Another Copperband thread - with a difference

PranK

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Hi All,

I have a juvenile Copperband in my tank. He's been with me, across 2 tanks, for about 4 or 5 weeks. He is constantly picking at the sand and the rock, I mean all of the time. My tank is very mature, running for around 10 years and in its current configuration for 2+. The rock and the sand are old, I have lots of worms, tube worms, pods, brittle stars, etc.

I'm trying to get the little bugger eating prepared foods, but as usual with these fish its harder than it seems. I have tried frozen blood worms, frozen clam half shells, fresh mussels, pellets, frozen brine, no love.

i'm keen to keep trying things to feed him but this thread is not about getting him to eat my food, this thread is a discussion on what it is he'd be finding around the tank to eat and whether it is likely sufficient for his nutrition.

What is it he's eating in the tank?

Thanks,

Christian
 

Amado

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I had a copper band and I fed him clams on the 1/2 shelf hikari sells it. My cooper band also ate mussels.
Then he started to eat LRS and rods.

From my Expirience they eat off the rock work.
They don’t like to eat if the water column.
They will eat aptasia. Pods, worms. They spend the
Whole day looking for food.
 
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PranK

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I had a copper band and I fed him clams on the 1/2 shelf hikari sells it. My cooper band also ate mussels.
Then he started to eat LRS and rods.

From my Expirience they eat off the rock work.
They don’t like to eat if the water column.
They will eat aptasia. Pods, worms. They spend the
Whole day looking for food.

Yep, I agree, they seem to want food that is stationary rather than that moving around.

My other fish arn't keen on the mussels or clams either, but my big brittle star makes short work of them.

I'll keep trying, do you think they get enough nourishment when picking all day?
 

najer

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Following, I picked one up yesterday and it is also grazing the rocks and sand.
I am doing to start trying different foods and see what happens, I run my tank grubby so there is loads to eat.
 

piranhaman00

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Mine readily eats mysis shrimp, rods mixes, clams ect. Pretty much any prepared foods. I raised him in a rockless QT tank though so he had nothing to eat but prepared foods. He caught on quickly. It was slow at first, piece here and there, but now he eats like a pig and competes with the tangs.
 

Crashnt24

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Mine would eat worms and pods all day. Even though you can't see what he is eating, it's there.

I got mine to eat frozen right off the bat. My LFS sells a frozen mix of krill, mysis, brine, algae and blood worms. He really took a liking to the worms and soon switched to everything. Good luck
 

Paul B

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Yep, I agree, they seem to want food that is stationary rather than that moving around.

In the sea they do pick at the rocks constantly and especially in holes where they pull out worms. But they do eat from the water column.

 

Daniel@R2R

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lion king

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Masstick or other foods you can smash into the rocks, if you can't find the masstick, Ocean Nutritions Formula One with the gel binder works. Trying live black worms and/or live brine shrimp gets their attention to the water column, and sometimes gets them to try other foods.
 

ApoIsland

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CBB will eat frozen food out of the water column just fine if you train them. I don't know anyone who took the time to properly quarantine and train that says they won't. Obviously you are a little behind the ball by just dropping him in the main tank. They are very shy at first around other fish and easily intimidated at feeding time until they get used to the tank if they live long enough.

To answer the question you asked in the original post...if the fish is growing then it's getting enough to eat. My guess is that it is not and will probably starve to death unless you get it eating prepared foods. If you don't have clams in the tank and dont ever plan to keep them, then try feeding those or stuffing some type of other food in them and place in the tank.
 

JJKK

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I use a Two Little Fishes pouch and put LRS or PE Mysis cube in there for the CB to pick against. I have other aggressive eaters in my tank but this allows the CB to have dibs because most other fish can't get through the pouch with the shape of their mouth.

Now, mine will eat out of the water column because he pulls out bits from the pouch then sometime spits out the bigger pieces but chases it in the water column.

Frozen clam and black worms to get them to start eating.

IMG_20190511_084745.jpg
 

najer

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Try mashing up some masstick in a rock crevice

As above, I picked mine up on Sunday, I also bought easy mastick a week ago to try.
I do feed rocks with caulerpa for my tangs and fox face.
The elastic band is holding some macro on, not for the cbb but it just covers the edge of a little hole that fits a pellet great, I thought it looked more natural! :rolleyes:

DSC_0002 (912x637).jpg DSC_0003 (833x605).jpg
 
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PranK

PranK

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Thanks guys, I've been adding all sorts of different foods to the tank. I have noticed him starting to behave a little differently when I feed, almost like he's aware of the food, but not eating it.

Masstick is really hard to get in Australia and when it is, its super expensive. I'm going to get a couple of the half clam shells and put them together with a hole in the shell and fill it with all sorts of goodness. None of the other fish will be able to eat it.

He's still eating off the rocks and sand like crazy and he's still got some shape, definitely not thin.
 

bblumberg

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All 3 of mine (in different tanks) eat aggressively out of the water column as in Paul's video. They certainly didn't start like this but it didn't take long. They also pick at the rocks constantly and eat small bristleworms whenever i turn over something on the tank bottom.
 
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bblumberg

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Mysis, Hikari megamarine. Hikari ocean plankton. The latter only to the 2 largish ones (~4-5"). The 2-3" one in my frag tank gets the smaller food. The largish one in my main tank gets a mix of all 3 foods and gets right in there with aggressive tangs, wrasses and dwarf angels.
 

FishEngineer

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Hi All,

I have a juvenile Copperband in my tank. He's been with me, across 2 tanks, for about 4 or 5 weeks. He is constantly picking at the sand and the rock, I mean all of the time. My tank is very mature, running for around 10 years and in its
If you can find live black worms, that did the trick for mine. Once it started eating them, it was an easy jump to frozen. I was lucky my LFS had them. Good luck!
 
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PranK

PranK

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Mysis, Hikari megamarine. Hikari ocean plankton. The latter only to the 2 largish ones (~4-5"). The 2-3" one in my frag tank gets the smaller food. The largish one in my main tank gets a mix of all 3 foods and gets right in there with aggressive tangs, wrasses and dwarf angels.

That's awesome. Thanks for the info.

If you can find live black worms, that did the trick for mine. Once it started eating them, it was an easy jump to frozen. I was lucky my LFS had them. Good luck!

I've been unsuccessful getting black worms yet but I know of at least one aquarium that usually has them in little bags on the counter, i'll go and give it a try. Thanks!
 

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