Copperband butterfly wiping out pods ?

[christwendt]

Hello I have a 125 gallon tank i seeded with pods. It was crawling with pods when I only had my fire fish in there. Since adding my copperband he constantly pecks at the rocks and I don’t see many pods over the sand and rocks like I did before adding him. Can a copperband wipe pods out ? I was hoping to get a mandarin once the tank was a year old.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Well, they're delicious and nutritious, so yes, a hungry fish can make a sizeable dent in your 'pod population. But it's also likely that your pod population reached a population maximum and then decreased to match available food sources. They're still there.

You can cultivate halymenia or some other leafy macroalgae in your display and you can't (or do not want to) grow chaeto in your sump. These algae are a nursery for 'pods and will go far in helping you to increase your 'pod populations.

 

[Tamberav]

How old is the tank? Pods bloom and go crazy in newer tanks and eventually die off to more normalized numbers.

I don’t believe the Copperband is much of a pod hunter… at least not in the sense of how a wrasse might be. They like to pick for worms.

 

[exnisstech]

Deleted

 

[christwendt]

How old is the tank? Pods bloom and go crazy in newer tanks and eventually die off to more normalized numbers.

I don’t believe the Copperband is much of a pod hunter… at least not in the sense of how a wrasse might be. They like to pick for worms.

The tank is 7 months old. That’s what I thought and read online nothing seems to say a copperband is a huge pod eater. The pods blooming like crazy and then dying off makes more sense. I can’t tell what the copperband is picking at when it nips at the rocks. There is not much life yet in the tank so it’s not eating worms.

 

[christwendt]

Well, they're delicious and nutritious, so yes, a hungry fish can make a sizeable dent in your 'pod population. But it's also likely that your pod population reached a population maximum and then decreased to match available food sources. They're still there.

You can cultivate halymenia or some other leafy macroalgae in your display and you can't (or do not want to) grow chaeto in your sump. These algae are a nursery for 'pods and will go far in helping you to increase your 'pod populations.

This all makes a lot of sense. I mainly just don’t see the longer bigger ones. I see the tiny ones still. Maybe the copperband is just eating the bigger adult ones too. I plan to grow algae once my nutrients increase. I still can’t turn my skimmer on yet. Qting 4 fish right now which should help. Thank you for the input.

 

[jtf74]

How long have you had the copperband in there?

 

[christwendt]

How long have you had the copperband in there?

About a month.

 

[areefer01]

Hello I have a 125 gallon tank i seeded with pods. It was crawling with pods when I only had my fire fish in there. Since adding my copperband he constantly pecks at the rocks and I don’t see many pods over the sand and rocks like I did before adding him. Can a copperband wipe pods out ? I was hoping to get a mandarin once the tank was a year old.

Copperbands can wipe out your pod source. They forage and graze eating tube worms, worms, small clams and mollusks among other things. I'm not a marine biologist of fish expert but you get the idea hopefully. They do eat aiptasia but it isn't their favorite, it is hit and miss, and not their primary food source.

The pecking at rocks you mentioned is the fish foraging and looking for food. In "my" opinion they (Copperband and Mandarin) will be competing for food and if you want both I would recommend you purchasing a captive bred and/or raised Mandarin. This way it is eating a known food before you enter and will therefore readily take prepared food. This would be my first recommendation.

A second option would be to add a true refugium (refuge) with no fish predators, some rock rubble, low flow, medium light, and grow them out there. The problem here through, or challenge I should say, is the migration path the pods need to take to go from refugium to display and then become a food source. 99% of the time this is where hobbyist refugiums fail... Refuge to sump path You could print a 3d hotel (search the web for example) or macro algae and manually move between A and B but not something I like due to having to do it. If I have to do it then other things take priority and my refugium becomes a junk drawer of sorts.

TL; DR - might I suggest you buying a captive bred Mandarine - Biota is a great source. Just get the food they use on hand ahead of time for a back up. Hikari frozen, dki pellet, tdo pellet, and PE pellet. Small or X-small.

 

[Tamberav]

The tank is 7 months old. That’s what I thought and read online nothing seems to say a copperband is a huge pod eater. The pods blooming like crazy and then dying off makes more sense. I can’t tell what the copperband is picking at when it nips at the rocks. There is not much life yet in the tank so it’s not eating worms.

7 months makes perfect sense. The pods are everywhere after the cycle and so on and eventually numbers stabilize with the tank and food source. Pods will eat other pods once the food depletes.

picking doesn’t mean eating. Fish will peck at rock even if no food is on it. They will grab a debris and spit it out through the gills and so on. So hopefully your Copperband is eating frozen foods or such.

All fish will eat pods to some extent, even my clowns will grab them off the glass, but something that can really put a big dent would be fish like wrasses or pipefish and so on.

@Paul B might be able to say… he has kept copperbands since since the days of cave women supermodels.

 

[Paul B]

Your Copperband didn't decimate your pods. Copprbands more than about an inch or so long won't even see pods. They are looking for worms or aiptasia.

Your pods most likely ate most of the food and died.

 

[christwendt]

7 months makes perfect sense. The pods are everywhere after the cycle and so on and eventually numbers stabilize with the tank and food source. Pods will eat other pods once the food depletes.

picking doesn’t mean eating. Fish will peck at rock even if no food is on it. They will grab a debris and spit it out through the gills and so on. So hopefully your Copperband is eating frozen foods or such.

