I was thinking about adding a copperband butterfly to my tank. I have a purple tang, mystery wrasse, candy hog, flasher wrasse, midas blenny, and a yellow watchman goby. its a 46 gallon reef tank. I was just wondering what they really do to a tank. Like read alot of mixed things about it being reef safe. I have one deresa clam and 1 maxima clam and im worried about it going after those. Like what about zoas. At my work theres a copperband that we have thats doing amazing, eating everything like a pig. Beautiful fish but i want to make sure its not gonna mess up my tank as soon as i put it in there. Thanks again
Copperband butterfly, safe in a reef tank
- Thread starter tomjof
- Start date
- Location
- Upper East Side of NYC
I have a Copperband in a mixed reef with various species of clams and everything form stony corals to zoas and palys. Never touches any of them. He occasionally takes a poke at a snail, but it's more curiosity I think.
Keep them well fed and their fine. Course that's easier said than done - they are one of the most difficult fish to get eating in captivity. Mine gets live blackworms , his favorite, and also enjoys frozen spirulina brine along with the frozen mixed food like Marine Cuisine, Emerald Entree etc. He'll pick at mysis too.
Beautiful fish, one of my favorite. Very active, always hunting for little critters to eat off the rocks. Love his long pointy nose.
That all being said...
That Purple Tang will very likely murder-death-kill a Copperband if you put one in now, especially in a tank that small. The tang is established already and likely rules the tank, as Purples do. The similar body shape rule comes into play here and the tank size doesn't help. Speaking of, I'm very much NOT a member of the tang police (currently trying to find a healthy blonde Naso for my 5 foot 120g), but a Purple Tang in a 46 gallon is a recipe for a very aggressive Purple Tang in the near future who will likely go postal on your other fish (especially the mystery wrasse, another fish known to have attitude).
Keep them well fed and their fine. Course that's easier said than done - they are one of the most difficult fish to get eating in captivity. Mine gets live blackworms , his favorite, and also enjoys frozen spirulina brine along with the frozen mixed food like Marine Cuisine, Emerald Entree etc. He'll pick at mysis too.
Beautiful fish, one of my favorite. Very active, always hunting for little critters to eat off the rocks. Love his long pointy nose.
That all being said...
That Purple Tang will very likely murder-death-kill a Copperband if you put one in now, especially in a tank that small. The tang is established already and likely rules the tank, as Purples do. The similar body shape rule comes into play here and the tank size doesn't help. Speaking of, I'm very much NOT a member of the tang police (currently trying to find a healthy blonde Naso for my 5 foot 120g), but a Purple Tang in a 46 gallon is a recipe for a very aggressive Purple Tang in the near future who will likely go postal on your other fish (especially the mystery wrasse, another fish known to have attitude).
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- Location
- Dingmans ferry PA
In a 46 gallon that copperband wont last a week. It needs a large well established tank for it to even have a chance. Getting a copperband for that small of a tank is throwing you money down the drain and killing one of the most beautiful fish around. One of the reasons I upgraded to a 180 from a 90 was to give my 3 year old copperband a better life
- Location
- Garden city
Just bought one not eating though anyone have them for 1-2 weeks not eating then they start?
Hi seems active and healthy might try some black worms
Hi seems active and healthy might try some black worms
Okay. Yeah I got the purple tang small so he still has a lot of time to grow. Don't worry he's. It staying in there for ever. Okay I guess that rules him out. It's just that the Copperband at my store is literally eating everything and it wasn't hard for us to get him eating. It just seems like I won't be able to find one like that again
- Location
- Garden city
Mine just eat for first time tonight
I think I'm gonna try it, both my purple tang and mystery wrasse are surprisingly nice fish. I've added other wrasses to the tank and the mystery wrasse didn't bother them at all. It's a small copper-band so I'll see what happens.
- Location
- Dingmans ferry PA
Your initial question was if they ate corals. Mine did not but in a 46 it will not survive and your most likely killing a fish just to see it swim around for a week to MAYBE a month then will die in a harsh way. Good luck but in a 46 gallon it will most likely perish.
i have a copper band, purple tang and mystery in a 150. i don't know how they will do in a 46. the copper and mystery were in first then added purple. they all seem to get along.
if you want it take the chance. try to get one thats eating.
if you want it take the chance. try to get one thats eating.
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
I was thinking of adding one to my Pico/nano tank as there is some room next to my seahorse for his snout. Is that a bad idea?
Of course I will eliminate my lettuce macro algae problem by putting in a sea hare first.
Of course I will eliminate my lettuce macro algae problem by putting in a sea hare first.
