Copper band butterfly eating

[ItouchedThebutt]

Hey real quick, just wanted to ask. Everyone says to get a picky Copper band to eat is to start with live muscles. In my area I don’t seem to have access to that but I do have access to live Manila clams. Is that okay to try? I’m about to leave to the store I just didn’t know if that was suitable or not.

 

[JumboShrimp]

That should be much the same to get the job done. I got several types of Butterfly fish eating using Little Neck Clams. First I pried them open very slightly. After about an hour of the fish trying to peck inside, I pulled it open further to let it at the 'meat.'

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

Well so far all the dude does is stare lovingly into its cavity. Does go in for the smooch though. If it was a dating show he’d win points on being a gentleman. Unfortunately it’s a fight for survival to stay in the tank and his survival instincts are zero. Been in the tank for two days now. Today is a big step tbh because he finally stopped swimming into the corner of the glass all day and showed curiosity of grazing through the rocks. Any additional tricks if clams won’t get him to eat? I’ve seen him eat maybe a mysis but not enough to sustain a metabolism.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Is he in your main DT with other fish (competing at feeding time), or for now is he in a tank by himself? If not, that might help him get more comfortable with his clam. Also, soaking the clam in something to entice it more could help.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

He is in DT. Just added him with some wrasses and tang. Tank just got ready to house fish so it’s fairly empty and not much competition just cause everyone is trying to settle in and establish at the same time. I did freeze the remaining clams. First one was live and basically cracked open. He showed no interest in it wide open so I broke part of the shell and wedged it into the rocks to give him something to stuff his snout into. He’s curious of it just won’t try it yet. I can see if my LfS has some of that.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Amazon got it to me fast.

 

[ndrwater]

Well so far all the dude does is stare lovingly into its cavity. Does go in for the smooch though. If it was a dating show he’d win points on being a gentleman. Unfortunately it’s a fight for survival to stay in the tank and his survival instincts are zero. Been in the tank for two days now. Today is a big step tbh because he finally stopped swimming into the corner of the glass all day and showed curiosity of grazing through the rocks. Any additional tricks if clams won’t get him to eat? I’ve seen him eat maybe a mysis but not enough to sustain a metabolism.

If you can get them in your area, live black worms have been my secret weapon for keeping CBB's for years . May take a day or two to get him eating, but i have found live, squirming worms are almost irresistible.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

I can look into those. Not sure if any lfs sells them though. But I can check into it.

 

[reely989]

Copper bands are so weird. It’s tough because not only do you have to train them to eat the food at all, you also have to pretty much train them to not look at the food for 20 seconds while it gets eaten by something else lol.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

No luck today. Even less interest in the clam. Threw some tubifex worms into a CBB feeder still no attention. Entice should be in tomorrow. Hopefully that’ll help.

 

[jsmkmavity]

Live black worms! Freshwater fish store should have them

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

I always start with clams, then transition to masstick smeared in a clam shell/rock. I also tried live black worms, but my current CB didn’t really care for them.

If you can’t find black worms locally you can order them here (that’s what I had to do):

https://easternaquatics.com/
It’s going to be somewhat of a challenge in a DT with a lot of action occurring. CB’s initially seem to have ADHD when it comes to eating.

Eventually they catch on to eating out of the water column and even eating out of your hand.

One thing that is interesting with mine is that it likes bigger pieces of food. It doesn’t like the smaller mysis…but loves larger chunks of LRS or Rods food.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey real quick, just wanted to ask. Everyone says to get a picky Copper band to eat is to start with live muscles. In my area I don’t seem to have access to that but I do have access to live Manila clams. Is that okay to try? I’m about to leave to the store I just didn’t know if that was suitable or not.

Mine was an eating machine from day and clams on a half shell works once in a while. Live brine shrimp or blackworms are an effective enticer and LRS Herbivore diet always a sure bet. While Ive tried " Entice", some fish dont respond to it

 

[JumboShrimp]

For the record, I tried Masstick when I first got my Butterfly fish; even mashing it into broken coral skeletons for the fish to pick at didn't help. Nothing. Plus, I didn't expect it to turn within about 30 minutes into something that would flake off and enter the water column. (What happened to the "STICK" part of Masstick?) Anyway, I bought 40 cubes and still have 38 left as souvenirs from a failed experiment.

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

I will say he seems like a fish that’ll eventually eat from your hand if he would eat. I noticed if I move my hand slowly in the tank while wedging the clam I can almost practically pet the dude. I’ll look into live black worms. I do have an empty 10 gallon AIO I could set up. I don’t know if that would be big enough. This guy is on the larger side of sizes. But truthfully I don’t have much of and agressive feeding tank yet. I’ll say the wrasses do go for the clam but I think if I flood the tank with mysis they’ll mostly leave it. How do y’all feed the worms? In fish feeder like IM cup or a copper band feeder? Today he seemed more keen on staring into his reflection of the glass tank than anything.

 

[exnisstech]

I started mine on freshly hatched brine shrimp. Mine also ate live blackworms and white worms as well as earthworms. I started them off in an observation tank alone and trained them there before moving them to the display. They eat with my 8 tangs. The female has found one flake she likes but other than that it's frozen or live. PE mysis is my main frozen. They were trained and introduced at different times.

 

[reely989]

I started mine on freshly hatched brine shrimp. Mine also ate live blackworms and white worms as well as earthworms. I started them off in an observation tank alone and trained them there before moving them to the display. They eat with my 8 tangs. The female has found one flake she likes but other than that it's frozen or live. PE mysis is my main frozen. They were trained and introduced at different times.

I’m jealous. I’ve never had one that would go for anything but frozen food.

 

[threebuoys]

Did you ever try mincing the live clam? From the very moment I first fed my CBB, I chopped/minced fresh little neck clams. Every fish in the tank love it. The CBB has an easier time eating the smaller portions given his beak. When I used clam-on-the-half-shell approach I was less successful. The other fish in the tank would crowd out the CBB.

Now, I mince a couple of dozen clams at a time then freeze the resulting pieces in a flexible silicone tray with cubes about the size of the commercial food cubes. I thaw a couple cubes before putting into the tank.

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

For the record, I tried Masstick when I first got my Butterfly fish; even mashing it into broken coral skeletons for the fish to pick at didn't help. Nothing. Plus, I didn't expect it to turn within about 30 minutes into something that would flake off and enter the water column. (What happened to the "STICK" part of Masstick?) Anyway, I bought 40 cubes and still have 38 left as souvenirs from a failed experiment.

That stinks…in my experience the pre-made cubes tend to stay more together than the powder that you mix yourself. It sounds like the pre-made didn’t work for you though.

I will say with my CB it started with clams first. Once it was regularly eating clams I switched over to masstick in a clam shell…the eventually it started eating out of the water column.

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

I started mine on freshly hatched brine shrimp. Mine also ate live blackworms and white worms as well as earthworms. I started them off in an observation tank alone and trained them there before moving them to the display. They eat with my 8 tangs. The female has found one flake she likes but other than that it's frozen or live. PE mysis is my main frozen. They were trained and introduced at different times.

+1 on observation tank. I’ve had the most success with starting them in an observation tank with low stress and activity. I think you can be successful introducing directly to the DT, but it has to be mature with lots of worms, aptasia, etc so the fish has stuff to pick at until it learns to eat from the water column.