All fish will eat pods to some extent, even my clowns will grab them off the glass, but something that can really put a big dent would be fish like wrasses or pipefish and so on.

@Paul B might be able to say… he has kept copperbands since since the days of cave women supermodels.

Yes I lucked out. He is eating PE mysis like a champ. I did not know they pick at rocks even if there isn’t any food there. I found it hard to believe the copperband was even seeing the tiny pods. I read about wrasses eating pods. Do you know if it’s only the leopard ones? I also have a Fairy wrasse in QT but Everything I read this species should not wipe out pods.

 

[christwendt]

Your Copperband didn't decimate your pods. Copprbands more than about an inch or so long won't even see pods. They are looking for worms or aiptasia.

Your pods most likely ate most of the food and died.

Thank you. That actually makes more sense idk why I forgot about this but initially I was feeding phyto plankton and ran out. Stopped dosing for a few months. That probably affected their numbers a lot.

 

[christwendt]

Copperbands can wipe out your pod source. They forage and graze eating tube worms, worms, small clams and mollusks among other things. I'm not a marine biologist of fish expert but you get the idea hopefully. They do eat aiptasia but it isn't their favorite, it is hit and miss, and not their primary food source.

The pecking at rocks you mentioned is the fish foraging and looking for food. In "my" opinion they (Copperband and Mandarin) will be competing for food and if you want both I would recommend you purchasing a captive bred and/or raised Mandarin. This way it is eating a known food before you enter and will therefore readily take prepared food. This would be my first recommendation.

A second option would be to add a true refugium (refuge) with no fish predators, some rock rubble, low flow, medium light, and grow them out there. The problem here through, or challenge I should say, is the migration path the pods need to take to go from refugium to display and then become a food source. 99% of the time this is where hobbyist refugiums fail... Refuge to sump path You could print a 3d hotel (search the web for example) or macro algae and manually move between A and B but not something I like due to having to do it. If I have to do it then other things take priority and my refugium becomes a junk drawer of sorts.

TL; DR - might I suggest you buying a captive bred Mandarine - Biota is a great source. Just get the food they use on hand ahead of time for a back up. Hikari frozen, dki pellet, tdo pellet, and PE pellet. Small or X-small.

I’m going to buy biota mandarin so I can feed easier in QT tank. Interesting mention of the pod hotel. You think without the pod hotel some can make it back to display via the return pump ?

 

[Tamberav]

Yes I lucked out. He is eating PE mysis like a champ. I did not know they pick at rocks even if there isn’t any food there. I found it hard to believe the copperband was even seeing the tiny pods. I read about wrasses eating pods. Do you know if it’s only the leopard ones? I also have a Fairy wrasse in QT but Everything I read this species should not wipe out pods.

Fairy and flasher are fine and won't wipe out your pods. They eat out of the water column.

Leopards, Halichoeres, Pseudochelinus, Anampses are heavy pod eaters, probably some others but those are the more common ones.


Try to get your copperband eating something besides just mysis. I really like LRS fish frenzy. It has clam and black worms and a whole list of really good stuff in it. Mysis has a lot of shell and I would not feed my copperband just that.

Fish Frenzy

Reef Frenzy, Best Reef Food, Saltwater Aquarium Food, DIY Fish Food

www.larrysreefservices.com

 

[Jekyl]

Mandarin don't do well in quarantine or with meds. As for the pods just feed live phyto. You don't need to trick the mandarin into eating something it's not supposed to.

 

[christwendt]

Fairy and flasher are fine and won't wipe out your pods. They eat out of the water column.

Leopards, Halichoeres, Pseudochelinus, Anampses are heavy pod eaters, probably some others but those are the more common ones.


Try to get your copperband eating something besides just mysis. I really like LRS fish frenzy. It has clam and black worms and a whole list of really good stuff in it. Mysis has a lot of shell and I would not feed my copperband just that.

Fish Frenzy

Reef Frenzy, Best Reef Food, Saltwater Aquarium Food, DIY Fish Food

www.larrysreefservices.com

I have been adding lrs to the mysis but he has not taken to it yet. Will keep at it tho. He will eat something one day and then not the next so annoying but he always eats the mysis. Thanks

 

[christwendt]

Mandarin don't do well in quarantine or with meds. As for the pods just feed live phyto. You don't need to trick the mandarin into eating something it's not supposed to.

I was going to do Qt tank transfer method ? And I wouldn’t be tricking mandarin if I got biota raised ones that eat frozen ? I just don’t want any chance of parasites or ich in my tank so I’m qting everything.

 

[christwendt]

Fairy and flasher are fine and won't wipe out your pods. They eat out of the water column.

Leopards, Halichoeres, Pseudochelinus, Anampses are heavy pod eaters, probably some others but those are the more common ones.


Try to get your copperband eating something besides just mysis. I really like LRS fish frenzy. It has clam and black worms and a whole list of really good stuff in it. Mysis has a lot of shell and I would not feed my copperband just that.

Fish Frenzy

Reef Frenzy, Best Reef Food, Saltwater Aquarium Food, DIY Fish Food

www.larrysreefservices.com

Actually I checked. It’s reef frenzy. So I should get fish frenzy. Thanks a lot for the tips!

 

[Tamberav]

Actually I checked. It’s reef frenzy. So I should get fish frenzy. Thanks a lot for the tips!

They are both good. Similar ingredients