Hungry copperband.. any live food so can culture in my tank?

[lba4590]

I have a larger copperband (4-5” or so) and he is a great eater, maybe a little too great. He begs for food constantly. I feed my fish twice or 3 times a day, LRS reef Frenzy and PE mysis which he eats aggressively. He doesn’t look skinny, maybe a little thinner on his lower half, top half looks pretty chunky if that makes sense. He hunts constantly, started eating my plate coral and I had to remove it before he killed it, and plucked a bunch of the antennae’s off my snails. Basically anything worm like, he picks at. I’ve got some acan colonies in QT I’m sure he’ll be happy with as well...

Is there any kind of worm or other beneficial critter I can introduce to the tank that will multiply and become a food source for my perpetually hungry copperband?

 

[josvanmeer]

sounds like you need to feed him something that might take him longer to eat, masstick maybe or halfshell clams, mussels etc? Try that.

 

[ichthyogeek]

I mean...if you're okay with it, you could try to add in Aiptasia.

Most worms I know of in the reef trade are bristleworms (probably wouldn't work), other polychaete worms (most are a bit too spikey), and the spaghetti worms (Terrebellidae). Spaghetti worms might work?

 

[lba4590]

sounds like you need to feed him something that might take him longer to eat, masstick maybe or halfshell clams, mussels etc? Try that.

I was thinking about some masstick, good ideas, thanks!

 

[lba4590]

I mean...if you're okay with it, you could try to add in Aiptasia.

Most worms I know of in the reef trade are bristleworms (probably wouldn't work), other polychaete worms (most are a bit too spikey), and the spaghetti worms (Terrebellidae). Spaghetti worms might work?

Lol I’ve done a pretty good job of preventing aiptasia so far not sure I want to take the risk but spaghetti worms are a good idea if I can find some!

 

[vetteguy53081]

My 5" CBB also a pig. I feed LRS herbivore diet which fattens/fills it up a little sooner and contains vegetation for its required diet.

 

[sp1187]

live white worms. do a search on R2R from Paul B.

 

[mandtj]

I was thinking about some masstick, good ideas, thanks!

Masstick is great...our copperband picks at it for 2 or 3 hours until its gone

 

[TriggerFinger]

If you can get feather dusters/fan worms to populate a rock, maybe that would satisfy the urge to hunt?

 

[HuduVudu]

I am with @sp1187. I have two butterflys and they go to town on the white worms, you can see them on my build thread. The worms are easy to culture and the fish love them. Here is the video I used to set up my culture. It takes a while for the cultures to get going so if you know someone local that has a culture you can get your start that way.

 

[ApoIsland]

I have a larger copperband (4-5” or so) and he is a great eater, maybe a little too great. He begs for food constantly. I feed my fish twice or 3 times a day, LRS reef Frenzy and PE mysis which he eats aggressively. He doesn’t look skinny, maybe a little thinner on his lower half, top half looks pretty chunky if that makes sense. He hunts constantly, started eating my plate coral and I had to remove it before he killed it, and plucked a bunch of the antennae’s off my snails. Basically anything worm like, he picks at. I’ve got some acan colonies in QT I’m sure he’ll be happy with as well...

Is there any kind of worm or other beneficial critter I can introduce to the tank that will multiply and become a food source for my perpetually hungry copperband?

You can look up a specialized feeder so the cbb is the only one who gets food. Give him all he can eat PE Mysis for 5 minutes and then one broadcast feeding with everyone else and you are good to go. I have raised a few like this and they grow fat and happy with this schedule.

I feed mine out of a net every morning. I'm sure you can do the same thing as they are easy to train. Most of your other fish will eventually venture into the net but once you drag them around in it for a few seconds they will avoid the net from that point on.