Rare fish show-off !!!

[Terri Caton]

We've had him for about a year, maybe a little more. I know they get a bad rap imo for their ability to thrive in a tank.

I have one and I love him. 2 years successful in a tank so far.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Not sure if this counts as rare but here’s my Copperband pair that took me like over 7-8 months to pair up . Hopefully the ultimate aim is to breed them .
Then I can just sell all my so called designer acros and fund aquaculturing of butterflies and afford exotic fishes :D

Can you please tell me what was your process for forming a pair? Thanks

 

[Nano man]

Not sure if this counts as rare but here’s my Copperband pair that took me like over 7-8 months to pair up . Hopefully the ultimate aim is to breed them .
Then I can just sell all my so called designer acros and fund aquaculturing of butterflies and afford exotic fishes :D

Hey,
What are you feeding your cooperband stick on the glass?
Thanks

 

[Nano man]

I got it from a transhipper in the Bay Area of CA. I’ve never had issues with getting leopards to eat. This is my 3rd one. Lost a potters in a power outage.. my black leopard I’ve had almost 2 years.

Does your moyers eat peppermint shrimp?
Got rid of mine as he was eating the CUC

 

[Cassian]

Not sure if this counts as rare but here’s my Copperband pair that took me like over 7-8 months to pair up . Hopefully the ultimate aim is to breed them .
Then I can just sell all my so called designer acros and fund aquaculturing of butterflies and afford exotic fishes :D

Nice! I would also be interested in how you paired them! Very impressive!

 

[Abhishek]

Can you please tell me what was your process for forming a pair? Thanks

Hey,
What are you feeding your cooperband stick on the glass?
Thanks

Nice! I would also be interested in how you paired them! Very impressive!

Thank You everyone for the reply .

Even before any pairing , as always it was challenging to get healthy specimens that eating .
Most CBBs I have bought come down with bacterial infection which is worse than not eating .

So the challenge was to get them through qt with antibiotics and start them on black worms and clams !!! Everyday for a month .

Once they start putting on some weight , time to introduce LRS , masstick and mysis .

All of the above are just normal qt for CBBs individually .

Now that I had one eating successfully and healthy for over 2 months, I sourced a second one . It died in qt itself as often happens to bacterial infection .
Got another and it did well ! Then I slowly introduced the first one wit the second one and the older one harassed the second one to death by not allowing it to eat .

Then a third one - a large one !! Same process and this time I introduced them with a separation in between .
I would feed them heavily with easyreef masstick . Honestly I think its the one food that helped me pair them up and can't thank @CoralVue enough for carrying them .

After a month or so, I would notice that the aggressions have died down a lot and I would make sure to feed them exactly at the same time together and same food . I took the separation out and the aggression seemed to be back with the older smaller one pouncing on the larger one .
I used a little trick I always do with my tangs - I put 2 big powerheads such that they would break the path of aggression and it worked like a charm .

Finally it all worked out and I got them in my reef tanks with all my tangs after 6 months !

Final note is - I have found that size needs to be different with pairing , crazy flow and keep them well fed. If I skip a feeding or 2, I see the aggression back and hence I make a point not to skip feeding .

 

[JJKK]

I would feed them heavily with easyreef masstick . Honestly I think its the one food that helped me pair them up and can't thank @CoralVue enough for carrying them .

What is your secret to mixing Masstick that doesn't disintegrate as soon as you place it in the tank glass. I mix as instructed(1g dry powder = .5ml water) and roll into ball. But as soon as I stick it to the wall of the tank, it starts to break apart right away. In your video above, it stays intact for a long time. Thanks.

 

[Cassian]

Thank You everyone for the reply .

Even before any pairing , as always it was challenging to get healthy specimens that eating .
Most CBBs I have bought come down with bacterial infection which is worse than not eating .

So the challenge was to get them through qt with antibiotics and start them on black worms and clams !!! Everyday for a month .

Once they start putting on some weight , time to introduce LRS , masstick and mysis .

All of the above are just normal qt for CBBs individually .

Now that I had one eating successfully and healthy for over 2 months, I sourced a second one . It died in qt itself as often happens to bacterial infection .
Got another and it did well ! Then I slowly introduced the first one wit the second one and the older one harassed the second one to death by not allowing it to eat .

Then a third one - a large one !! Same process and this time I introduced them with a separation in between .
I would feed them heavily with easyreef masstick . Honestly I think its the one food that helped me pair them up and can't thank @CoralVue enough for carrying them .

After a month or so, I would notice that the aggressions have died down a lot and I would make sure to feed them exactly at the same time together and same food . I took the separation out and the aggression seemed to be back with the older smaller one pouncing on the larger one .
I used a little trick I always do with my tangs - I put 2 big powerheads such that they would break the path of aggression and it worked like a charm .

Finally it all worked out and I got them in my reef tanks with all my tangs after 6 months !

Final note is - I have found that size needs to be different with pairing , crazy flow and keep them well fed. If I skip a feeding or 2, I see the aggression back and hence I make a point not to skip feeding .

That’s really cool! Thank you!

 

[Abhishek]

What is your secret to mixing Masstick that doesn't disintegrate as soon as you place it in the tank glass. I mix as instructed(1g dry powder = .5ml water) and roll into ball. But as soon as I stick it to the wall of the tank, it starts to break apart right away. In your video above, it stays intact for a long time. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply . So I always use the small 14 g packets and instruction is to use 7 ml of water .
I use 1 ml of self on and 6 ml of water and then mix for good 10-15 mins and freeze it .
Then start feeding after 2 hours or so .

Let me know if it helps .

 

[Abhishek]

On a side note , in my humble opinion - if you really want to pair but not go through many of the pains , you can try marginalia butterflies as they are way easier to get eating . I had one long back and it was just a piece of cake . Costly but easier than my CBBs to get going .

I would love to get a pair of marginalis someday when I have money

 

[jlts21]

Commenting so I can find the thread when I get home. I'll get some good pictures then. I don't have anything too rare, but in my area one of them is hard to come by unless you know the right LFS. Tang dominant tank and plan on adding a few more in the near future. (Don't have the one that got me started in this hobby $$$)

 

[michael_cb_125]

Here is my bandit. I have had him for over 11 years now.

 

[ca1ore]

The only fish I have that I'd deem to be 'rare' is my jeweled leopard. Almost impossible to get a good picture of him - just too fast. Here's the original DD listing (sold to ME!!) from five or so years ago. Same day a viviens leopard was also available and I always regret not getting it. Never seen either since.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

My baby captive bred Conspicuous Angelfish. So much personality :)

 

[YeetReef]

My Pair of Orange Spotted Filefish!

 

[dlaux85]

my A. kingi - love this fish so much!

 

[Blknovass]

My whip tail fairy wrasse. Sorry for the crappy pics he is fast!

 

[Shazbop07]

Butis Butis-also known as 'crazy ' fish. Drab colouring (Brown with orange) so not bought for looks. My son has a love of them so when we saw him in lfs for $10 he begged me to get him. They are an Aussie sleeper Goby . Can move in all directions, so quite interesting to watch. It's an ambush predator but only if food is tiny. Keeps to himself. Usually found in freshwater tanks as they can go in both , so a salty is a rarity.

 

[jlts21]

I forgot to get pictures (got a little side tracked with setting up my trident that showed up today). But also scored the ONE fish that I’ve wanted forever today at a great price.
*Pics to come this weekend*

 

[YeetReef]

I forgot to get pictures (got a little side tracked with setting up my trident that showed up today). But also scored the ONE fish that I’ve wanted forever today at a great price.
*Pics to come this weekend*

ooh exiciting