Copperband Success steps

[Treefer32]

Well, I've decided. It's probably wrong, but in this hobby, finding the right answer is comparable to asking why we exist. There's not an easy answer to the evil empire of Aiptasia. With a tank proliferating hundreds, possibly thousands of the horrible creature, the hordes are on an offensive into my tank.

I've decided on a 2 pronged course of action. I have a 350 gallon display 6 feet by 3 feet wide by 31" tall. I've got around 14 fish right now. I'm going to attack the aiptasia with the acquisition of three (3) copperband butterfly fish and a couple berghia nudibranchs. I realize that's not much berghia in this size of tank. My goal / plan, etc, is that they'll lay eggs and there'll be hundreds of them eventually. That's my hope anyways.

So, my question is how do I grant the Copperband the best chance for success? My tentative steps are:
1. Bucket acclimate.
2. have a 50 watt heater to keep them warm in the bucket.
3. Drip acclimate with tank water over 2-3 hours?
4. Will not net them - will use an appropriate sized container to grab them and release them.
5. Release into display with lights out.
6. Pray.
7. Pray some more.

For the Berghia I'll do a similar process.

Any suggestions for getting copperbands to eat after acclimating and releasing. Any worries on agression with doing 3 at the same time? I've read they should be o.k. together, but, just checking. With sufficient aiptasia do I need to worry about them eating?

I'm open to suggesitions. I'm planning to get the fish next Saturday. So, if this is a fool's move let me know. I've thought about peppermint, but, I've got a lot of LPS and I'm trying to grow them out which means they need all the food they can get. I really don't want my corals competing with shrimp or being damaged by shrimp.

I feed primarily frozen food, with selcon and reef frenzy off and on. Anything else I should pick up to help the copperband feeding response and keep them happy and healthy?

 

[Treefer32]

Any Copperband experts out there to offer advice for success?

 

[nereefpat]

FYI, not all cbbs will eat aiptasia.

Only drip acclimate if you are picking the fish up from a local store. Dripping shipped fish is a death sentence, due to ammonia issues.

Ideally, you would find the butterflies at a store and see them eat. Live worms like blackworms supposedly work well. Bivalves from the grocery store are also usually recommended. QT would also be used, ideally.

 

[Treefer32]

FYI, not all cbbs will eat aiptasia.

Only drip acclimate if you are picking the fish up from a local store. Dripping shipped fish is a death sentence, due to ammonia issues.

Ideally, you would find the butterflies at a store and see them eat. Live worms like blackworms supposedly work well. Bivalves from the grocery store are also usually recommended. QT would also be used, ideally.

I am picking up from a store and driving 3 hours with it to my house.

As to whether they'll eat Aiptasia, that's why I'm planning on three (3). I increase my odds to maybe 1 in 3 do?

Where in the heck would I find bivalves in the grocery story? I was thinking feeding shaved clam as another option? Plus I love the fish, if I can get them to live and eat something that they can survive on.

 

[Oldreefer44]

What else is in the tank? Many things will eat the Berghias and CBB's are very often bullied by others, especially established tangs. I tried CBB's, Berghias and a couple of Filefish to no avail. Finally a Melanurus Wrasse did the trick. If buying CBB's locally, I would ask for them to be held until you are sure they are healthy and eating. Mastic worked for me. IMO, they often die weeks after purchasing probably due to how they were collected or shipped. So somewhat of a crapshoot.

 

[Phycodurus]

ditto what nereefpat has stated.

it will be to the benefit of the CBB to house them temporarily (like a week at least) in a separate isolation tank for the purpose of acclimating them to yr food without the distraction of the resident fish.

i feed mine live blackworms every other day (usually) and they eat with gusto. ate well since day one. definitely have the LFS (if these are local buys) feed the tank with frozen brine shrimp or frozen mysis to gauge their appetite.

importantly, what are the 14 other fish?? to disrupt current territoriality, i recommend placing large pieces of black PVC pipe, elbows & tees throughout the tank ... so much easier than rearranging rockwork - - it’s unsightly but it’s temporary (like 2-3 weeks).

if this were my tank, i’d also be taking the berghia approach albeit with a minimum of a dozen nudibranchs.

best of luck!

 

[C. Eymann]

This is why developing a good relationship with your LFS is important IMO.

A good LFS will order them and try to get them eating for a good/nice customer. While it's not an ideal food for them I have had the best results with getting CBB to eat bloodworms starting out, then you can get them eating other stuff, with CBB getting them eating is the biggest hurtle, second would be avoid Uronema with them as I have seen it be prevalent with CBBs

just my .02

 

[Treefer32]

What else is in the tank? Many things will eat the Berghias and CBB's are very often bullied by others, especially established tangs. I tried CBB's, Berghias and a couple of Filefish to no avail. Finally a Melanurus Wrasse did the trick. If buying CBB's locally, I would ask for them to be held until you are sure they are healthy and eating. Mastic worked for me. IMO, they often die weeks after purchasing probably due to how they were collected or shipped. So somewhat of a crapshoot.

