Whats your experience keeping copperbands?

[Captain Quint]

Mine is around 6 years of age in captivity and well.

 

[Tyler Bullock]

I love your video's on youtube BTW, thank you for making content! I have not been successful...YET. Did not make it through QT. I was mad, was eating frozen food. Thought I was going to be 100%. Failed lol

 

[Tft12]

I believe I've tried 3 CBB. I had trouble getting each to eat and they eventually died, despite my QT process that is usually successful and offering a vary wide variety of foods. After the last one, I decided I wouldn't be trying CBBs anymore. I do however have a Marginalis Butterfly and that experience has been the opposite of the CBB. Super easy fish. Eats very aggressively. I don't think I will ever have a tank without a Marginalis.

 

[Instigate]

Qt on butterflies is extremely stressful and I would not suggest doing so, however I do not qt any livestock.

QT is only as stressful as you make it, if done right it should be less stressful than your DT. If you put in the effort to make a QT tank that is fully cycled, appropriately sized and is full of appropriate hiding places, fake plants, or even macro algae it is no different than your DT, minus all the aggressive fish. Gives the fish time to get fat and healthy before being plopped in with a tank full of fish to compete with for food and pecking order.

 

[roberthu526]

Currently have three. Two are established and eating really well. One was bought this week and is currently in the sump. It ate well at the LFS and I plan to keep him in the fuge until it eats aggressively.

 

[Snoopy 67]

Bought mine from a friend breaking down tank.
Eats only Mysis.
Hikari to start, trying others but he is still finiky.

 

[cracker]

Getting them to eat can be tricky in the biginning . After that, they are a hardy fish & always begging for food. Keeping them long term requires a Wide variety of food from the sea . No flake for these fish .

 

[mtfish]

Looking back at my fish diary, I bought mine from Bluezoo on July 11, 2014. Guess I am lucky as I live on the Texas coast. Went to the beach and sieved a bunch of polycheates from the beach. He ate those to begin with. I would think you could substitute live black or white worms if you don't have a beach nearby. Then got him to eat frozen. Now in DT he eats everything; frozen, pellets, always on the hunt for live stuff on the rocks. He is quite the pest when I feed my zebra moray as I have to use a solid plastic tubing to keep him from eating the whole shrimp I feed the eel. Once established, I say they are bulletproof. This is my one and only experience with this fish.

 

[Willylumplump]

I have had 3, 2 wouldn’t eat and died. 3rd I fed live brine for 6 mths, and would never feed anything else. Took to lfs. Gl to you

 

[USMA36]

Favorite fish in my tank. Won’t eat frozen only eats live black worms. Expensive and a pain to get but he eats them like a pig. Very aggressive. Just wish he’d eat the frozen. Would save my 40.00 a month in worms. He won’t touch the freeze dried worms. I have had mine for about 6 months.

 

[Fowler freak]

1 for 4 with ccb’s. If they eat at the lfs get em. Have to hand feed mine for he’s too slow to compete with tangs wrasses and angels. Awesome fish if they take to aquarium life and never a nuisance.

 

[wesman42]

They absolutely are one of the fish I firmly believe should remain in the ocean simply because providing an environment in which they thrive without some form of evolution whether to their diet or your tank.

I feel like I need to add a disclaimer because many people have kept them successfully, but they're more difficult to get eating than even some of the more difficult wrasses.

 

[DanConnor]

I started mine on live black and white worms, and live brine shrimp. My guess is most copperbands could be tempted with that.
Then he started eating frozen clams, but only if I buy. chop and freeze them myself.

Now his normal diet is those clams, frozen brine, and live white worms.

 

[Clarksski]

I've had mine for three years. She went straight into display and was very shy for about 2 weeks. Then, a huge lympho on her mouth and fins showed up and I just kept feeding her fresh clams, mussels and then live black worms.
I still make trips to the lfs a couple times a week to get her fresh black worms and she loved the white worms even more until my culture crashed in a power outage.
They are beautiful fish, definitely my favorite but take a commitment to ensure their success.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Mine ate LRS reef frenzy like a pig, it also really loved eating my micromussa polyps from the inside with his long mouth. He was an awesome fish but had to get trapped and rehomed. I miss him, my micromussa don’t! :D

 

[Wen]

My small CBB came in the mail and went straight into a cycled qt.
After 5 days of refusing various frozen foods, i went to the beach and collected a handful of tiny coquina clams.
The movement and size of the coquinas were irresistible. But the weak little fish struggled to get the live clam out.
So began our relationship, I’d crack open tiny 1/2” clams, cut the miniature meat in the shell in half and the CBB would feast.
The fish soon learned that seeing me with a white bowl and a pair of scissors meant something good was going to happen.
5 months later, the fish devours everything and is a true pet. Eats out of my hand, begs for coquina treats by spitting water and gets so excited to see me.
CBB are definitely worth the extra effort and continued commitment.

 

[Paul B]

My favorite fish. I am not sure why so many people have problems with them but I know they hate quarantine (which I never do)
They seem to live about 12 years because I can't seem to keep them longer than that but the one I have now is about 10 and I am hoping him (and me) will go at least another ten years. He is perfectly healthy and will eat just about anything as most copperbands do. I have been keeping them since the 70s and rarely ever had problems with them but I do have to say they are a little more delicate than most fish.

You need to feed them what they are supposed to eat. I followed them in the sea and they eat worms but also love clams or anything meaty.
He is in this video a couple of years ago with the pumps off.

 

[OrionN]

Like Paul, I never have problem with them. I have a dedicate QT system, for coral, clams and anemone, but I don't QT my fish. If you QT your CBB in a sterile empty tank with PVC segment, you will fail every time unless you can feed them live food initially.
My QT system and my sump is fully light and full of fauna. CBB especially live feather duster and spaghetti worms on/in the sand and rock. If you have these creature poking out of the sand and rock, your CBB will do fine, until he get use to eat prepared food. I do feed a lot. At least once a day I dump a mixture of frozen mysis, pellets and flakes to the tank in front of my PH. The food proceed to follow the current everywhere and all the fish get their fill. Some more than other, but my CBB is fat. For treat, I put frozen (or fresh) oyster or clam on the half shell into the tank and all the fish love it. my CBB does not have a problem compete with other fish with these treat.
One of these day I will video this ans will post this for reefers to see.
The one drawback with CBB is that if you want a fauna diverse tank, having one will wipe certain life from your tank. Aptasia is one (good effect), but small worms, feather dusters, spaghetti worms are going to be history.
BTW, I just don't agree with @64Ivy that Muellers is better looking than CBB.

 

[tom reilly]

Favorite fish in my tank. Won’t eat frozen only eats live black worms. Expensive and a pain to get but he eats them like a pig. Very aggressive. Just wish he’d eat the frozen. Would save my 40.00 a month in worms. He won’t touch the freeze dried worms. I have had mine for about 6 months.

Minewill eat frozen bloodworms and nothing else. It did wipe out a pretty bad aphasia infestation.

 

[Ike]

Sadly, it's probably one of those fish where 90+% die inside of a month in captivity. Pretty awful odds... Unless you want to support the collection of a fish that will most likely die, have a large tank with a lot of worms and nothing else to eat them, or are willing to put in the extra time and effort consistently to get a really picky eater to eat it's best to just skip them.

That said, I've had some success with them and they great fish if you can put the effort in. For frozen foods PE mysis seems to be the best chance of getting them to eat. I had one for years that wouldn't eat anything other than that.