Feeding Copper Banded Butterflyfish

MrsDragon · May 25, 2014

I am quite concerned about the copper banded butterflyfish I have in my tank. It is really skinny looking and appears to have lost weight since I got it 2 days ago. I have been Googling info as well as looking at pics to determine if it was skinny when I got it.

It is a loaner I got to remove aiptasia from my tank before my fish and corals go back in (long story). I have seen it swimming around and picking at stuff on the rocks but not the things I was told were aiptasia.

Today it spent half the day hiding in the rocks and now it's just sitting in the front corner of the tank doing nothing. I put some flake food in but it did not seem the least bit interested. Unfortunately I had already given the last of my live black worms to my FW angelfish or I would have tried some live food. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
When I picked it up Friday

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Tonight - Sunday

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chris neill · May 25, 2014

try blood worms not the best but can help to get it eating

slojmn · May 25, 2014

My Muelleri Butterfly slurps up gobs of blood worms and in turn started eating Mysis and brine. Otherwise ignores the rest of the smorgasbord I feed my fish. That guy needs food. Get the live blood worms and feed multiple times a day for a while. You could also try some fresh clams from the grocery store, mine will kill it for clams!! Just get the grocer to crack them open for you and stick one in on the sand bed, shell and all. If he goes for it that will be good for him. Mine ate all of my aiptasia in time as well as anything else it could find in the rocks. I had to QT all my fish for ich and the main tank has been fallow since early March. About three weeks ago I saw the first aiptasia!! Now I have about 15, I can't wait to get my Muelleri back in the tank next week!!! Good luck with that skinny guy.

Lesley · May 25, 2014

They are are very picky and difficult to get eating. We had one starve to death and I was devastated. Read as much info as possible before buying my next one and he is now fat and healthy eating all types of food.
I bought a seaweed clip that had a small net attached to it. I bought some slow defrosting vegie pellets and actually shoved the clip and net down little holes in my rocks.
The copperband eats buy going on the underside of rocks and pecking the holes, so I would put the net in a crack that had an opening underneath. He had a favorite rock collection that he would hunt and that's were I put it. The net is too small for the other fish to eat through, the long nose of the copperband is ideal for it. It took nearly 3 weeks of placing this clip before he started eating it, I then started putting it in every second day, then every third day. On the days I didn't place the clip he would start eating with all the other fish.
If it wasnt for the constant care of moving the clip around and doing it daily I believe he also would have starved to death. They have a very high death rate in captivity and only very small percentage survive.

Good luck