An old fox face rabbit fish (about 5-6 years old, in my tank about 10 months), A black tang (about 3 -4 years old, in my tank 10 months), a dragon wrasse that's been in there about 10 months, and he's not that old (hasn't changed colors yet, just starting to). I have a few others, a shrimp goby, and a pair of shrimp that he protects, and a few blennies. Canary blenny, starry blenny, and lawnmower blenny. Along with a Royal Grama and a caribean blue tang. Agression only comes out in feedbing,the Dragon wrasse can be a little agressive if things go by its cave, but not really anymore than clown fish and I have no clown fish right now. Be one of the last fishes I add.

 

[nereefpat]

Where in the heck would I find bivalves in the grocery story? I was thinking feeding shaved clam as another option?

Clams are what I meant. Other bivalves are mussels, scallops, oysters, and maybe a couple others I'm missing. I just meant mollusks like those.

 

[Treefer32]

I should add, I did have something go through my tank about 10 months ago when a heater malfunction and electrocuted the tank. I had added some anthias and they died first, along with 11 other fish (8 anthias and 11 other fish). The cardinals I had had white bulging eyes. My black tang swam in circles constantly. My fox face had leisions on both sides. My Dragon Wrasse, Black Tang, and Fox face, survived the heater electrocution after it was all said and done over a period of about 3-4 weeks. It's been about 8-9 months since that. My corals all did great though! (I reproved the point that electricity boosts coral growth. Especially in LPS! Several of them increased by 30% in the month that the fish were dieing.)

Too bad the electricity didn't keep the aitptasia out.

 

[Treasure Coast]

Feed him and the rest of the crew 4-5x a day. start with Brine shrimp Because its smaller. I wouldn’t acclimate terribly long, just enough to get salinity correct.

 

[jt17]

If they're not eating at the LFS then it is unlikely they will. CBB are prone to bacterial infections so it is best go straight to QT with the trifecta: kanaplex, metroplex and furan 2 for 14 days. The steps to the trifecta QT are readily found online. They key is getting them to eat. live black worms Ive read work well. Mine loves mysis. I am on my second CBB right now. I built a feeder for my first because because I was concerned all the other more aggressive fish were eating it all and he wasn't getting enough to eat. This feeder favors thee CBB over the tanks because he has the unique mouth to get where others can't. This has helped me train my new CBB how to eat. These cones are for feeding worms. I bought a sleeve of 20 for like 10 bucks on amazon. I just drilled a hole in the bottom and a couple through the sides. CBB like to hunt on the undersides of rocks and the hole on the bottom gets his instincts going. Also 3 might be overkill. They eat 24/7. One will knock them out.
I also keep some live rock in my sump which was loaded with feather dusters and a few aptasia. I gave him nothing but that for a couple days to make sure he would eat the apts and that he did.

 

[Treefer32]

If they're not eating at the LFS then it is unlikely they will. CBB are prone to bacterial infections so it is best go straight to QT with the trifecta: kanaplex, metroplex and furan 2 for 14 days. The steps to the trifecta QT are readily found online. They key is getting them to eat. live black worms Ive read work well. Mine loves mysis. I am on my second CBB right now. I built a feeder for my first because because I was concerned all the other more aggressive fish were eating it all and he wasn't getting enough to eat. This feeder favors thee CBB over the tanks because he has the unique mouth to get where others can't. This has helped me train my new CBB how to eat. These cones are for feeding worms. I bought a sleeve of 20 for like 10 bucks on amazon. I just drilled a hole in the bottom and a couple through the sides. CBB like to hunt on the undersides of rocks and the hole on the bottom gets his instincts going. Also 3 might be overkill. They eat 24/7. One will knock them out.
I also keep some live rock in my sump which was loaded with feather dusters and a few aptasia. I gave him nothing but that for a couple days to make sure he would eat the apts and that he did.

This is awesome! That's great. Well, if they'll hunt for stuff. I saw large amphipods hopping around on my rocks at night. Larger than some mysis. I've got a turf scrubber that seems to continuously replenish my live pod population. So, if they'd actually go after pods or shrimp that'd be awesome. Plus I've got an endless supply of aiptasia if they start eating it and hunting it. Great advice though!

 

[mattzang]

i've never kept one so take it with a grain of salt, but 3 seems concerning. not sure they're a schooling fish and i've seen people say they're really hard to pair, let alone have 3 get along

 

[Treefer32]

Can two (2) CBBs be kept together? I thought I had seen they were fine together, but now I'm second guessing that.

 

[eea60123]

I’ve only owned one copperband, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I was most interested in getting a healthy and eating specimen, and I didn’t acclimate it any differently than I normally do. I don’t believe they’re any more difficult as far as acclimating than any other fish. You may stress it more by an overly long acclimation process. As long as the parameters are close your acclimation is fine. If you have Zebramosa tangs then they may get bullied, but 3 could lessen the chances of it happening. It’s always good to turn the lights off and I feed before adding any new fish to my tank. That way they are fatter and happier and may not view the new arrival as a big threat to their food supply.

 

[Treefer32]

Yes, I've noticed much better results with acceptance of fish by turning the lights off and adding them. Keeping the tank dark. I let my fish go into hiding / sleeping mode. Then when they wake up, they don't realize there's someone new there. Seems to be very short memories.

 

[Webslinger]

Black worms a must.

 

[Treefer32]

So, if I get a copperband to live and thrive in my tank. What is the % chance it will eat my elegance, Zoas, open brain, and other soft tube like corals?