Copperband butterfly feeding

Bars · Nov 16, 2021

Oh boy, another CBB thread

Fortunately, this one eats! I got him last Friday. First few days he was glass surfing nonstop. Everyday however, he started spending a little more time foraging and less stressing out.

Today I decided to try out masstick, mysis and brine shrimp. Well surprise! He shows great interest in the masstick, gets slightly excited about mysis and goes absolutely nuts about brine shrimp. He ate tons of the brine shrimp. I've noticed he shows interest in the food I always feed, but eventually doesn't grab it. I only feed a homemade blend of shrimp, fish, squid, oysters, lobster eggs, fish roe and red plankton.

I assume him showing interest in my own blend is a good sign. However, ideally I want him to actually eat the stuff. Is it a matter of time and hoping he will eventually eat it or are there any tricks I could try to make him love my own food? I got one of those little floating feeder pyramid thingies that's popular in freshwater tanks. I'm thinking about coaxing him to eat out of there so I can easily monitor him.

T-J · Nov 16, 2021

For my CBB, I just kept to my regular feeding and it eventually started eating with the other fish. I feed a mix of pellets, flake, LRS Fish Frenzy and Marine Cuisine. I also soak it all in garlic. The CBB now comes out just like all the other fish when I walk into the room to drop some food.
Honestly it seems that it just takes time for the CBB to become adjusted and realize you got some good food there for them.

Bars · Nov 16, 2021

T-J said:
For my CBB, I just kept to my regular feeding and it eventually started eating with the other fish. I feed a mix of pellets, flake, LRS Fish Frenzy and Marine Cuisine. I also soak it all in garlic. The CBB now comes out just like all the other fish when I walk into the room to drop some food.
Honestly it seems that it just takes time for the CBB to become adjusted and realize you got some good food there for them.

That's good to hear! I'll get some more mysis/brine shrimp and just feed it during feeding time. Hopefully he'll grab some of the homemade stuff by accident lol.

T-J · Nov 16, 2021

Good luck! They can be a pain for a bit, but they'll come around given time.
Each day it would become more interested in the food, instead of picking pods off the rocks.
I named mine Chester, as in Chester Copperpot.

Phlynamjax · Nov 16, 2021

T-J said:
For my CBB, I just kept to my regular feeding and it eventually started eating with the other fish. I feed a mix of pellets, flake, LRS Fish Frenzy and Marine Cuisine. I also soak it all in garlic. The CBB now comes out just like all the other fish when I walk into the room to drop some food.
Honestly it seems that it just takes time for the CBB to become adjusted and realize you got some good food there for them.

What kind of pellet does your CBB eats? I couldn’t get them to eat pellet.

vetteguy53081 · Nov 16, 2021

Mine since day one - An eating machine. His favorite is LRS herbivore diet , but inhales Rods Original diet, mysis, small plankton, krill, Hikari veggie diet, hikari marine cuisine and a few others. Last 3 months, its eating TDO pellets and flakes

T-J · Nov 16, 2021

Phlynamjax said:
What kind of pellet does your CBB eats? I couldn’t get them to eat pellet.

I haven't seen it eat pellets out of the water column, but it does like to pick at stuff that falls into the rocks and the sand. I only see it eat the "meaty" items that are in the water.

flyfisher2 · Nov 16, 2021

Congrats on your CBB. Mine is an eating machine as well. He now races my Powder Brown for food. I got him to eat from my hand and once that happened I introduced a variety of foods. He expects Mysis but gets everything and picks at it rapidly so he could be eating Pepperoni Pizza and thinking its Mysis a'la carte.

Ocypode sinensis · Nov 17, 2021

I had kept 3 CBB till now, including the one I currently have, two of them immediately accepts food (usually frozen blood worms, the other one just won't eat, like stubborn.
I will suggest feeding with a coral skeleton/stick, covering it with LRS Fertility frenzy or your homemade food blend(looks pretty decent according to the ingredients!).
If the food blend isn't sticky enough, mix it with some masstick. This feeding method ensures that the CBB gets maximum food.
One interesting thing is that my CBB hates the smell of Selcon... If I ever add Selcon to her food, she rejects it.

Ocypode sinensis · Nov 17, 2021

I also feed my CBB Hikari marine cuisine, which looks super appropriate for butterflies to consume, but after the first two treats, she starts to spit them out, I don't know why.

Ocypode sinensis · Nov 17, 2021

Mysis are mostly shell, so I don't consider them as a primary food for butterflies... However, it's a great food to entice them.

Bars · Nov 18, 2021

Well we're progressing. Frozen brine shrimp are on the menu as well, however frozen mysis is a big no no. He also looooooooves the masstick all of a sudden! I've got the little premade cubes. I stick about 1/3 of a cube on the glass now everyday and feed a cube of frozen brine shrimp mixed with my own stuff throughout the day. Will try to smear some of my own food in/on the masstick.

He has stopped glass surfing and is now constantly on the hunt for something to eat. In fact, he even dances at the surface whenever I come to feed them.

My other fish happily munch down on all the extra food that's coming in the tank now and they're looking grossly obese.

Ocypode sinensis · Nov 18, 2021

Bars said:
Well we're progressing. Frozen brine shrimp are on the menu as well, however frozen mysis is a big no no. He also looooooooves the masstick all of a sudden! I've got the little premade cubes. I stick about 1/3 of a cube on the glass now everyday and feed a cube of frozen brine shrimp mixed with my own stuff throughout the day. Will try to smear some of my own food in/on the masstick.

He has stopped glass surfing and is now constantly on the hunt for something to eat. In fact, he even dances at the surface whenever I come to feed them.

My other fish happily munch down on all the extra food that's coming in the tank now and they're looking grossly obese.

what about mixing brine shrimp with mysis, maybe when he munches up brine shrimp, he will end up having a few mysis in his belly.

Bars · Nov 18, 2021

Ocypode sinensis said:
what about mixing brine shrimp with mysis, maybe when he munches up brine shrimp, he will end up having a few mysis in his belly.

He grabs the mysis, but spits it out. I don't care too much about him not eating mysis honestly. I never feed it anyway, so not gonna bother trying to get him to eat it.

Ocypode sinensis · Nov 18, 2021

Bars said:
He grabs the mysis, but spits it out. I don't care too much about him not eating mysis honestly. I never feed it anyway, so not gonna bother trying to get him to eat it.

Yeah, if you have your own food blend, don't care about the mysis.

Hal3134 · Nov 18, 2021

Fresh or frozen clam, split in half, is a great food for my CBB.

Kayanarka · Nov 24, 2021

What is masstick

ying yang · Nov 24, 2021

Kayanarka said:
What is masstick

It's a food that comes as a powder and add rodi water and becomes a paste so stick it to side of glass or rocks .
I've never used it but read a few times it helps finnicky fish eat as they seem to love it.
Google it to get more of detailed description

Bars · Nov 24, 2021

There's also easy masstick, which comes in cubes that you can use right away.

So far my CBB has become a little crybaby and doesn't like mysis anymore and just barely eats artemia. He still loooooooves the masstick, which he now happily eats from the glass. He knows I stick half a cube to the glass in the morning, so he's already waiting for me when I get up. At least I don't have to stick it in a crevice anymore. I'm starting to mix a little frozen food with the masstick now, hoping he'll eat that as well.