Copperband transfer

[Ben jammin]

I've got a 4" copperband in my 260 FOWLR where he is quite happy and of course has lots of room. I have a 30 gallon shallow reef (the IM 30L) in which I've recently had some aiptasia pop up. A few are pretty large, like over an inch. I used to have a peppermint shrimp to control them but it started eating my corals so I had to get rid of it, which was a pain. So I am thinking of moving my copperband from my FOWLR to my small reef for a few days or a week in hopes that he will clear out the aiptasia. A few questions though:

1. Is a 30 gal shallow tank with a good amount of live rock and coral big enough for a CBB of this size, even for a week or so? Or do they really need more swimming room?

2. How likely is he to eat the aiptasia, but not my other corals (mostly LPS, zoas and other polyps)? IS this just a bad idea?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Before stressing out the copperband by catching him, would it be possible to take a small rock that has aiptasia from the 30 and put it in the FOWLR to see if the CB will eat it?

Temporarily putting a CB in a 30 should be fine, but some CB's refuse to eat aiptasia, but they are generally pretty reef safe.

 

[miyags]

It"s not worth stressing out the copperband. It takes a long time to get rid of those things. I had a copper in a tank for a year, then put in a powder blue tang. every fish came down with ich. I removed all fish to treat in Qt and left main tank fishless for three months. In that three months the tank was covered in aiptasia again.Couple years later the tank is cleaned of those things. I still have the copperband,still one of my favorite fish. and only cost me 19.99

 

[tj w]

I think you should be alright to put him in for a week or so. There's probably a 50 50 chance he'll eat the aptasia. Just make sure ur parameters match o. Each tank and that he doesn't get stressed

 

[Ben jammin]

I don't have a ton of aiptasia yet, just a few big ones that are starting to reproduce so I'd like to nip it in the bud. Unfortunately they are generally attached to my base rock so I can't move a "sampler platter" to my FOWLR. I think it would be pretty easy to catch my CBB though. He comes front and center at feeding time and would likely swim into a specimen container for an easy transfer. Sounds like it might be worth a try.