Copper Banded Butterfly Diet Advice

arking_mark · May 5, 2021

Just got my 1st CBB. I never thought I'd own one of these.

It immediately adjusted to tank and aggressively goes after specific food.

However, it seems to only eat frozen bloodworms and a tiny bit of mysis/brine shrimp.

How can I increase the variety of food it accepts?

The tank gets a little bit of dry everything from my automatic Plank Feeder (Reef Chili, NutriDiet Marine Flakes, Nyos True Algae, dki Marine, Panta Nouri Polyp, Freeze Dried Mysis, Freeze Dried Bloodworms).

The CBB doesn't really go after any of the dry stuff yet. Although, I just added the freeze dried bloodworms today so I won't know if that entices it.

I only started feeding frozen mix for my CBB and to expand my Orange Spotted Filefish's diet (OSF eats baby brine, Masstick, and maybe some small frozen particles)

The frozen mix is: cube of bloodworms, cube of mysis or brine shrimp, cube of mix or greens, cube of coral gumbo, cube of cyclopods.

I've tried adding Masstick to glass...no luck yet.

Bloodworms 3x a day doesn't feel like a good diet.

Any thoughts or advice?

argiBK · May 5, 2021

It's really going to be trial and error with a CBB. You're already in great shape that he's eating frozen bloodworms. If you can, add Selcon to up the nutritional value.

Mine took about 2 months of training to get mine to accept flakes.

About a week of experimenting (frozen and live clams, mass stick, etc), he responded to live bloodworms.
From there I made sure he saw that I was introducing food in the feeding ring and slowly started mixing in frozen BWs while phasing out the live worms.
After the frozen BWs I introduced freezedried BWs. This got him eating at the surface of the water, in the feeding ring rather than hunting out of the water column.
Once the live/frozen worms were completely removed, I just mixed the dried worms with what I was feeding the rest of the fish. (Prime Reef, Formula 2 flake and pellet, TDO chroma, dried BWs)
Now he basically takes whatever dried food he sees in the feeding ring and will occassionally go after LRS Fish Frenzy.

To this day, he won't eat Mass Stick.

Good luck!

RobMcC · May 5, 2021

Mine loves fauna Marin LPS pellets

vetteguy53081 · May 5, 2021

Mine is an eating machine. LRS herbivore diet is what got it interesting in eating frozen foods.
Mysis shrimp
Am krill
Spirulina brine shrimp
Hikari marine cuisine
Hikari mega veggie
Hikari mega marine

arking_mark · May 5, 2021

argiBK said:
It's really going to be trial and error with a CBB. You're already in great shape that he's eating frozen bloodworms. If you can, add Selcon to up the nutritional value.

Mine took about 2 months of training to get mine to accept flakes.

About a week of experimenting (frozen and live clams, mass stick, etc), he responded to live bloodworms.

From there I made sure he saw that I was introducing food in the feeding ring and slowly started mixing in frozen BWs while phasing out the live worms.

After the frozen BWs I introduced freezedried BWs. This got him eating at the surface of the water, in the feeding ring rather than hunting out of the water column.

Once the live/frozen worms were completely removed, I just mixed the dried worms with what I was feeding the rest of the fish. (Prime Reef, Formula 2 flake and pellet, TDO chroma, dried BWs)

Now he basically takes whatever dried food he sees in the feeding ring and will occassionally go after LRS Fish Frenzy.

To this day, he won't eat Mass Stick.

Good luck!

Thanks. I'm definitely lucky I got one who aggressively eats.

vetteguy53081 · May 5, 2021

ReefguyEric · May 5, 2021

Beautiful fish

arking_mark · May 8, 2021

Just a quick update. CBB is going for frozen everything at this point...and showing interest in dry.

I feel pretty lucky at this point.

arking_mark · May 15, 2021

So yesterday the CBB wasn't its usual self going after food and stuff...just picking at the rocks.

This morning it didn't eat.

This afternoon it was dead.

There was nothing on the body that would indicate any issues.

It was eating great...not sure what happened.

argiBK · May 16, 2021

Sorry for your loss, especially with him showing such positive signs!

If he wasn't showing signs of malnourishment (thinning, listlessness) which could be indicative of internal parasites, he might have been caught with cyanide.

tippin.turtle · May 16, 2021

Release it back to the wild before it dies. after further reading my advice came too late.

