Copperband help!

[Coral.Reef]

My copperband that I got last week is on a hunger strike. 7 days and counting.

I’ve offered
Aiptsia in tank
Frozen mysis
Live clams after overnight freezing
Live black worms
Live adult brine shrimp
Masstick

Finally gave it a freshwater dip wondering if it had flukes, dont see anything but it seems to breathing less rapidly than before. Here’s a video that i just took after adding it back to the QT. Frankly am running out of things to try, and am seriously thinking i should just return to LFS in the hopes that it finds food there.

Any suggestions i could try?

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

 

[EnterName]

I would contact the LFS what they fed it and use the same product. Garlic extract can sometimes make fish more appealing to fish, but if an underlying disease is the issue, you won't get the fish to eat.

Flukes can be very small, I think only a few are actually decently visible without magnification so not seeing any flukes fall off during the freshwater dip does not mean the fish is free of flukes as far as I know.

Unfortunately I'm not very well versed regarding fish diseases so let's hope for a #fishmedic to chime in.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

My copperband that I got last week is on a hunger strike. 7 days and counting.

I’ve offered
Aiptsia in tank
Frozen mysis
Live clams after overnight freezing
Live black worms
Live adult brine shrimp
Masstick

Finally gave it a freshwater dip wondering if it had flukes, dont see anything but it seems to breathing less rapidly than before. Here’s a video that i just took after adding it back to the QT. Frankly am running out of things to try, and am seriously thinking i should just return to LFS in the hopes that it finds food there.

Any suggestions i could try?

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

I don’t see any signs of external disease. My guess is that it wasn’t eating at the LFS either. You’ve tried all of the foods I would have suggested.

A high percentage of CBB from SE Asia are collected with cyanide. This in turn causes feeding difficulties and a latent mortality rate of higher than 50% overall. I can’t tell you for certain that this is the issue with this fish, but I’m fairly confident that’s the underlying issue here - sorry!

 

[Coral.Reef]

My copperband that I got last week is on a hunger strike. 7 days and counting.

I’ve offered
Aiptsia in tank
Frozen mysis
Live clams after overnight freezing
Live black worms
Live adult brine shrimp
Masstick

Finally gave it a freshwater dip wondering if it had flukes, dont see anything but it seems to breathing less rapidly than before. Here’s a video that i just took after adding it back to the QT. Frankly am running out of things to try, and am seriously thinking i should just return to LFS in the hopes that it finds food there.

Any suggestions i could try?

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

I don’t see any signs of external disease. My guess is that it wasn’t eating at the LFS either. You’ve tried all of the foods I would have suggested.

A high percentage of CBB from SE Asia are collected with cyanide. This in turn causes feeding difficulties and a latent mortality rate of higher than 50% overall. I can’t tell you for certain that this is the issue with this fish, but I’m fairly confident that’s the underlying issue here - sorry!

Thank you! @Jay Hemdal

Curious if you would say the breathing seems elevated vs. not

I guess returning it is my only option then :(
Do you think this QT is no longer safe for a new wrasse I just got? Or ok to continue using as a QT? It has some coral, and sand, and the copper band was in it for a week.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you! @Jay Hemdal

Curious if you would say the breathing seems elevated vs. not

I guess returning it is my only option then :(
Do you think this QT is no longer safe for a new wrasse I just got? Or ok to continue using as a QT? It has some coral, and sand, and the copper band was in it for a week.

It isn’t breathing too fast. If the dealer will take it back - go for it!

Any fish QT needs to go through a comprehensive protocol - so the wrasse would be fine after that.

 

[Kingman]

For what it’s worth, my CBB wouldn’t eat anything but frozen bloodworms for the first few weeks - I’ve had him for about 4 months now and he is eating most frozen foods. Might be worth a shot if you have them around.

 

[exnisstech]

Any other fish in the tank? CBBs natural feeding habbit seems to be hunting the rocks. I keep some rock for them to hunt and I've found having a small fish or two can help to train them to eat from the water column.
Hopefully yours comes around.

This guys been in observation a bit over two months doing great. I bought it not eating two days after it arrived at the LFS. The other two in the shipment didn't last

 

[Coral.Reef]

Ok miracles do happen….i tried worms now about an hour after the dip and it suddenly ate about 8-10 worms!!!

So the dip certainly did something. @Jay Hemdal should i dose something in that tank to help it back to normal?

Ive have pazipro, metroplex and kanaplex on hand. Will also be adding a mystery wrasse tonight to this hospital tank.

Dont want to overdo medications but certainly want to build on this breakthrough after 7 days.

 

[winxp_man]

Only Neobenedenia flukes are visible to the naked eye. The rest that do infect marine fish are not to the naked eye.

And butterfly fish are prone to flukes.

It’s quite possible it had flukes. Prazi is my recommend med to rid the fish of this issue if it’s what it was.

Anything out of the ordinary other than breathing fast and not eating?
Flashing/scraping on rocks, head shakes swimming erratically at times?


