again it may never eat prepared food. If you have a quarentine tank you could put it in with a rock covered in Aptasia to see if it will eat those.
I tried adding a copperband to my system twice. Both times i was able to get them to eat frozen foods, but the both fish died anyway. I guess it could have been posining from bad collection procedures or more likely internal parasites. Would love to have another coperband just a lil shy about pulling the trigger agen.
The one I had eventually stared eating pods. It would get mysis after they landed on the substrate but would not get them out of the water column. I had him in my tank for a while but when the hurricanes came last year I lost all of my livestock due to a three day power outage.
Sorry to hear about that....prolonged power failers scare the excrement out of me. I was going to purchase a natual gas generator this year with our tax retun but the recession made job security really iffy for me. Long story short ill probally get one in 2010-2012.
I have had a few copperbands over the years and lost a few in the beginning. Their natural prey in the wild are clams. They well I GUARANTEE starve on just pods, either live or frozen. I know of one guy who had one for years living on live pods in the tank but it was a 75 and it was the only fish in there and he had a refuge. You have to get them on clams. There is 2 ways of feeding clams to them. All CB's should be put in a QT and trained to take clams. I bought the smaller manila clams or some are sold as steamers, I have seen them down at whole foods there on cantrel road. You buy a dozen or so and take and freeze them. You then thaw one out in a glass of ro/di and it well open up about a 1/4". When you are training them you need to open the clam up and lay it on the bottom and you may have to leave him there for a hr or so. The CB shold start eating on it in time. The clam should open about 3/8" when thawed out in the ro/di water. After the CB is readily eating clams that are open, put the clam in just as is from being thawed and with his long snout he well get insde and eat. Then you have 2 choices depending on how many and what kind of fish is in the DT. You can either leave him as trained if the other fish won't out compete him for the clam or while still in the QT you can cut up the clam and feed him with thongs, the pieces have to be small or he well not be able to intake them.
You well need to do this about every other day. This along with the mysis and brine well keep him alive. I have had the last 2 for numerous years, and gave them to friends that I knew would take the time to do all this, both times being because we moved. They are alot of trouble to keep as you can see, and I'm sure there well be some that say this not required to keep them alive, but I guarantee you, they are the exception. Also I would get the largest I could and Austrailians are hardier then the Hawian ones. cheers
I know this won't make me many friends, but anyone who has a setup, don't care if its a nano should have a way of powering the pumps and the heaters or chiller for their tank. We owe it to the animals and if you think about it $350 to $500 ain't that much when your talking about the price of fish and corals now days, not to mention all the QTing and re cycleing you are going to have to do. The second thing I bought years ago after a good skimmer was a generator. I have had it for years and have had to use it twice, but if I hadn't of had it I would have lost evrything. It is just a 5000 watt one, but it well run the pumps and heaters and I bought a used chiller last year after moving down here to use incase of power outage since my gen' won't run the house ac pump. JMO cheers
That reminds me fisherman I need to pull my generator out and clean the rust off the magnets that I know has built up. I have not started it in almost a year, thanks for the reminder.
