Copperbanded Butterfly Fish Feeding/Care

[JaimeAdams]

One of the best tricks I learned for CBB fish is using a feeding station which is nothing more than a 3" piece of 1/2" pvc pipe with caps on both ends. Drill 6-7 quarter inch holes in the pvc reem the holes smooth. Take one of the caps ends off fill with frozen mysis or any good quality frozen food blends Rod's etc. Replace the cap put the feeder back in the water some place easily seen by the fish. CBB have evolved to use that long nose to reach into crevices and this feeder station mimics this behavior. There are u tube videos on this
Larry

That's an interesting tid bit. Seems like it would work well.


I would never expect a CBB to eat flakes or pellets, like Paul said he had 1 out of 50 that would touch flakes.
If you need to get a CBB to eat Live Black Worms without a doubt is your #1 go to. They might be a bit harder to find in some areas but if your CBB is going to eat anything that is with out question your best bet. Black worms are also good to entice other fish as well, just for the record. My CBB in my home tank is a glutton and is far from shy about eating. He even tries to steal food from my porcupine puffer whom I hand feed once or twice a day in my reef tank.

With any fish it's about acclimating the fish to captivity and to eating in captivity and eating usually some type of non-live food. Getting the fish eating at all is your first hurdle and the hardest hurdle. Once you have a fish eating something, really anything you are already winning the game. Once the fish gets used to eating in a small captive glass box you can further wean them onto other foods such as mysis and chopped frozen sea food, but getting the to initially eat and eat well is the hardest part.

 

[cap232]

I had a cbb for 9 years guess I was lucky. I just feed it mysid shrimp every day. and ever few moths a other frozen food that the other fish ate.

 

[Nick James]

How long do you leave the clam/mussel/raw scallop in the tank when you try to feed it to your CBB? I'm just getting prepared for down the road..

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

How long do you leave the clam/mussel/raw scallop in the tank when you try to feed it to your CBB? I'm just getting prepared for down the road..

What other fish do you have in the tank? I would take out whatever is uneaten after a few hours, but in my tank the shell is picked clean pretty quick. I just go in once a week and pick up all the shells off the bottom from the feedings throughout the week.

 

[Nick James]

What other fish do you have in the tank? I would take out whatever is uneaten after a few hours, but in my tank the shell is picked clean pretty quick. I just go in once a week and pick up all the shells off the bottom from the feedings throughout the week.

None, it will be in QT thanks for the info, it answered my question.

 

[boeingn747]

Your copperband can not sustain itself like a mandarin at all. In the fifty or so I have had only one ate some flake food but that is not a diet for them, or any fish IMO. In studying them in the sea quite a few times I se they eat worms which is what they use that snout for. They should have worms and clams every day, preferably live worms. They are also large eaters and although when young they may eat some pods, adults won't even see them. I buy fresh, very large clams and freeze them live. Then I open them and shave off paper thin slices every day for the fish. A copperband should live at least ten years, maybe longer.

Wait a second? You have had 50 or so CBB? Either you are 1000 years old, are a extremely slow but dedicated learner, or you have a hundred tanks set up? Either way how have you had 50 or so? I'd say that you own a fish store, but clealry you wouldnt have those fish long enough to considered them yours, I wouldn't think. I'm just puzzled as to how you have had 50 or so CBB? I'd love to hear more on this. I know this is an old thread I just got going down the reef2reef worm hole reading and came across it. I have had luck getting mine onto frozen food by feeding live brine shrimp, along with fish roe. I don't ever feed dried food. I do however add a little pellet good to the frozen food mix and mix it in before I feed. Has proven successful for me when dealing with several picky eating fish. All of which I have gotten to eat frozen.

 

[ccole]

I would ask the exact brand and type of food yours was eating. When I bought mine, he was already eating and refused every food I offered except reef frenzy (what he was eating originally). I've had him for about a year and hand feed to make sure he gets enough. Now he's a little less picky and will eat brine shrimp, mysis and will even nibble at nori.

Oops, resurrected thread.

 

[Paul B]

Wait a second? You have had 50 or so CBB? Either you are 1000 years old, are a extremely slow but dedicated learner, or you have a hundred tanks set up?

LOL, yes that does sound weird. I don't know what happened there but I see later in that thread Jaime said I had "one out of fifty that ate flakes." I think that is what I was trying to say. I never had 50 of them. But 5 years ago when I wrote that, maybe I was more senile than I am now.

I would never expect a CBB to eat flakes or pellets, like Paul said he had 1 out of 50 that would touch flakes.

 

[boeingn747]

LOL, yes that does sound weird. I don't know what happened there but I see later in that thread Jaime said I had "one out of fifty that ate flakes." I think that is what I was trying to say. I never had 50 of them. But 5 years ago when I wrote that, maybe I was more senile than I am now.

Lol! Ok! I was trying to figure out what you could've possibly ment and just couldn't get to anything logical that made sense. Good to know. I'm glad to find out that this was more of a typo than a learning experience. I couldn't imagine meeting a true version of this.