What got your CBB eating prepared foods?

[Smite]

I cut a small piece of pipe 4”/5” or so, drilled maybe 15 holes in it in random places big enough for the cbb mouth to fit into and then a couple of caps on each end. Loved it and instantly found the food inside the pipe interesting.

Awesome, I built one and am gonna try that out. I used a pvc end cap that fit a pipe strainer I had and drilled the back for a suction cup. I'll try using that today.

 

[Smite]

LRS fertility frenzy mixed with masstick on a stick/tweezer/clamshell will be my choice

I'll have to look into that blend. I did order some masstick and that should be here Monday.

 

[HK180]

I offered mine oysters, black worms, roe, feather dusters, and matstick, alternating food sources every 2-3 hours. After 4 days, he finally began eating.

 

[Smite]

I offered mine oysters, black worms, roe, feather dusters, and matstick, alternating food sources every 2-3 hours. After 4 days, he finally began eating.

This guy eats the live blood worms like crazy, so that's good. Now it's going to be trying to wean him off without starving him out too much.

My massticks came early so I put some in yesterday. I could tell there was a feed reaction in the tank but none of the fish seemed to find it. Hopefully that works out, pretty cool food product.

I've tried working in ROE but no luck so far. I put a piece of my bio brick that had aiptasia and feather dusters and he took those out in 1 day. I still need to try some form of oysters or clams.

 

[CanuckReefer]

CBB success = @Tamberav ....

 

[Kayanarka]

Just keep at it. Mine was picky in the beginning even going on a few hunger strikes from time to time. Fast forward almost two years and hes a pig.

Wow look at him go. This fish is on my wish list. Love the green coral on your back glass.

 

[ReefHog]

Wow look at him go. This fish is on my wish list. Love the green coral on your back glass.

He's a very good eater and has no problem competing with the other fish. Green Star Polyps (GSP) are a very easy coral to grow and will quickly take over all your rock work. It's best grown on the back or side glass away from your main rock structures or on rock islands by itself. While it can spread across the sand bed, it's very easy to control on the sand. It doesn't spread by breaking off and starting new colonies like Xenia or Kenya Trees. The stuff I have is from a rock I bought over 25 years ago.

 

[odnavres]

Thanks everyone, I'll keep at it. Once I'm out of black worms and I head to the LFS maybe I'll cut my worm order in half and do some brine along side it. See how that goes.

Great point, I would love to keep a clam one day. Not sure if I want to train it to eat out of a shell. Not sure that would make a difference, for me clam or CBB, CBB wins. Originally being a freshwater planted tank discus lover, the CBB was one of the fish that got me very interested in the saltwater section

The fact you got yours to eat black warms is a plus. That how I got my two to eat. Then I gave them live brine shrimp.if you can find live brine shrimp I would try that next.
If not frozen brine or mysis shrimp, leaving them to settle to the bottom of the qt tank. It will search and try them. Eventually it should start to eat them. Mine took a week or so. Once I knew they were eagerly eating that’s when I introduced them into the main tank in a isolation box since I had a black tang and Achilles tang.
they are doing well know.
Just keep the water clean and keep feeding it black worms until you can move them over to frozen shrimp.

 

[silvernblackr35]

I've got a Copperband butterfly in QT. He's gotten his GeneralCure treatment and is now just under observation. My goal during observation is getting it to eat prepared foods with little competition. I know once in the display he will hone in on copepods, aiptasia ect and have a good chance of never taking prepared foods. I have been succesful getting him to eat live black worms with a gusto! Now that seems to be all he wants. Does anyone have tips of how to get him to eat other prepared foods? I've tried dumping brine soaked in garlic and entice in high flow to trigger a response but he just swims eyeballing them then moving on. I'm going to call around and see if I can find some live brine, maybe that will be what gets him trying the frozen brine/LRS/Rods reef/mysis i regularly feed my tank?


Thanks for any tips/tricks.


Matt

I'd try LRS Fish frenzy, Rod's Fish only blend, hikari mysis and PE mysis are also good, Hikari is probably my favorite mysis because its smaller, your CB might spit out PE mysis from it being too large.

A big challenge with with copperbands is they are poorly designed for eating out of the water column and we feed most of our fish that way. Even if you get it eating prepared foods it will have to compete with your faster fish in your display (copperbands are a slow moving fish and not the sharpest tools in the shed either). Their mouths are narrow and they tend to spit out food quite a bit, so it might look like its eating a lot but it isn't because the other fish are eating what it spits out. Keeping it well fed is obviously key to its health and possibly keeps it from munching on your corals.

You need to train your copperband to recognize you as a food source so it can eat like a copperband.

I would start sticking frozen food to the glass (dont let it thaw, just pull chunk out of freezer and stick it to the glass, LRS and Rods work great for this) and once it starts eating that way start feeding it with tongs and/or a turkey baster (this is where the mysis comes in). A copperband is designed for sucking food out of shells and tubes of tubeworms so a turkey baster works great in replicating this, just push the food down far enough for him to reach it out of the tube but not hard enough where it shoots all the food out.