OrionN · May 16, 2021

CBB like to eat frozen food much more than dry food IME. One way you can get the CBB to start to eat a variety of food is put the frozen foot in feeders that prevent other fish bet to it and the CBB can use it long snout to eat it. An example would be frozen clams. As you drop the frozen steamer clam into the tank, it will start to crack open as it thaw out. The CBB then get first crack at it, after 15-20 mins, it open wider and the rest of the fish move in and finish it. Put it in a contraption that prevent the shell from fully open will let the CBB eat all of it.
You can also put chunks of frozen food in a screened container where only the CBB can reach with the snout. You get the idea.
Once the CBB get comfortable and eat aggressively, then you don't have to continue to make sure the CBB get his share of the food.
I have had mine for years, I feed a variety of food to my tank, and she have not really eat anything but frozen food, and decimated my worms and feather duster, and eliminated aptasia from the tank. She is so bold that when I disrupted the tank with any activity in the tank, she is right there at my hand to pounce on any worms that are exposed with the disturbance, bristle worms included.

Further reading, my information seem to come too late too.

BTW, I am calling any and all CBB owner to joint in this interesting thread:

Sexual dimorphism identification of Chelmon rostratus, the Copperband Butterfly,

From the horse mouth, people who successfully pair, breed and raised Copperband Butterflies Jirayuth Ruensirikul, Mavit Assava-aree, Atra Chaimongkol, Sirawan Bunchai, and Khwantana Ongart of Coastal Aquaculture Research Institute and Nakhonsithammarat Coastal Fisheries Research and Development...

www.reef2reef.com

arking_mark · May 16, 2021

OrionN said:
CBB like to eat frozen food much more than dry food IME. One way you can get the CBB to start to eat a variety of food is put the frozen foot in feeders that prevent other fish bet to it and the CBB can use it long snout to eat it. An example would be frozen clams. As you drop the frozen steamer clam into the tank, it will start to crack open as it thaw out. The CBB then get first crack at it, after 15-20 mins, it open wider and the rest of the fish move in and finish it. Put it in a contraption that prevent the shell from fully open will let the CBB eat all of it.
You can also put chunks of frozen food in a screened container where only the CBB can reach with the snout. You get the idea.
Once the CBB get comfortable and eat aggressively, then you don't have to continue to make sure the CBB get his share of the food.
I have had mine for years, I feed a variety of food to my tank, and she have not really eat anything but frozen food, and decimated my worms and feather duster, and eliminated aptasia from the tank. She is so bold that when I disrupted the tank with any activity in the tank, she is right there at my hand to pounce on any worms that are exposed with the disturbance, bristle worms included.

Further reading, my information seem to come too late too.

BTW, I am calling any and all CBB owner to joint in this interesting thread:

Sexual dimorphism identification of Chelmon rostratus, the Copperband Butterfly,

From the horse mouth, people who successfully pair, breed and raised Copperband Butterflies Jirayuth Ruensirikul, Mavit Assava-aree, Atra Chaimongkol, Sirawan Bunchai, and Khwantana Ongart of Coastal Aquaculture Research Institute and Nakhonsithammarat Coastal Fisheries Research and Development...

www.reef2reef.com

My CBB was aggressively eating frozen blood worms and was front and center for all feedings. It went from just eating bloodworms to going after mysis and other frozen stuff.

Literally, two days ago it didn't come and aggressively eat, just picked at the rocks. The very next day it didn't eat morning or lunch. It was dead by the evening.

There were no external signs of sickness or injuries.

OrionN · May 16, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:

@vetteguy53081
If I have to guess, I would guess your CBB is a male. Please comment on the CBB sexual dimorphism I link above. I would love input from an experienced reefer like you.

bblumberg · May 25, 2021

I have had the sad experience of a new CBB eating frozen food voraciously only to die in a week or two too many times to admit. I did 2 things differently. 1, I started doing as PaulB recommends and not quarantining them. So far, so good. 2, I have bought all of my surviving CBB from Harry's Marine Life in Gardena, CA. I am not sure that has any impact, but these have all survived whereas the various ones I purchased from the usual big online stores have died...

I have 3 currently that I have had for 6 months-3 years. One is in my main display (where it went directly from the store). Other 2 are in established frag tanks where they went directly from the store.

OrionN · May 25, 2021

Here is mine, the one in DT
They are such bold an curious fish that they come and investigate any disturbance. Here is mine getting I. The way as I clean the tang with the magnet scraper.