New copperband butterfly

[pythpyth]

Hi all!

Finally I got one, it is one with quite a nice size. The LFS said it is on mysis. I got it in yesterday evening.

It is doing well, foraging on the reef. It is picking at stuff on the reef and my fish leave him alone.

I got garlic guard, live and frozen bloodworms and live whiteworms. But it doesnt seem interested. For now he isn’t interested in mysis either. My own mixture contains; fish eggs, krill, artemia, copepods, cyclops and mysis. Which it has no interest in either.

I still could try brine? And read about black worms? I can only get them live though and they are quite hard to get here so that wouldn’t be optimal.

Any tips or should I be happy as it is at the moment?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

#reefsquad

 

[Baldyreef]

if it was truly eating mysis at the lfs then it may be just adjusting to a new environment but if it continues to not eat you could try live foods like brine shrimp and like you mentioned, black worms (which would be the best for enticing it to eat)

 

[coralcollector98]

Hi all!

Finally I got one, it is one with quite a nice size. The LFS said it is on mysis. I got it in yesterday evening.

It is doing well, foraging on the reef. It is picking at stuff on the reef and my fish leave him alone.

I got garlic guard, live and frozen bloodworms and live whiteworms. But it doesnt seem interested. For now he isn’t interested in mysis either. My own mixture contains; fish eggs, krill, artemia, copepods, cyclops and mysis. Which it has no interest in either.

I still could try brine? And read about black worms? I can only get them live though and they are quite hard to get here so that wouldn’t be optimal.

Any tips or should I be happy as it is at the moment?

try doing live baby brine, I just got mine to start eating Mysis, first started with the blood worms then switched to Mysis !

 

[Areseebee]

Blackworms. Copperbands can not resist blackworms. See if you can find a live source near you. I've also had success with freeze dried blackworm cubes I get on amazon from aquarem in a red bag. I would try to start with live though and then work from there.

 

[pythpyth]

Blackworms. Copperbands can not resist blackworms. See if you can find a live source near you. I've also had success with freeze dried blackworm cubes I get on amazon from aquarem in a red bag. I would try to start with live though and then work from there.

Ordered 7 pouches of black worms and 2 pouches of live brine, all the store had left. I do think it’ll take 2 days to get here. Should I first feed them without mixing with anything? And maybe later on mix them? To get it to start feeding on the other frozen food as well?

 

[Areseebee]

For live I would just drop them right in. For freeze dried I'm not sure, I just found those cubes with my latest butterfly and that was when he was already eating live (and I got sick of driving to get more every week). He took to them immediately but I don't know if he would have had I not started him on live.

I've had 3 copperbands in my life and they all required blackworms to get going but eventually transitioned to mysis and brine. I was told my current one was eating brine, he really wasn't at least not meaningfully, but he INSTANTLY went insatiably for live blackworms. . This butterfly is by far the worst one I've had at picking stuff out of the water column, he's just like not a natural, I don't know. I eventually bought him a little magnetic feeder with the holes and mixed blackworms and mysis and he eventually has taken to it more and more, although I still am trying to figure out how to target him with more food (the stupid tang has realized that if we waits near the butterfly feeder long enough, food will just float out so he guards it with his life when I put it in).

 

[AviR]

Live brine worked for me. After that I transitioned to feeding live brine and a frozen at the same time then went to straight frozen brine and mysis

 

[pythpyth]

For live I would just drop them right in. For freeze dried I'm not sure, I just found those cubes with my latest butterfly and that was when he was already eating live (and I got sick of driving to get more every week). He took to them immediately but I don't know if he would have had I not started him on live.

I've had 3 copperbands in my life and they all required blackworms to get going but eventually transitioned to mysis and brine. I was told my current one was eating brine, he really wasn't at least not meaningfully, but he INSTANTLY went insatiably for live blackworms. . This butterfly is by far the worst one I've had at picking stuff out of the water column, he's just like not a natural, I don't know. I eventually bought him a little magnetic feeder with the holes and mixed blackworms and mysis and he eventually has taken to it more and more, although I still am trying to figure out how to target him with more food (the stupid tang has realized that if we waits near the butterfly feeder long enough, food will just float out so he guards it with his life when I put it in).

Ah happy that I ordered some then. Hopefully that or the live brine will work. Or eventually it’ll take mysis. I knew it would be a fight, but yea it is such a pretty fish.

 

[Lasse]

I have always stared my copperband s on frozen adult artemia and frozen bloodworms. But they are shy in the start even if they have eaten before. Its a good sign that he/she already start to pick things from the reef. IME - it will take a couple of days before it dare to compete with others for food. I normally overfeed with frozen food during the first weeks. This means that some food will fall on the sand and rocks and because it already start to pick stuff he/she will find the food the other miss. My last introduced copperband was 5 days in an acclimation box - star to eat frozen artemia in that but when I introduce him/her into the DT - it took 2-3 days before I noted that it start to eat the frozen food again.



2026-10-08



2026-10-12



Sincerely Lasse

 

[Rocks reef]

Lasse has some really good information and tips

 

[Lasse]

According copperbands and other difficult fishes - I always ask my LFS to order them from their sources and pick the bag from them directly. I have done that for more than 20 years (if I could) and always have more luck with these fishes compared with fish that have been in the LFS for a longer time. These picky fishes need some thoughtfulness and care.

For the moment I have a scooter blenny that I get from my LFS after been in their tanks for a month or so. She has been in a 50 L tank and get food once a day. She has eat (otherwise she had been dead) during this time but apparently forgot her natural habit to constantly hopping around and foraging for food. In the acclimation box she was eating well from the bottom of the box but when she was introduced into the DT - she was more or less motionless and waiting to be fed. I have been rather sure that that I would lose this fish but a couple of days ago - she suddenly start to moving around in that characteristic hopping manner and taking a bite here and there. This makes things easier, as I can squirt food down to where she is, and she can then pick up the food the others miss. There is also plenty of natural food in this 10-year-old aquarium.

Sincerely Lasse