Did you say corals, where in the QT? Or that you QT’ed corals before the fish? And what QT protocol did you follow?

 

[Coral.Reef]

Only Neobenedenia flukes are visible to the naked eye. The rest that do infect marine fish are not to the naked eye.

And butterfly fish are prone to flukes.

It’s quite possible it had flukes. Prazi is my recommend med to rid the fish of this issue if it’s what it was.

Anything out of the ordinary other than breathing fast and not eating?
Flashing/scraping on rocks, head shakes swimming erratically at times?

Nothing other than that hunger strike, which was just broken…after a week…phew! But as I noted I do have a mystery wrasse in a bag waiting to get added to this tank soon.

This is my old tank which some of my old sand with some aiptasia, zoas, and a blue stylo. No medications or copper, by QT I mean just isolation for a week until now. Maybe wrong to say “QT” I suppose

 

[exnisstech]

I'm not Jay and my experience is limited but if the fish isn't showing signs of disease the last thing I would do is start treating it with meds immediately after it started eating for the first time. I would feed it and get it eating what you feed your tank then medicate if you choose.
I'm a fan of making sure a fish is healthy and eating before considering medicating but that's just what works best for me and not what is recommended.

 

[Coral.Reef]

I'm not Jay and my experience is limited but if the fish isn't showing signs of disease the last thing I would do is start treating it with meds immediately after it started eating for the first time. I would feed it and get it eating what you feed your tank then medicate if you choose.
I'm a fan of making sure a fish is healthy and eating before considering medicating but that's just what works best for me and not what is recommended.

Fair. At this point my two main concerns are adding the new wrasse to the tank…while also making sure the copperband continues to eat, and the wrasse not contracting the flukes. Any suggestions? I only have my display and five gallon buckets at this point.

 

[AquaticProgrammingInterface]

My CBB will not touch clams or Masstick but loves black mussels. I also had great luck with live White Worms and then mini bloodworms in the beginning.

 

[Coral.Reef]

Ok the copperband ended up eating 20+ worms, and the mystery wrasse is now in the same old tank after drip acclimation and hydroplex dip.

My plan is to continue feeding tomorrow and hoping they both behave normally over the days to come. If the copperband reverts to hunger strike I’d probably move it to a 5g bucket with the basic gear and hit it with prazipro, knowing that my wrasse will probably not do well with that medication.

Is my only safe option to stick to FW dips for the wrasse?

@Jay Hemdal anything you would change?

 

[pasadena_reef]

Place it in and observation tank, but keep it in an acclimation box. When you feed it the tried and true foods (aptasia, live blackworms and bloodworms, mastic, [never tried but worth a shot; littleneck clams]) lift the box up to the top so it barely has water preferably if it doesn’t have any way for food to escape from the bottom of the container, toss some food in there.

there’s an article on here about tube feeding, you can try that as well.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tube-force-feeding-fish.848503/

 

[mmorrison55]

So the CBB started eating?

 

[mmorrison55]

Good lesson here is that anyone looking to buy a copper band should confirm they are eating at the LFS before bringing them home. If they are eating, confirm what they are being fed.

I came so close to picking one up then heard how problematic they could be.

However, I do recall seeing a video from Ryan and Elliot @serious reefs who commented on how easy they were, so idk…


@Ryan - Serious Reefs

 

[winxp_man]

Ok the copperband ended up eating 20+ worms, and the mystery wrasse is now in the same old tank after drip acclimation and hydroplex dip.

My plan is to continue feeding tomorrow and hoping they both behave normally over the days to come. If the copperband reverts to hunger strike I’d probably move it to a 5g bucket with the basic gear and hit it with prazipro, knowing that my wrasse will probably not do well with that medication.

Is my only safe option to stick to FW dips for the wrasse?

@Jay Hemdal anything you would change?

I use pure prazi. No issues with wrasses of various types. Melenarus, Christmas, naoko, cleaner most recent. Non have shown issues with prazi. I have yet to hear of, in your case prazipro, even cause issues for wrasse.

Prazi is also reef safe.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Ok miracles do happen….i tried worms now about an hour after the dip and it suddenly ate about 8-10 worms!!!

So the dip certainly did something. @Jay Hemdal should i dose something in that tank to help it back to normal?

Ive have pazipro, metroplex and kanaplex on hand. Will also be adding a mystery wrasse tonight to this hospital tank.

Dont want to overdo medications but certainly want to build on this breakthrough after 7 days.

That’s great news! How is it doing this morning?

You should consider giving the fish a full quarantine:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/

 

[exnisstech]

Good lesson here is that anyone looking to buy a copper band should confirm they are eating at the LFS before bringing them home. If they are eating, confirm what they are being fed.

It is good if they are eating at the LFS but it's not at all uncommon for them to stop eating when moved.
Another thing to look for is to make sure the fish is not already malnourished. Often it's already too late at that point.