James' Copperband Butterfly Log

[Jmas4]

On Saturday, I visited my saltwater fish store. They just recived a shipment of fish on Thursday, and one of which is a copperband butterfly. I have been looking for a copperband butterfly for a while. I asked for the butterfly to be fed and he ate a few pieces of mysis.

Encouraged by his appetite, inquizitivness, and health (other than being thin), I bought him. Since my qt tank isnt ready and my LFS is only open Friday and Saturday, I scheduled for him to be held and picked up on Tuesday. This gives him time to be fattened by my lfs and if he has any diseases, it will show.

I have hikari mysis, sally's 4 pack cuisine, pe mysis, and my homemade food (whitefish, oyster, PE mysis, LRS reef, LRS chuncky, LRS herbivore ) to get him fattened up. I also have a rock full of aptaisia and pods he can pick on. I will also visit the market on Monday to buy fresh mussel or clam.

Starting Tuesday, after I put my copperband in my biocube 29 qt, I will record what I did, why I did it, and whether or not I was successful.
Wish me luck and Happy Reefing

 

[HotRocks]

On Saturday, I visited my saltwater fish store. They just recived a shipment of fish on Thursday, and one of which is a copperband butterfly. I have been looking for a copperband butterfly for a while. I asked for the butterfly to be fed and he ate a few pieces of mysis.

Encouraged by his appetite, inquizitivness, and health (other than being thin), I bought him. Since my qt tank isnt ready and my LFS is only open Friday and Saturday, I scheduled for him to be held and picked up on Tuesday. This gives him time to be fattened by my lfs and if he has any diseases, it will show.

I have hikari mysis, sally's 4 pack cuisine, pe mysis, and my homemade food (whitefish, oyster, PE mysis, LRS reef, LRS chuncky, LRS herbivore ) to get him fattened up. I also have a rock full of aptaisia and pods he can pick on. I will also visit the market on Monday to buy fresh mussel or clam.

Starting Tuesday, after I put my copperband in my biocube 29 qt, I will record what I did, why I did it, and whether or not I was successful.
Wish me luck and Happy Reefing

Good luck hope it goes well!

 

[ReefTeacher]

These guys also LOVE worms, blackworms, whiteworms, featherdusters...any kind of worm!

 

[Jmas4]

Alright. Got my qt ready.

Got my butterfly. He's is being acclimated. I'll post his condition after I put him in the qt.

 

[Jmas4]

He is swimming and pecking at the rock but isn't touching the fresh clam. Maybe I got to put it on the rock and not the ground?

 

[davocean]

Normally I don't offer them clam or black worms right away, I save that stuff for the finicky guys just to get them eating, I'm always afraid they will get spoiled and only eat the good stuff instead of what I want them to eat, and what's easier for me.

Yours is probably picking at pods or small feathers

If it ate mysis at store that's a good sign, and what I'd be giving it

Looks cool so far, good luck!

 

[maroun.c]

I'd feed whatever he ate at store and add some vitamins. After he's eating for few days its very important to deworm. Prazi works great at that. Id do 2 runs of prazi at one week from.eqch other and with a water change in between.
Beautiful fish, Good luck with it.

 

[Jmas4]

Ok. I'll try that. Thanks.

 

[Jmas4]

I bought some live black worms today. I'll see how he reacts. I'm also thinking about adding a little bit of chaeto from my refugium so it can suck up the nitrates and provide pods. In order to get the pods he has to look up at the floating cheato and not down so hopefully he can also associate food from above.

 

[Maritimer]

Just hope that he doesn't see that shadow overhead as a threat!

~Bruce

 

[Paul B]

I love copperbands and have been keeping them since the 70s. Unfortunately, even though yours looks very healthy, they hate quarantine and smaller tanks but I hope yours is the exception and comes through it fine.

I always feed them clams and a few times a week some kind of live worms. This guy is probably 8 years old but I can't find his birth certificate so I could be off either way by 3 years.
Good luck, he looks great.

 

[HotRocks]

I love copperbands and have been keeping them since the 70s. Unfortunately, even though yours looks very healthy, they hate quarantine and smaller tanks but I hope yours is the exception and comes through it fine.

I always feed them clams and a few times a week some kind of live worms. This guy is probably 8 years old but I can't find his birth certificate so I could be off either way by 3 years.
Good luck, he looks great.

Great looking fish @PaulB!!!

 

[Paul B]

Thank you. You can't take a bad picture of a copperband as they are such a beautiful fish.

 

[Jmas4]

Oops. I forgot to upload the picture. My bad.

Anyway here's an update. I have weaned him into eating my homemade frozen food. However he only eats it after I freeze the food into a small piece of rock. And then he picks at it.
I also bought a firefish. They are peaceful and not a active feeder. My butterfly acted territorial for the first hour but settled down. I hope the firefish will teach the butterfly to eat out of the water column and provide some competition so when the butterfly is moved into the dt he isn't out competed.
I have also noticed some ich on the butterfly fishes fins. I will start prazi this week and start a copper treatment the week after

 

[Jmas4]

Last post I said he had ich. I may have mistaken it for lympho. Can you guys clarify.
Sorry for the bad quality. The fish keeps on moving and I can't get it to focus.

 

[HotRocks]

Probably lympho. Very common in CBBs.

 

[KJ]

Agreed with @HotRocks it is lympho https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lymphocystis.257461/

 

[Jmas4]

Probably lympho. Very common in CBBs.

Ok thanks. They didn't fall of for the last 5 days so that's a good sign it's lympho

 

[HotRocks]

Ok thanks. They didn't fall of for the last 5 days so that's a good sign it's lympho

Yes definitely lympho then.

 

[Jmas4]

After a week of pecking my frozen food of the rock. Yesterday he finally ate out of the water column! Today he is actively eating my food I drop in and almost none of it touched the bottom before he eats it.

Only a few days left on the prazi treatment and with no sign of any parasites for the last 3 weeks, I feel as if he is ready to go in the dt.

Ps. I tried to upload a video but it wouldn't work. Can you guys help? (On my phone)