New Copperband Butterflyfish acting strange

[MakeSomeWaffles]

I picked up a copperband bf fish yesterday, super healthy and fully quarantined at my LFS for 30 days, started on Brine and then frozen mysis (was chowing down mysis in front of me at the store).

I put him in my tank last night and since then until today he’s just racing up and down the left side glass. He took one bite of mysis but hasn’t been very interested.

Is this normal stress behavior? Any ideas on how to help him chill? Worried about the lil dude.

thanks!

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Do you have other fish in the tank? Are you familiar with the difficulty associated with copperbands? It’s one of those fish that I really wish wouldn’t be sold so much.

 

[Red Sea 500]

Mine did the exact same thing for a week…….sorry but it didn’t make it.
I’ve had 2, they are very difficult to keep!

 

[Goaway]

I picked up a copperband bf fish yesterday, super healthy and fully quarantined at my LFS for 30 days, started on Brine and then frozen mysis (was chowing down mysis in front of me at the store).

I put him in my tank last night and since then until today he’s just racing up and down the left side glass. He took one bite of mysis but hasn’t been very interested.

Is this normal stress behavior? Any ideas on how to help him chill? Worried about the lil dude.

thanks!

Any close up pics of your fish? Perhaps a small video as well. By close up. I mean of the sides. They can be easy to injure.

 

[MakeSomeWaffles]

Any close up pics of your fish? Perhaps a small video as well. By close up. I mean of the sides. They can be easy to injure.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Allow to settle in. New environment and likely seeing its reflection off of glass. Do not try to force feed which will affect water quality.
Acclimation important with these guys- How was it acclimated and for how long ?
What is current salinity-temp-nitrate level ?

As long as introduced properly , theyre a great fish. Mine is 6" and over 3 years old now

 

[Goaway]

@ying yang. He also had one who did this. Did not die. He covered the sides I believe to stop the fish from fighting reflection. Not sure if yours is fighting reflection though. Or if injured.

 

[CoralB]

Maybe cut the lights down and let him chill for the night might help destress

 

[MakeSomeWaffles]

Allow to settle in. New environment and likely seeing its reflection off of glass. Do not try to force feed which will affect water quality.
Acclimation important with these guys- How was it acclimated and for how long ?
What is current salinity-temp-nitrate level ?

As long as introduced properly , theyre a great fish. Mine is 6" and over 3 years old now

Temp is 78, nitrates at 6ppm. Salinity is 1.026.

acclimation was basic. Floated for 20 mins. Then added directly - in my experience drips and slower acclimations stressed fish more so went with instincts.

glad you’ve kept yours alive and helped him prosper! They’re beautiful fish.

 

[MakeSomeWaffles]

@ying yang. He also had one who did this. Did not die. He covered the sides I believe to stop the fish from fighting reflection. Not sure if yours is fighting reflection though. Or if injured.

Good to know! I tried covering the sides and he doesn’t care.. still doing it. He’s def. Not injured he looks perfect and has great colors still.

 

[Goaway]

Good to know! I tried covering the sides and he doesn’t care.. still doing it. He’s def. Not injured he looks perfect and has great colors still.

As stated by others. Give time for him to adjust. I forgot how my cbb acted when introduced. I just remember the other fish were gathered at town hall out of fear.

I assume you let the fish swim out of bag, into tank?

 

[CoralB]

I always drip acclimate even if the fish is larger and have to use a five gallon bucket. Temp acclimation to me is not enough . He may need more additional time to get used to the water quality or any chemistry differences that he or she experienced. That and possibly seeing his reflection is probably why it’s acting in this behavior. The good thing is he’s doing this good after 24 hours . Patience allowing to acclimate on its own .

 

[vetteguy53081]

Temp is 78, nitrates at 6ppm. Salinity is 1.026.

acclimation was basic. Floated for 20 mins. Then added directly - in my experience drips and slower acclimations stressed fish more so went with instincts.

glad you’ve kept yours alive and helped him prosper! They’re beautiful fish.

Very short acclimation. Acclimated mine almost 2 hrs as with all my fish. Salinity 1.024-1.025

 

[MakeSomeWaffles]

Very short acclimation. Acclimated mine almost 2 hrs as with all my fish. Salinity 1.024-1.025

Good to know. I’ve never acclimated outside of temp, I run a very stable system and be found fish always acclimate fine. This is a good lesson/ reminder.

Beautiful fish my friend!

 

[Tamberav]

Fish just sounds stressed.

I don't drip any of my fish unless the salinity is 0.002 or more lower. I just float and release. It works great for me.

 

[MakeSomeWaffles]

Fish just sounds stressed.

I don't drip any of my fish unless the salinity is 0.002 or more lower. I just float and release. It works great for me.

Yeah tbh me too. Never ever had a fish die in acclimation doing that (and if they did it was nothing to do with acclimation)

 

[i cant think]

Allow to settle in. New environment and likely seeing its reflection off of glass. Do not try to force feed which will affect water quality.
Acclimation important with these guys- How was it acclimated and for how long ?
What is current salinity-temp-nitrate level ?

As long as introduced properly , theyre a great fish. Mine is 6" and over 3 years old now

Out of curiousity, what size did you get yours? Mine was bought at about 2 inch and it’s probably just hitting 3 inch now (Including the snout). I’ve had mine two years now and growth has been extremely slow.

 

[i cant think]

Fish just sounds stressed.

I don't drip any of my fish unless the salinity is 0.002 or more lower. I just float and release. It works great for me.

I only dripped my first 3-4 fish (Stopped after the CBB was added) and now I do the same. I’ve never had an issue with it and I’m now up to 10 fish with no loses due to acclimation and any deaths I’ve had has been due to something else (Most deaths have been really random and still unknown actually).

 

[i cant think]

As for the OP, mine did this similar thing but ran up and down the whole panel of glass on the right side of the tank. Never figured it out until I realised it was a wall next to it so it definitely saw the reflection. 2 years on and still not lost mine, I know it’s not long term but most of these fish die within the first 6 months so I figure this is a form of success but not the full thing in itself.

Also when I say ran, it looked more like a figure 8, and he will still do it every few weeks (sometimes but rarely days). One reoccurring pattern is that he always does it when the blue lights are on and rarely when whites are heavier.

 

[MakeSomeWaffles]

Out of curiousity, what size did you get yours? Mine was bought at about 2 inch and it’s probably just hitting 3 inch now (Including the snout). I’ve had mine two years now and growth has been extremely slow.

I got mine at around 3.5-4 inches. I’ve heard they can be very slow growers. Usually throw in a tang or 2 to fill up some space in the tank