New copperband fish!

mrpontiac80 · Jul 27, 2023

I just ordered my first copperband. Ive wanted one for a while but with prices, and the feeding and just overall fragility of them I have up until now passed.

I ordered from @Eric Cohen and TankStop. Should be here tomorrow and then into qt. And since I’ve got a few aiptaisa popping up everywhere I’m crossing my fingers it finds those delicious.

Mostly just sharing but if anyone has tips or tricks I’ll take those too!

Gtinnel · Jul 27, 2023

The best tip I can give is to try and have a live food source prepared before getting a CBB.

mrpontiac80 · Jul 27, 2023

Gtinnel said:
The best tip I can give is to try and have a live food source prepared before getting a CBB.

Any recommendations? I normally feed frozen brine, frozen mysis, and rods original frozen.

GSnake · Jul 27, 2023

I would have bought one that's actively / aggressive eating something. They are hard to train on foods and can be timid in front of other hungry fish

Readd13 · Jul 27, 2023

I’ve had mine for almost 2 weeks now and still mainly prefers little neck clams from grocery store. Trying to mix in my other frozen foods and getting creative with feeders to get it to eat other stuff.

mrpontiac80 · Jul 27, 2023

GSnake said:
I would have bought one that's actively / aggressive eating something. They are hard to train on foods and can be timid in front of other hungry fish

I have heard good things about tank stop and the price was fair so I figured I would try it. It will be going into quarantine by itself so at least starting off there shouldn’t be any other tank mates to intimidate it. When I introduce it into the display tank, I plan to place it into an acclamation box for a few days, so hopefully things will work out

reefadam · Jul 27, 2023

One of the main challenges I feel with feeding copperbands, is not necessarily what we feed, but how we feed. A fish like the copperband is used to (and biologically designed) to pick foods from cracks and crevices and holes. It’s really not natural for them to feed from the water column the way many more of the adept open water swimmers can adapt, which makes feeding them in a stocked tank a little trickier due to the competition.
I’ve found good luck taking a short length of 1/2” PVC pipe, capping both ends and drilling a bunch of holes around it. I can then insert the food (have always had good luck with PE mysis) into the pipe and let them pick out at their pace.
This method is a bit dirty as it makes it difficult to strain the frozen food without losing it. I suppose playing around with hole size and number of holes could help.

mrpontiac80 · Jul 27, 2023

reefadam said:
One of the main challenges I feel with feeding copperbands, is not necessarily what we feed, but how we feed. A fish like the copperband is used to (and biologically designed) to pick foods from cracks and crevices and holes. It’s really not natural for them to feed from the water column the way many more of the adept open water swimmers can adapt, which makes feeding them in a stocked tank a little trickier due to the competition.
I’ve found good luck taking a short length of 1/2” PVC pipe, capping both ends and drilling a bunch of holes around it. I can then insert the food (have always had good luck with PE mysis) into the pipe and let them pick out at their pace.
This method is a bit dirty as it makes it difficult to strain the frozen food without losing it. I suppose playing around with hole size and number of holes could help.

Interesting. I will keep it in the back of my mind. Different fish and different foods I know but I love the two little fishes nori screen as it seems to keep the fish occupied picking at it for a while so it makes sense.

GSnake · Jul 27, 2023

mine likes frozen mysis cube inbetween my fingers while its defrosting in the water. if its already floating around he doesnt care much. doesnt care much for any other food either or aiptasia. hes relatively new (few months)

alton · Jul 27, 2023

Since you have baby aptasia that should be great until he swaps over to prepared. Mine doesn't eat aptasia but does eat LRS and Spiralina Brine. They do get very tame come feeding time. Mine shares a tank with a powder blue and purple tang. It didn't take the tangs long to figure out the spines on top of a CBB are painful.

Jay Hemdal · Jul 27, 2023

mrpontiac80 said:
I just ordered my first copperband. Ive wanted one for a while but with prices, and the feeding and just overall fragility of them I have up until now passed.

