Copperband butterfly ONLY eats blackworms

[ReeferSamster]

The “problems” is that I’m worried these foods are not completely nutritious.

Willie my Copperband butterfly is still with me today. As you can see in the youtube video made in my older tank, he was with me over 8 years ago. He even ate food from my hands.

Sorry the video is poor quality. This was before HD or 4K and the pixelation of the older compression video bitrate has not aged well in our new fancy monitors.



He was fed exclusively on blackworms, except for sump liverock I would bring into the tank so he gets "treats" of fanworms. But this was done once every few weeks when I had some spare time in my "mancave".

After a few years, I worried about the availability of blackworms, and as a backup I tried to introduce him to new foods. I mixed various foods in the pipette that was loaded with blackworms. (the tip was cutoff to accomodate the larger particle size of mysis and pellet) I added flakes, pellet, msysis, tubifex brine shrimp etc. Eventually, he started pecking at mysis shrimp, brine shrimp and tubifex only.

After many months of this experiment, he would ALWAYS spit out the flake food. But eventually he would swallow mysis shrimp brine shrimp and tubifex. Eventually, after this mix, I tried exclusive mysis shrimp, exclusive brine shrimp and exclusive tubifex and he actually ate some, but not with much enthusiasm as blackworms.

Anyway, the takeaway is this:
1) Willie the Copperband started off for about 2 years exclusively on blackworms, so to answer your question, I don't think the nutrition was lacking and even the occasional "sump rock" treat of fanworms, in my opinion made no difference because the timeframe was so long. That almost once a month when I had free time. If he had a nutritional deficiency, by being almost exclusive to blackworms, it had not manifested itself in the first 2 years.

2) Eventually, like any other animal you keep as a pet, there is the "Habitual Conditioning" you do train your pet to do things. The key to introducing new foods is to mix it with a habitual food. So start loading your pipette with a mix of mysis and blackworms. Eventually, he will taste it in his mouth and depending on the personality of your Copperband, he might or might not grow accustomed to the new foods. At that point you can start exclusive on the new food.

Hope this helps.

 

[ReeferSamster]

Update!!

copperband is eating everything now! The only caveat is that I must hold the food on the surface of the water. He eats ALL frozen foods! This is amazing!

Woops. I replied to your original post hoping to help, and I missed the later parts of the thread.

Glad it worked out for you!
I believe all pets can be "conditioned" to do anything.
Regarding him taking food only at the surface. Use a plastic disposable pipette. He will eventually get used to it. Eventually, he will even eat from your hand as you can see in my video above.

 

[bruno3047]

I wanted to make this thread to confirm this with you guys.

I purchased my copperband from the LFS. He was eating mysis and frozen foods, and even ate them in my QT tank.

Ever since I started feeding live blackworms, my copperband refuses to eat anything else.

I’m fine with feeding blackworms. The “problems” is that I’m worried these foods are not completely nutritious. Especially since they are a freshwater worm with less fat and protein than the whiteworms.

My copperband voraciously eats the worms from the water column. I will attempt to take a video for your entertainment, but…is this fish going to last long term if blackworms is all he eats?

PS: I have 2 deresa clams (tridacna) and the copperband doesn’t touch either of them. I feed LRS (which contains clams) but the copperband won’t touch them either. He exclusively lives off worms.

Live black worms is probably the most nutritious thing you can feed copperbands. That’s what they eat in the wild. Worms. Worms have the fats that they require for sustenance. Fats that Mysid shrimp do not provide.

 

[flyfisher2]

I wanted to make this thread to confirm this with you guys.

I purchased my copperband from the LFS. He was eating mysis and frozen foods, and even ate them in my QT tank.

Ever since I started feeding live blackworms, my copperband refuses to eat anything else.

I’m fine with feeding blackworms. The “problems” is that I’m worried these foods are not completely nutritious. Especially since they are a freshwater worm with less fat and protein than the whiteworms.

