The age old CBB question. Sorry...

Gobi-Wan · Nov 30, 2020

Ok i got a copperband. In my opinion I have done every thing in my power to have success. I have literally been propagating live black worms in a dedicated 20g freshwater setup for several months in preparation for this. I have asked... maybe upwards of 30 times over the last few years to watch a cbb being fed... never seen a single one eat in the store. So I decided to do the research and try to get one to eat. I found a larger fat one, with no signs of fat reserve depletion around the forehead like you always see before they die. It was picking from the rocks and sand. I matched my quarantine water to the fish’s water and started with 2.0ppm (Hanna checker) chelated copper. The butterfly is twitching in response to food each time I feed frozen brine. Hasn’t touched it though. Every day I have put in a fresh frozen clam and let it thaw and open slowly. Hasn’t been touched. I have waited until the fish is cruising over the rock I put in with it, and then dropped in live black worms. Completely ignored. I mixed up masstick and stuck it inside the holes of the rock. Ignored. Not sure what other options are available but I thought the live black worms would be the ticket. I guess my main question is how long is the clock ticking before it is incapable of digesting food and doomed to die? I picked it up Saturday.

Edit: I started with 1.0ppm copper. I am somewhere between there and 2.0 at this point.

mattzang · Nov 30, 2020

you put it directly into 2.0 copper? or you raised it to 2.0 over time?

unfortunately from what i can gather even people that have success with copperbands will admit that some just won't eat. i have a local guy to me that seems to specialize in getting difficult fish to eat, but even he has told me that some fish just won't do it.

i bought a copperband from him and paid a premium because it was eating clams/mysis/lrs and i hate to lose fish so going the attrition route wasn't ideal. from what he has told me he mainly uses clams to get them to start eating. he told me he avoids using live blackworms because he doesn't want them to get used to eating those as availability is limited. but obviously you have them up and running so i'd keep trying them. mine doesn't seem to go for masstick, but i've heard others say cbb will go for the non-pre mixed masstick. i only have the pre-mixed stuff so idk

i have found mine likes to eat stationary food. hunting it down flying through the water column just isn't their forte, but they obviously can do it. but i like to try to get in a feeding once a day of something stationary like clam or LRS in a nori clip

that's all obviously contingent on getting the fish to eat, though. i can't offer much advice on that since mine was already eating, but i'd just say that all you can do is keep hammering away and hope the light turns on

Gobi-Wan · Nov 30, 2020

mattzang said:
you put it directly into 2.0 copper? or you raised it to 2.0 over time?

unfortunately from what i can gather even people that have success with copperbands will admit that some just won't eat. i have a local guy to me that seems to specialize in getting difficult fish to eat, but even he has told me that some fish just won't do it.

i bought a copperband from him and paid a premium because it was eating clams/mysis/lrs and i hate to lose fish so going the attrition route wasn't ideal. from what he has told me he mainly uses clams to get them to start eating. he told me he avoids using live blackworms because he doesn't want them to get used to eating those as availability is limited. but obviously you have them up and running so i'd keep trying them. mine doesn't seem to go for masstick, but i've heard others say cbb will go for the non-pre mixed masstick. i only have the pre-mixed stuff so idk

i have found mine likes to eat stationary food. hunting it down flying through the water column just isn't their forte, but they obviously can do it. but i like to try to get in a feeding once a day of something stationary like clam or LRS in a nori clip

that's all obviously contingent on getting the fish to eat, though. i can't offer much advice on that since mine was already eating, but i'd just say that all you can do is keep hammering away and hope the light turns on

Thank you. Sorry I was typing faster than thinking. I put the fish directly into 1.0ppm chelated copper, and I haven’t reached 2.0 yet.

ReefHog · Dec 1, 2020

I’ve found copper to be an appetite suppressant in many fish. And CBBs are finicky to begin with. Unless he’s looking sick, you might want to remove the copper and work on getting him to eat before treating him. I got mine going with live black worms and clam slices I fed with plastic tweezers. They tend to be curious fish so the clam slices wiggling in a set of tweezers usually peaks their interest.

czynot · Dec 1, 2020

Copper band are very picky. I hit the jack pot when i purchased my first copperband. He start eating right out of the bag. I have him over two years. I have try few other copper bands that was eating at LFS but stop eating when it arrive at home. So it is a hit and miss. I believed it does help if you have other fish eating in a feeding frenzy.

Viking_Reefing · Dec 6, 2020

Yeah, remove the copper. It’s an appetite suppressant (not surprising seeing as it’s poisoning the fish) and not a great idea when the deck is stacked against you from the start.
I’ve never really had a problem with getting them to eat, fresh oysters or bloodworms are what usually gets them going for me.

Gobi-Wan · Dec 6, 2020

Well, I’m pretty jazzed right now. After an entire week, with very occasional eating of one or two brine shrimp, the butterfly finally figured out clams. It’s been picking at this one all day. It still has a couple ich spots on the tail but copper has been at therapeutic level for several days now so I’m not too worried.

Gobi-Wan · Feb 3, 2021

Update, for what it’s worth. CBB made it through quarantine, ate clams throughout quarantine, kind of stopped after going into the display. Then ate off the rocks for a while, and eventually started taking the live black worms instead. Never really lost much weight, and now after a full 3 months is eating frozen bloodworms, usually a few bites of frozen reef mix and then when he won’t eat any more of all that I’ll give him some black worms. I got lucky, considering I bought the fish with ich and it wasn’t already eating frozen food. I guess we will see if success is long term.