Fat Copperband butterfly

Emac909 · Oct 3, 2015

How to keep a CBB fat and healthy in a tank that has aggressive eater in it

melypr1985 · Oct 3, 2015

That's cool. What is it? What's inside it?

Emac909 · Oct 4, 2015

melypr1985 said:
That's cool. What is it? What's inside it?

I either put clams, mysis or brine in it. All it is, is a little clear container with a few 1/4" holes drilled it in

Then a piece of styrofoam that I put a impression of the dish into. So it will float

I successfully kept my last CBB for 3 years using this contraption. I killed my last CBB from my stupidity. A friend gave me 14 fish when he broke down his tank. Well I added them all in one day a stressed the CBB out and he stopped eating, then starved and died. This one I've had for 2 months now. I got him for an aptasia problem. Well at first he wouldn't even look at the aptasias and ate all the tube worms and feather dusters and would show a slight interest in mysis and brine but never ate it. Well after a month he finally took to aptasias. He literally mowed down thousands of aptasias in a few days (I'll edit another post here to show u how bad my tank was). Well by now he was eating mysis, brine, and half shell clam but would still inspect it before hitting it. At around this time is when I start using this feeder. For the first week or so he doesn't realize that there's holes in the plastic but once he did game over. Even now I could drop the feeder in empty and he would be looking in the holes like the plastic isn't see through. This CBB is quick though he caught on faster and took to frozen quicker then my last one. He's even showing interest in nori but I know it's not a natural food for them. In the next few weeks I'm going to start mixing pellets and flake foods into the feeder to see if he will take to it like my last CBB did.

Emac909 · Oct 4, 2015

Here's that edited post

Emac909;832410 said:
So it seems to look that the CBB has gotten the taste
This was last month.

This is today

And this guy isn't loosing weight

maroun.c · Oct 4, 2015

Thanks for sharing. I managed to train my CBB to eat from my hand, from a similar screened tube, and even to go inside a cup and eat frozen pressed against the inside of a cup. Feed quality foods soaked in vitamin...up to 3-4 times a day. I also feed frequent treats of tube worms I collect from the sump after it cleaned up the tank infestation. It was also properly deformed before introduction.
Still like urs show in the video stomach is pinched and it's not fattening up.
Any one managed to flip this?mine is a bit more skinny than urs and has been in the tank for close to a year.

Emac909 · Oct 4, 2015

maroun.c said:
Thanks for sharing. I managed to train my CBB to eat from my hand, from a similar screened tube, and even to go inside a cup and eat frozen pressed against the inside of a cup. Feed quality foods soaked in vitamin...up to 3-4 times a day. I also feed frequent treats of tube worms I collect from the sump after it cleaned up the tank infestation. It was also properly deformed before introduction.
Still like urs show in the video stomach is pinched and it's not fattening up.
Any one managed to flip this?mine is a bit more skinny than urs and has been in the tank for close to a year.

I stopped feeding from my hands cause it drives me nuts when my fish fallow me around the tank or when I'm trying to look at the tank and there swarming like sharks in front of me. But at one point I use to feed by hand and could catch almost every fish in the tank by hand.
He is fattening up. He wasn't eating healthy for the first 3 weeks was just nipping at tube worms and maybe a piece or two of frozen a day.

maroun.c · Oct 5, 2015

Emac909 said:
I stopped feeding from my hands cause it drives me nuts when my fish fallow me around the tank or when I'm trying to look at the tank and there swarming like sharks in front of me. But at one point I use to feed by hand and could catch almost every fish in the tank by hand.
He is fattening up. He wasn't eating healthy for the first 3 weeks was just nipping at tube worms and maybe a piece or two of frozen a day.

Agreed on that. My worst part at this is a couple of nasty bites I got from My hippo tang while trying to hand feed. The plus is that I get to pet and catch most of the fish.
Hope he continues to fatten up and please post pics in few weeks.

Humblefish · Oct 6, 2015

Thanks for sharing!

ReefMadScientist · Oct 6, 2015

I had a nice healthy one too until I put a clown tang in my tank. Oh well.

Keep an eye on your tang.

Emac909 · Oct 6, 2015

ReefMadScientist said:
I had a nice healthy one too until I put a clown tang in my tank. Oh well.

Keep an eye on your tang.

My sohal keeps my clown in check.

Valkyrie · Oct 7, 2015

A CBB is my goal after I learn how to maintain a set up properly. This is excellent information to file away for future use, thank you so much sharing. CBBs are one of my favorites. I wish I could put all of my favorites in one tank, but who needs a blood bath right? LOL

Missy · Oct 7, 2015

We used a pvp pipe and drilled holes all over it, capped the ends, used one of the holes for a suction cup so it sticks to the side of the tank. Our copper banded butterfly loves it!

melypr1985 · Oct 7, 2015

Missy said:
We used a pvp pipe and drilled holes all over it, capped the ends, used one of the holes for a suction cup so it sticks to the side of the tank. Our copper banded butterfly loves it!

Ooo. that's a good idea too. Would you post a picture of that for us? Thanks!

Paul B · Oct 7, 2015

Very nice. I believe in feeders for many of my fish.

Emac909 · Oct 7, 2015

Valkyrie said:
A CBB is my goal after I learn how to maintain a set up properly. This is excellent information to file away for future use, thank you so much sharing. CBBs are one of my favorites. I wish I could put all of my favorites in one tank, but who needs a blood bath right? LOL

Lol.

Everyone told me that I was going to have a blood bath when I wanted to add a clown tang to a tank that already had a well established sohal tang in it. But it worked out so far.
Funny thing is the sohal is definitely the king of the tank and puts the clownin check. But I'm starting to get afraid of the clown tang cause he bits me and flares up then I put my hands in the tank. I'm afraid he's going to cut me one day, but the sohal shows no aggression towards me at all. He sure does hate the mag float tho.

Larry L · Oct 8, 2015

The feeders are very cool, but how do you get your copperbands eating frozen food in the first place? Mine still shows no interest in anything other than live brine shrimp - I've tried live blackworms, frozen brine shrimp, frozen mysis, Reef Frenzy, etc.