I ordered from @Eric Cohen and TankStop. Should be here tomorrow and then into qt. And since I’ve got a few aiptaisa popping up everywhere I’m crossing my fingers it finds those delicious.

Mostly just sharing but if anyone has tips or tricks I’ll take those too!

Does Eric know where this fish was collected? CBB from different regions vary in their hardiness. Australian are the best IMO.

Jay

vetteguy53081 · Jul 27, 2023

CBB eating aptasis are hit and miss. You may want to ask which Eric may or may not know if its eating aptasia or blackworms.
There are many enticers for CBB to eat but focus on acclimation and getting fish settled in.

mrpontiac80 · Jul 27, 2023

alton said:
Since you have baby aptasia that should be great until he swaps over to prepared. Mine doesn't eat aptasia but does eat LRS and Spiralina Brine. They do get very tame come feeding time. Mine shares a tank with a powder blue and purple tang. It didn't take the tangs long to figure out the spines on top of a CBB are painful.

I have a young purple tang about 4-5 inches long maybe and a two spot bristle tooth along with a foxface. Everything else are cardinals and clowns and such. Hopefully everyone will get along after a little bit of learning each other.

Gtinnel · Jul 27, 2023

mrpontiac80 said:
I have a young purple tang about 4-5 inches long maybe and a two spot bristle tooth along with a foxface. Everything else are cardinals and clowns and such. Hopefully everyone will get along after a little bit of learning each other.

My purple picked on my CBB when I first added it. The mirror trick helped a lot.

mrpontiac80 · Jul 27, 2023

Gtinnel said:
My purple picked on my CBB when I first added it. The mirror trick helped a lot.

Did you just introduce it into the display or did you have it in an acclamation box at first?

mrpontiac80 · Jul 27, 2023

Jay Hemdal said:
Does Eric know where this fish was collected? CBB from different regions vary in their hardiness. Australian are the best IMO.

Jay

I have never spoken with Eric so I can’t say. Honestly I saw several good reviews here in reef2reef about him and his company so I checked out his webpage and saw the copperband for sale and thought I would give it a try.

Gtinnel · Jul 28, 2023

mrpontiac80 said:
Did you just introduce it into the display or did you have it in an acclamation box at first?

My copperband went directly from my qt tank to my display, not into an acclimation box. When I first added the CBB to my display it seemed like every fish in my tank was aggressive towards it, even fish that are generally docile. The purple, not surprisingly, was the worst but the mirror helped. After a few days the aggression decreased and soon got to where the CBB was left alone.
It took my copperband a few months to start eating aiptasia in my display even though it ate them in my qt before moving it over. I’ve now had my copperband for over a year and the only food that it will still eat voraciously is live white worms, and it is just as aggressive at eating them as any other fish in my tank. Mine will occasionally take a bite of frozen food but not reliably, so I keep cultures of live white worms.

Glenner’sreef · Jul 28, 2023

Congrats! I’ve had “Bah” my CBB for 5 years now. I feed my tank twice a day because of Bah and 2 Sunburst Anthias.

Glenner’sreef · Jul 28, 2023

Accidentally hit “post reply”. So I’ve found it’s necessary to feed a CBB at least twice a day. They take in 1/2 of the food that my Tangs, Wrasses etc. take in. They can and do starve to death. High flow can also keep your CBB from getting enough food. My tank’s Aptasia population stopped years ago. Mysis, brine shrimp and the like are Bah’s only food of choice, everything else just floats on by. Lol. Good luck.

Jay Hemdal · Jul 28, 2023

Glenner’sreef said:
Accidentally hit “post reply”. So I’ve found it’s necessary to feed a CBB at least twice a day. They take in 1/2 of the food that my Tangs, Wrasses etc. take in. They can and do starve to death. High flow can also keep your CBB from getting enough food. My tank’s Aptasia population stopped years ago. Mysis, brine shrimp and the like are Bah’s only food of choice, everything else just floats on by. Lol. Good luck.

4x per day is even better!

Jay