Hi all! Just wanted to post and talk a little about my new little copperband and the journey. Soooooo here goes nothing. Ive always wanted a copperband but knew their rep and how fussy to feed and their difficulty but a challenge is half the battle right?
I made an innocent trip to my LFS for a food restock and of course there is a big flyer on the wall with a sale on copperbands......of course. It was later in the day and they only had one left so I went and checked out the little guy, about 2.5 inches across total length. I asked the usual questions, it had been there three weeks. Was only feeding on live black worms, I asked them to feed it and it surely ate the black worms like crazy. It looked interested in frozen mysis but never ate any at the LFS.
Being the king of bad decisions I asked my other half who was there and of course she rolled her eyes and said fine, "youre gonna do it anyway".
So I took the little guy home, drip acclimated over 3 hours, just to be sure. Added to QT and let him get accustomed to the tank for several hours.
1st attempt to feed was mysis mixed with live black worms. Ate the worms, attempted mysis but spit out.
2nd attempt was live black worms and frozen bloodworms. Ate all of it, made no difference.
3rd attempt frozen blood worms and mysis. Finally ate some frozen mysis and all the bloodworms of course.
4th attempt. Angel and butterfly frozen food only. Didnt go nuts by any means, but did eat a decent portion of it surprisingly.
I did this in different combinations over my 3 week qt. Did very well no issues besides being fussy at times around the food of course.
After the qt period I added the cbb to the display tank, 1st attempt at feeding was more of a regression. Angel and butterfly frozen and TDO pellets. I believe this is due to the other fish and being generally nervous of the new environment.
After the first few days everything has been going better than I could imagine. I actually am thinking the feeding response has gotten better than ever due to other fish eating around and enticing it to eat as much as it can as fast as possible. So far it has eaten at least a respectable portion of any frozen I have put in and LOVES a clam on the half shell wedged into my live rock.
Sorry this post was so long but it was hard to not tell you all about my excitement surrounding one of my favorite fish!
Thanks for listening and happy reefing!!!!!
I made an innocent trip to my LFS for a food restock and of course there is a big flyer on the wall with a sale on copperbands......of course. It was later in the day and they only had one left so I went and checked out the little guy, about 2.5 inches across total length. I asked the usual questions, it had been there three weeks. Was only feeding on live black worms, I asked them to feed it and it surely ate the black worms like crazy. It looked interested in frozen mysis but never ate any at the LFS.
Being the king of bad decisions I asked my other half who was there and of course she rolled her eyes and said fine, "youre gonna do it anyway".
So I took the little guy home, drip acclimated over 3 hours, just to be sure. Added to QT and let him get accustomed to the tank for several hours.
1st attempt to feed was mysis mixed with live black worms. Ate the worms, attempted mysis but spit out.
2nd attempt was live black worms and frozen bloodworms. Ate all of it, made no difference.
3rd attempt frozen blood worms and mysis. Finally ate some frozen mysis and all the bloodworms of course.
4th attempt. Angel and butterfly frozen food only. Didnt go nuts by any means, but did eat a decent portion of it surprisingly.
I did this in different combinations over my 3 week qt. Did very well no issues besides being fussy at times around the food of course.
After the qt period I added the cbb to the display tank, 1st attempt at feeding was more of a regression. Angel and butterfly frozen and TDO pellets. I believe this is due to the other fish and being generally nervous of the new environment.
After the first few days everything has been going better than I could imagine. I actually am thinking the feeding response has gotten better than ever due to other fish eating around and enticing it to eat as much as it can as fast as possible. So far it has eaten at least a respectable portion of any frozen I have put in and LOVES a clam on the half shell wedged into my live rock.
Sorry this post was so long but it was hard to not tell you all about my excitement surrounding one of my favorite fish!
Thanks for listening and happy reefing!!!!!