Getting a Copperband Butterflyfish to eat

KARussell88

KARussell88

Member
Any methods or foods any of you have found particularly effective?
I don't currently own one but I am thinking about it and I know not to buy it unless I see it eat in the store but I want to make sure I can get one to eat once it is in my tank.
 
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cheeks69

Wannabe Guru
RS STAFF
I've had three one refused to eat but the other two would eat mysis shrimp, plankton, squid or deli shrimp. Just because you get them to eat doesn't garantee long term success. I fed mine from my hand but he never gained any weight and eventually stopped eating and died. These fish don't ship well and to make matters worse the one's from Indonesia are usually caught with cyanide so if you can get one from Australia or get the Chelmon muelleri instead of the rostratus your success rate will increase dramatically. How much LR do you have ? They will eat fauna from the rocks so if you have a good amount of LR that can be of great help until they adjust to prepared foods.
 
KARussell88

KARussell88

Member
Its a 90 gallon tank with a 29 gallon sump. Probably close to 90 lbs of live rock on top and close to 20 lbs in the sump. also a copepod base is forming in the sump. The LFS I am looking at them at has two that both look in great condition, one of theirs isn't eating though and the other eats but seemed to spit out everything he was eating, I'm not sure if that means he was actually eating or not.
 
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cheeks69

Wannabe Guru
RS STAFF
I'm not sure if that means he was actually eating or not.
Click to expand...

He's not !
If you could put him in a sump or refugium it'll be easier to wean him from live foods to prepared foods without any competition from other tankmates.
 
KARussell88

KARussell88

Member
Thanks lol
I can put him in my sump but the water movement down there is pretty swift, I assume that would be less tan desirable,
I would lean towards getting the one that at least shows an interest in eating, again they are both fat, great looking specimens.
Maybe I should just keeping showing up to see if they are eating, they are just both so beautiful I'm afraid they will get snatched up, I love those fish
 
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pdawg

Member
You can buy a live brine shrimp hatchery. Right now I have 2 mandarin gobies, one spotted and one regular. They both at first would only eat what they found, but after putting live baby brine shrimp in the tank they ate that, and eventually were weaned to any frozen food I put with them. You should also use garlic guard to try to get them to eat. I would get the healthier looking one, setup a hospital tank, and leave him in the hospital tank for about 2 weeks weaning him onto the food and getting him fattened up, and then introduce him to your 90 gal during night.
 
cindyp

cindyp

Active Member
I adopted this guy who in the beginning was not eating at all he was pale and skinny
it took a solid week to get him to eat mysis/Arctic pods, now its all he will eat. he takes it right out
of my fingers. he sucks the mysis up then he will spit it out then suck it back up and its gone
he's chewing his food. I got him from a guy on CL that was gonna flush him:( this guy had him in a 10 gallon tank.
here he is now almost 2 months later he is the sweetest fish I ever had and has a great personality.
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J

Jake Levi

New Member
CBs will almost all eat pods, live adult artemia and other live foods, once eating them you can usually get them onto mysis and other frozen foods. I had a liverock tank with a good population of pods and used to rotate the rocks through the tank with the CBs. They will and do eat aiptasia, if you want to keep CBs its worth it to keep a tank with pods and aiptasia culturing.
 
kathywithbirds

kathywithbirds

Well-Known Member
Real live clams. Go to the seafood section of your grocery store and get a couple of clams. Mine seemed to like the cherrystones best. Try a few. Get them home and smash them up with a hammer and throw them in. He should pick at the clam. Mine wasn't eating and I tried everything. Once I discovered clams he started eating other stuff with the other fish.
 
KARussell88

KARussell88

Member
Hm I didnt know about this clam thing.... do they normally eat clams because I have a very nice on in my tank I don't want eaten lol
 
DanSReef

DanSReef

Member
I have had mine for a few years. He first started eating all the aptasia he could find in my infested 29 gal bio cube. He then ate frozen mysis and brine. He loves Rogers Reef Food and will also eat Rod's Reef food when I feed it. The Roger's Reef Food has a lot of garlic....and my CBB loves it. I like to provide him and my entore 72 gal a wide variety of different foods. I like to mix up the stuff I feed just so that the fish and corals all seem to get different stuff.

Also, he likes to eat out of my fingers. I usually give him food first from my fingers and then feed the rest of the tank.

Good luck with yours. They are great fish! A lot of personality...one of my favorites.
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