- Location
- Queens, NY
Tried CBB twice, started out strong, but starved after eating every feather duster within 2 days. (A year of growth). Couldn't get them to adapt to other foods (including live black worms) and will never try one again. Also couldn't get a couple of long nose butterflies past quarantine (1 had ick (cupramine was too strong) and another had mono (prazi was a bit too harsh also),
I caught three small <2" butterflies out here at cap tree last October, 2 reef butterflies and a 3-stripe butterfly, these are not reef safe, but since they never encountered coral, I thought I'd give them a try. These did the best out of all the butterflies since they went from ocean to quarantine within an hour. In the month that I had them in the tank below, only 1 adapted to frozen food (clams/mussel/shrimp blend) and he's swimming around happily in my SPS frag tank now with targeted feeding. I'll move him into my display if he ever flips to dry food, but since I don't feed the main tank frozen foods, he'll also starve out in there, unless I throw in a live mussel every week.
I forget why I'm saying all this... OH right, Butterflies are a lot harder to keep then damsels or tangs. Don't start with one of the hardest ones as only an experienced expert can guarantee success.
I caught three small <2" butterflies out here at cap tree last October, 2 reef butterflies and a 3-stripe butterfly, these are not reef safe, but since they never encountered coral, I thought I'd give them a try. These did the best out of all the butterflies since they went from ocean to quarantine within an hour. In the month that I had them in the tank below, only 1 adapted to frozen food (clams/mussel/shrimp blend) and he's swimming around happily in my SPS frag tank now with targeted feeding. I'll move him into my display if he ever flips to dry food, but since I don't feed the main tank frozen foods, he'll also starve out in there, unless I throw in a live mussel every week.
I forget why I'm saying all this... OH right, Butterflies are a lot harder to keep then damsels or tangs. Don't start with one of the hardest ones as only an experienced expert can guarantee success.
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- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
I also collect those little yellow butterflies here in the fall and throw them in my reef, never had a problem. When they get a little large, I give them away.
Those local pipefish are difficult to keep long term. For me anyway as in the winter it is hard for me to collect food for them
Those local pipefish are difficult to keep long term. For me anyway as in the winter it is hard for me to collect food for them
- Location
- Queens, NY
Paul
Why don't you keep the reef butterfly past a certain size?
The pipefish died out once I stopped feeding them PE Mysis. I think they could still be going strong if not for that. I gave most of them away and kept the last one for about 4 months.
Why don't you keep the reef butterfly past a certain size?
The pipefish died out once I stopped feeding them PE Mysis. I think they could still be going strong if not for that. I gave most of them away and kept the last one for about 4 months.
- Location
- Baiting Hollow Long Island NY
I have collected those for quite a while but for some reason they don't live real long in my tank, so I give them away after a month or two. That is if I can catch them. They are nice looking and didn't even seem to hurt anything. One of them I collected was about 1/4" long and he grew to about an inch.
I did collect and keep this guy. I kept him for a year and then gave him to the Long Island Aquarium as it got to big. But he was cute, and definitely not reef safe.
Here is my local tank, you can see a pipefish, minnows and some local blowfish and one of those butterflies under that rock towards the right.
OK, just make believe as the picture is not working, I am not sure why but I just posted on another forum and it also didn't work.
http://s258.photobucket.com/user/urchsearch/media/Localtank004.jpg.html
I did collect and keep this guy. I kept him for a year and then gave him to the Long Island Aquarium as it got to big. But he was cute, and definitely not reef safe.
Here is my local tank, you can see a pipefish, minnows and some local blowfish and one of those butterflies under that rock towards the right.
OK, just make believe as the picture is not working, I am not sure why but I just posted on another forum and it also didn't work.
http://s258.photobucket.com/user/urchsearch/media/Localtank004.jpg.html
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- Location
- Lakewood NJ
Well from my experience with my 110 gallon tank that I had, when I got my cooperband I had already 3 tangs and he was just bulled especially from the powder blue, he didn?t even have a chance to eat, 3 weeks and died!!! Now that I down sized with my new 75 gallon tank I started all over with new fish and the first I got was the cooperband with a flame angel & bicolor angel, He is doing grate and I got him to eat everything!!! Only after 4 months of having the cooperband I got a yellow tang, and it look like they are both the bosses of the tank. & for me he is reef safe!!!!
And I think you tank is small for a cooperband
And I think you tank is small for a cooperband
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- Location
- Lakewood NJ
Start with live black worms after a week of eating that then mix blood worms, shrimp, krill, angel formula food Rod's food, just make a good mix of everything you can get, feed that mix with some live black worms, and then you can stop with the black worm, as a treat once a week half clam shell, they go crazy for it!!!!
All my fish eat the mix that I make,
- Location
- Lakewood NJ
The LI club does collection trips. They wash in on the currents from the more tropic regions into our waters.
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