I've had mine for 3 years and it definitely requires special care compared to the other 39 fish in my tank. Mine will eat from the water column, but I still feed with tongs or the turkey baster at least once a day.

Hope this helps!

 

[hunterallen40]

For me, and I probably shouldn't say this... I didn't get mine eating in QT. At all. Tried garlic, garlic guard (you know, maybe my garlic wasn't good enough), and entice (it's got an idol on it, surely it's good stuff, right?). None of that worked at all. Fish was just really afraid, and hid all day.

Mine only started eating when he was around other fish, and they were eating (think it was a comfort thing). first it was only frozen clams (they slowly open, he sticks his beak in for a few bites before my filefish gets to it and slurps it up whole). After a week or so in the display, he started eating frozen mysis. These are incredibly intelligent fish, and they learn from fish around them.

Good luck! It's an extremely stressful thing to QT one that isn't eating. But when your specimen is healthy, it's really an amazing fish to have (just wish mine would leave my scolymia alone ).

 

[salty joe]

I got my little CBB in March, it eats oysters, clams and mussels from the shell along with my other fish. It will not eat Choma Boost pellets but will eat live white worms from the water column. I tried mixing Choma Boost with white worms. It's growing so I'm happy. It raises its dorsal spines toward bigger more aggressive fish to hold its own at feeding time. I love it!

 

[sghera64]

I make my own fish food from seafood from the grocery store meat counter (mussels, salmon, shrimp, nori, reef roids, etc.). I freeze these in a pan and then cut it into cubes to put into this basket I made out of some excess aquarium screen topper. The beautiful thing is the long snout on the CBB makes him the perfect predator for my contraption. The others generally wait for him to "release" the goodies from the basket. Watch the video

 

[Kayanarka]

He's a very good eater and has no problem competing with the other fish. Green Star Polyps (GSP) are a very easy coral to grow and will quickly take over all your rock work. It's best grown on the back or side glass away from your main rock structures or on rock islands by itself. While it can spread across the sand bed, it's very easy to control on the sand. It doesn't spread by breaking off and starting new colonies like Xenia or Kenya Trees. The stuff I have is from a rock I bought over 25 years ago.

I have a piece (GSP) about the size of a quarter on my back glass.

I think one of the coolest things is how excited the fish get when I get home. It is like owning a pack of aquatic dogs. The tank is right next to the front door, and they all go wild when I walk in.

 

[salty joe]

I think one of the coolest things is how excited the fish get when I get home. It is like owning a pack of aquatic dogs. The tank is right next to the front door, and they all go wild when I walk in.

That's the one disadvantage of my inwall tank-my fish don't associate me walking up to the tank with food, they are a little skittish to sudden movements.

 

[Smite]

The fact you got yours to eat black warms is a plus. That how I got my two to eat. Then I gave them live brine shrimp.if you can find live brine shrimp I would try that next.
If not frozen brine or mysis shrimp, leaving them to settle to the bottom of the qt tank. It will search and try them. Eventually it should start to eat them. Mine took a week or so. Once I knew they were eagerly eating that’s when I introduced them into the main tank in a isolation box since I had a black tang and Achilles tang.
they are doing well know.
Just keep the water clean and keep feeding it black worms until you can move them over to frozen shrimp.

Awesome pair and incredible tank! Cool to see you are able to keep some maxima clams in there as well. No issues there?

 

[Smite]

I'd try LRS Fish frenzy, Rod's Fish only blend, hikari mysis and PE mysis are also good, Hikari is probably my favorite mysis because its smaller, your CB might spit out PE mysis from it being too large.

A big challenge with with copperbands is they are poorly designed for eating out of the water column and we feed most of our fish that way. Even if you get it eating prepared foods it will have to compete with your faster fish in your display (copperbands are a slow moving fish and not the sharpest tools in the shed either). Their mouths are narrow and they tend to spit out food quite a bit, so it might look like its eating a lot but it isn't because the other fish are eating what it spits out. Keeping it well fed is obviously key to its health and possibly keeps it from munching on your corals.

You need to train your copperband to recognize you as a food source so it can eat like a copperband.

I would start sticking frozen food to the glass (dont let it thaw, just pull chunk out of freezer and stick it to the glass, LRS and Rods work great for this) and once it starts eating that way start feeding it with tongs and/or a turkey baster (this is where the mysis comes in). A copperband is designed for sucking food out of shells and tubes of tubeworms so a turkey baster works great in replicating this, just push the food down far enough for him to reach it out of the tube but not hard enough where it shoots all the food out.

I've had mine for 3 years and it definitely requires special care compared to the other 39 fish in my tank. Mine will eat from the water column, but I still feed with tongs or the turkey baster at least once a day.

Hope this helps!

That does help, thank you! I'll give the turkey baster a go. I placed a rock with aiptasia on it and they were gone in a few hours, pretty awesome.