Copperband Feeding

[Eversurf]

He ate again this morning. Turn off the power head so that the bloodworm don't travel at 100mph in the tank. Do you have live rock? You should see him pick at them....that's it's nomal behavior. He might still be stressed out and swimming franticly along the glass.

 

[boshank23]

perhaps another good thing to try is use a turkey baster to drop the food right in front of him. i have to do this with my mandarin and it works a treat.

 

[Eversurf]

That didn't do anything for the copperband. I think he just has to try and then they are fine.

 

[Whyme]

My copperband butterfly finally ate vitamin enriched brine shrimp with extreme garlic added to it.

 

[Eversurf]

That's a huge step. What else do you have in your tank for live stock?

 

[Whyme]

It's in the 10g with 2 clowns. Will go in the 90G in a few weeks.

 

[Eversurf]

I was asking because I had issues with a Copperband and a Yellow tang. The copperband died so I sold the yellow tang to get another copperband.

 

[AK77]

Hi,

Well, the other week I told my sister that I needed to get some clean up crew for my tank. My sister decided to surprise me today. She'd gone to the LFS to look for hermits and snails. Finding they had none she came home with..... Yes you've guessed it ..... a copperbanded butterfly

When she handed me the green bag I thought "GREAT some crabs and snails!!" Then when I removed the green bag, peering back at me through the clear bag was a copperband.

I said "Ooh you shouldn't have... really". "Aww its sooo cute - I just had to get it", she replied. Lets just hope she doesn't see something "cute" that will eat everything else in the aquarium !

The ironic thing is, only the night before I had been reading an article on the copperband butterfly and what a pain in the @$$ they can be to keep. So now I have the headache of trying to get it to feed as well. I just purchased 4 tubs of freeze dried food - Daphnia, Tubiflex, Bloodworm and Brineshrimp, which should be here Wednesday. I'll post if it decides to eat anything.

I'm going to experiment with all 4 foods and various feeding methods. I'm planning on trying the plain old wormfeeder. If that draws a blank, I was then thinking along the lines of using a nylon stocking(kinky I know) with tiny holes cut in and filling that with some food and a pebble to weigh it down. Failing that I'm planning on using some garlic and a slice of lemon and then threatening the fish that if it does not eat... It's gonna get garnished and then served up on a plate, next to the slice of lemon and the garlic

BTW, Are you using live food or freeze dried Eversurf??

 

[norite]

AK77, good luck with your copperband! They are lovely fish, and I can see why your sister got it for you!

By coincidence, I was reading up on aiptasia anemones tonight - I think i've got some in my new tank - and apparently, the copperband butterfly will eat them, along with small tubeworms....

 

[Eversurf]

Frozen food. I had good luck with Frozen Brine Shrimp with my first fish, but the second one only eats frozen bloodworm. I think what kept him alive is that my tank was fairly old (About 9 months) and bunch of worm had already grew in the rocks. He was eating a lot from the rocks.

-surf

 

[rhysiboy]

theres like this gel product that you mix the food with and you can stick it in the rock i think its possibly called zeolite

 

[AK77]

Well I got some frozen bloodworm today and dropped a melted cube of them into the tank at various points. Some fell into the rocks. Stupid fish sniffed at a couple. I thought "Great..... he's gonna eat!!" ..... Then swam off

Hopefully the worm feeder will be here tomorrow, so I'll try the same thing. Had one idea too. I'm going to get a ping pong ball, drill holes in it of about 3-4mm, fill with various food stuffs and drop that into the water. Will keep you posted on any developments.

AK

 

[Whyme]

Today he ate some mysid shrimp. Looks like it's starting to come along. I should be able to move him over to the 90G in a week or 2. I find it easier that the copperband butterfly is in a 10G, so i can over feed the tank and water changes are very easy to do in a 10G. These Copperband's are very hard to feed though. They stare at the food for a long time before even taking a bite. If this one dies on me i will not get another one ever....

AK77 what size tank is it in now???

 

[Whyme]

Here's some pics i took today of it. Don't mind the dirty tank. I do my cleaning on Saturday's.

 

[AK77]

Very nice Whyme

At the moment its in a 180 Litre tank. It has fed on a couple of frozen bloodworms. I've tried freeze dried foods too. I did see a couple of bristleworm in the tank earlier, so I hope it will find them and eat them . I did notice all the aiptasia are now gone, so I must of had those too.

It is an annoying fish to watch though. You almost will it to eat lol. "Feed damn you.... FEEEEEEEEED".