My copperband voraciously eats the worms from the water column. I will attempt to take a video for your entertainment, but…is this fish going to last long term if blackworms is all he eats?

PS: I have 2 deresa clams (tridacna) and the copperband doesn’t touch either of them. I feed LRS (which contains clams) but the copperband won’t touch them either. He exclusively lives off worms.

Did he stop eating the frozen or was it just your choice to feed the live Blackworms?
My CBB went on a hunger strike a few weeks ago for close to a week and then came back eating everything and anything. If it’s eating frozen I’d keep him on that.
The name ‘finicky’ does apply and I wouldn’t encourage it unless I had no alternative.

 

[ReeferSamster]

Did he stop eating the frozen or was it just your choice to feed the live Blackworms?
My CBB went on a hunger strike a few weeks ago for close to a week and then came back eating everything and anything. If it’s eating frozen I’d keep him on that.
The name ‘finicky’ does apply and I wouldn’t encourage it unless I had no alternative.

No, after acclimization to the mysis tubifex and brine shrimp, he ate all of them even when the pipette was exclusively stuffed with any of those without the blackworms. He never ate them with as much enthusiasm as the blackworms, but he would just eat it slowly. As if he was complaining "gimme the blackworms!" Haha.

But no mattter how much I tried to wean him onto flake food (even blackworm or earthworm flavored flakes) he never got into them. If he accidentally snorted them up his snout, he woul spit them back out. I don' t know any copperbands that ever got into flakes. Anyone?

 

[flyfisher2]

Mine eats just about anything frozen including my own DIY formula. Haven't seen it go for pellets. I don't feed flakes so can't say.

 

[jtf74]

Willie my Copperband butterfly is still with me today. As you can see in the youtube video made in my older tank, he was with me over 8 years ago. He even ate food from my hands.

Sorry the video is poor quality. This was before HD or 4K and the pixelation of the older compression video bitrate has not aged well in our new fancy monitors.



He was fed exclusively on blackworms, except for sump liverock I would bring into the tank so he gets "treats" of fanworms. But this was done once every few weeks when I had some spare time in my "mancave".

After a few years, I worried about the availability of blackworms, and as a backup I tried to introduce him to new foods. I mixed various foods in the pipette that was loaded with blackworms. (the tip was cutoff to accomodate the larger particle size of mysis and pellet) I added flakes, pellet, msysis, tubifex brine shrimp etc. Eventually, he started pecking at mysis shrimp, brine shrimp and tubifex only.

After many months of this experiment, he would ALWAYS spit out the flake food. But eventually he would swallow mysis shrimp brine shrimp and tubifex. Eventually, after this mix, I tried exclusive mysis shrimp, exclusive brine shrimp and exclusive tubifex and he actually ate some, but not with much enthusiasm as blackworms.

Anyway, the takeaway is this:
1) Willie the Copperband started off for about 2 years exclusively on blackworms, so to answer your question, I don't think the nutrition was lacking and even the occasional "sump rock" treat of fanworms, in my opinion made no difference because the timeframe was so long. That almost once a month when I had free time. If he had a nutritional deficiency, by being almost exclusive to blackworms, it had not manifested itself in the first 2 years.

2) Eventually, like any other animal you keep as a pet, there is the "Habitual Conditioning" you do train your pet to do things. The key to introducing new foods is to mix it with a habitual food. So start loading your pipette with a mix of mysis and blackworms. Eventually, he will taste it in his mouth and depending on the personality of your Copperband, he might or might not grow accustomed to the new foods. At that point you can start exclusive on the new food.

Hope this helps.

Willie! Your video is one of the ones that got me wanting a cbb. Started mine on blackworms too. Was eating mysis after a few days and about a month later decimated the aiptasia in QT. Had it now for almost three years and will eat out of my hand now. Here's an aiptasia treat.



Seems like OP's CBB is doing well now?