Should I get this copperband butterfly?

[40g Nano]

I want to get a long nose soon since I am looking for a larger tank, but the seller hasn’t emailed me back
Anyway, I thought long nose butterflies were fairly hardy, are they not?

 

[Zionas]

I think you do get some specimens that hold well, but generally they’re hard to feed and with a damaged mouth during the collection and shipping process they’re pretty much GG.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

Why not risk it with a cool matted filefish. Everyone loves mine. He nips at my GSP but that’s it, and who cares. Easy to catch if it’s misbehaving.... also a valantini puffer is unique and worth the risk. I’d love to try that one one day. My tank is fairly mature though... maybe try an awesome wrasse?

 

[Paul B]

There are no real difficult fish. They just need things that many of us are not able or willing to supply. If you want to feed flakes, pellets or freeze dried food, get fish that will eat that, but not a copperband or mandarin. They will die. It is not their fault, it is yours.
I find mandarins to be the hardiest, least maintenance, long lived fish there is. I throw them in my tank, they spawn every few weeks and live for 10 years. But like I said, I have a very old tank. If I had a new tank, I couldn't keep them either.
Copperbands also. Very nice fish. They die because many people don't know how or don't want to feed them correctly or provide a tank for their needs. A tank a few years old is not going to work.

Those fish need more then just the correct food (which is never pellets or flakes)
An old tank will have growth on all the surfaces where those fish can hunt.
I have many fish that I never have to feed. Mandarins, pipefish and rainsford gobies are a few. You will not be able to keep those fish in a new tank. Living 4 or 5 years for most fish is a dismal failure because they all live longer than that so in a new tank stick to fish that I mentioned that will live there.

When your tank ages a few years and acquires some growth and has no white places, you will then have much more "luck". Before that, you will be buying fish to keep a year or two and watch it die. All of this takes time and it is not a race. There are plenty of really cool fish that will live in your tank

 

[jaganshi066]

Fair pricing especially for one eating

Yea I know out here they are $30-$40 but I agree ignore eating then that’s a huge plus

 

[Hal3134]

I’ve never had a problem with copperbands. Like Paul B. I feed live or frozen (formerly live) clams and bloodworms. Mine also regularly eats mysis. I prefer PE brand because the mysis are bigger and therefore have a higher ratio of flesh to exoskeleton. I don’t have a good supply for black worms and my first attempt at white worms failed.

 

[Tamberav]

Three month old tank is pretty young... you mention pods but mine wasn't looking for tiny pods, it was sucking down every feather duster it could find.

Do you have access to live worms and live clams? That would help. I wouldn't expect to keep one on mysis in a new tank.

 

[Quicklynx]

My tank is 3 months old. I have two clowns, a black capped basslet, and a long nosed hawk fish. I drove an hour to go to Preusse pets in Lansing MI a very nice pet store. They have a copperband butterfly that is eating mysis! The fish looks healthy with no blemishes and acting normal. They usually do a 4 week quarantine in the back room and dose most of the fish with copper. They struggled with stress/death dosing copper with the copperband. This fish is currently in a reef with a lot of clowns that the owner has complete confidence the clowns don’t have ick or velvet. I have not dosed copper at home and don’t plan on it in my quarantine tank. The salesperson was very knowledgeable and thought the quarantine and copper potentially would make the fish stop taking mysis. I see little pods in my tank and have been dosing phyto. She mentioned doing a Paraguard dip and drip acclimation with no quarantine.

I was hesitant but will be driving by the area tomorrow. Sounded a little fishie, but I’m also a noob and researching more. I haven’t seen this fish at my 3 LFS but could likely order. It was $70. I took a very crappy video that I was just planning on showing my toddler.

wait for one or take the one eating mysis?

I'm not saying this store doesn't adequately QT their fish, but you can always question the QT process. Was the fish at therapeutic levels of Copper? The copper resistant ich and velvet is real after all the years of Wholsalers and LFS dosing small amounts of copper in all the tanks. Eventually the strong survived and multiplied.

There is always a chance when in a tank at a LFS that somewhere a cross contamination happened even after QT. If the fish is in a DT with other fish, and it happens to accidentally be the last tank fed after hands were in other tanks, you never know.

Is your home aquarium fully QT'd? If not, then it's nice to have a QT'd fish coming healthy to your home, however, it could catch whatever is in your current tank.

If your tank is fully QT'd, and I recommend doing this either way to give the CBB time to feed and be comfortable with you, you can put him in a holding tank with converted and dewormed saltwater black mollies.

The molly test will ensure he is clean, and after some comforting time in the holding tank, you can work on acclimating him into the display.

Just note, this fish, even with the most dedicated of care, can still croak on you out of nowhere.

There is actually a thread right now, which I think is pretty much voting on whether it's ethical to be keeping these fish in our hobby.

QUESTION OF THE DAY - YES or NO: The Beautiful Copperband Butterfly Fish for Your Reef Tank?

The Copperband butterfly fish is one of the most beautiful fish that is readily available in our hobby and is in the "more affordable" range. People love the CBB fish for many reasons with one of those being that they can use that slender "snout" to get deep into crevices and eat aiptasia...

www.reef2reef.com

If you decide to get it, good luck! It really is a beautiful fish.