Sustaining your Copperband Butterfly

Atomikk · Jun 3, 2008

If you have ever had the urge to own a Copperband butterfly but were weary of the difficulty of keeping this fish in captivity.. look no further for help.

I am unfortunately on my 3rd CBB, but i think my experience with them all taught me a great deal on how to keep them. I have 3 pretty good reads on my adventures with this butterfly... http://blog.fragd.it

Also, I would love to discuss what other people have done to increase the success rate of these fish.

Vlad

ReefDoctor · Jun 3, 2008

I really believe them to behave similar to the Mandarines as in they need Large amounts of Live rock to survive long term... They CHOOSE thier food. It also helps to have lots of expensive snails and such that you are continually restocking as food even more so than as cleaner crew... I LOVE my CBB he has now been in my tanks for over 3 years , he is Fat and happy... BUT he does not eat ANYTHING other than that which he hunts on his own... A very Very Noble fish actually. I see soo many of this species die in samller 30-80gallon tanks with 30-50lbs of live rock

But the noobs keep putting more flakes in the tank for them

Atomikk · Jun 3, 2008

I agree 100%. They need a sizable tank to thrive. I have over 250lbs of rock in my 180, and know he is getting some food. So I supplement him with bloodworms and pe mysis (which he recently found to love as well).

Andy Lister · Jun 5, 2008

Do you guys have New Era flake foods over there yet? If not then keep an eye out for it. It's amazing stuff. In my old tank (Had to get rid of when I moved) I had a CBB, Moorish Idol and a Comet Grouper all feeding well on this. Brilliant quality food and amazing feeding responses. Had all 3 of them for over 2 years before I had to get shot of them. Gutting really, beautiful fish!

~Andy

Atomikk · Jun 5, 2008

Thanks for the heads up. Who makes it Andy? New Era?

Andy Lister · Jun 9, 2008

Atomikk said:
Thanks for the heads up. Who makes it Andy? New Era?

The company is called New Era

http://www.new-era-aquaculture.com/

If i'm not allowed to post that then please delete the link.

Company is only relatively new. They were at InterZoo over in Germany this year at the big trade show over there. Hopefully they'll get to the states sometime soon.

The foods are awesome though, well worth looking into getting!

~Andy