Feeding my new Copperband

[MediaOne]

Okay guys, just bought him today. He is about 3" in lenght... so I would say he is a small fish. he is not eating anything at the current time. He just arrived in Vancouver last night.

I have heard they like Mysid shrimp, so I tried that today... and nothing. But of course it
s first day. I have also heard good things about putting clams sand muscles in there?? I am going to try that if he doesn't take to anything else.

Of those of you that have happy Copperbands in their aquariums, please tell me your stories..

Thanks!

 

[Sue Truett]

I have a very happy copperband in my 180. I got it as a tiny baby Dec. of 2000. It was stuck in Dallas overnight and finally arrived in Houston a day later. This was the only one of 4 that made it. It was about the size of a quarter. I also got a potters angel with this copperband and I really think it helped the copperband to see it eat. Mine is now over the size of my hand, bigger than my sailfin and eats the heck out of frozen mysis shrimp. It will not touch flake food but also likes the enriched frozen brine shrimp. I hope your's will settle down and eat for you. It seems like once you can get it to eating it should do good for you. Is yours looking for stuff on the rocks??

my 180 ecosystem sps tank:
http://berlinmethod.com/suet/
my 120 ecosystem sps/clam tank:
http://suetruett.homestead.com/home.html
www.marshreef.org/members

 

[WWiley]

My copperband eats frozen bloodworms. Its the only food I feed that he eats I feed it every day. I also bring up featherduster rocks from my sump. 8 months and still going strong. WW

 

[sillingw]

mine loves live brine shrimp - won't touch formula one or two no flake, no frozen brine nothing unless it's moving!! it's a good job I have a 240 gallon and there's plenty of life on the rocks, but I still get live clams from the grocery store - crack them open just enough for his long nose and throw them in - he loves them. So at the moment, it's live brine, live clams and whatever he gets off the rock - He doesn't even touch the damn aitasia which is what i was hoping for - Been with me around 4 months

 

[dragon0121]

I also have a copperband butterfly. Would only eat frozen brine shrimp and nori

. Now all of the frozen mysis packages that I look at are no better than frozen brine shrimp for nutrition. About the same as feeding potato chips to your fish.

So I supplemented with selcon and continued...

Until I set up my seahorse tank. Seahorses have an abreviated digestive tract and require good nutritious food for long term survival, or live food if you can provide it. Now I bought captive bred seahorses because they have been trained to eat frozen foods. BEST OF ALL the seahorse boards recommend buying Piscine Energetics frozen mysis. These babies are 60% protein. I feed a little of these to my reef tank and the copperband took right to them. PE mysis are also about 4 times larger than other frozen mysis. Good stuff, but expensive as H#!! I order mine from Premium aquatics $12/8oz package or 5 packages for $50. must be shipped overnight

So it came to $83 for 40 oz. of PE mysis.

www.mysis.com for info!

 

[esmithiii]

Nice sales pitch!

 

[dragon0121]

Don't know what the sales pitch was?

Considering it costs $83 for 2 1/2 lbs of PE Mysis and I can get a 2lb frozen brine shrimp at the LFS for $19,

If nutrition is a concern it's worth looking into. When I use selcon I get cyano, so I hate using it.

 

[Matt Lyon]

Mine started to eat off of live clams. Then blood worms and brine shrimp. Now I can feed tubiflex also.

I am going to try switching branks of mysis to see if it will start to eat those.

P.S. mine is the same size as yours.

 

[jamesw]

Hi Sue, long time no see! Sounds like the tank is doing great!

To the original poster. The person who referred you to clams/mussels is correct. If you can get some fresh clams or mussels at the store, take one and bash it with a hammer. Put this into the tank and your fish will chow down! If the copperband is shy (and they are) you might want to keep him in a separate tank until he starts eating. You have a quarentine tank, right?

Cheers
James Wiseman

 

[Terry B]

One look at the Copperbands long beek should tell you that they eat small creatures tucked away in the rock and sand. In the wild they eat small crustations and worms (one reason they go crazy on feather dusters). I have kept two of them for many years. They should be fed several times a day because of their rapid metabolism. A mainstay in my copperbands diet was live or frozen bloodworms and tubifex. They also ate live or frozen brine. They should get food enriched with Selcon and Zoe vitamins. They require some iodine in thier diet like a lionfish. In nature they get this from eating small crustations. If they do not get enough iodine they will eventually develop goiter (looks like a tumor in the throat or hanging from the gills). This is treatable.
Mine learned to eat tiny pieces of scallop and shrimp (need to be tiny to be bite size). They also got Frozen Pacifica plankton on a regular basis. The only thing mine never learned to eat was flake and freeze dried foods. They even began to eat Formula One. Mysis Shrimp are also good for them. I would love to have a copperband (Indonesian) again but I am afraid they compete too directly for the foods that Mandarins eat and they would wipe out the worms growing in the tank (and in the sand). One of my most favorite fish and certainly one of the most misunderstood fish.
Terry B

 

[MediaOne]

Guys!!! My Copperband is eating!!! I kept using Brine shrimp in a little 25 gallon tank. Once he became comfortable he started trying it. I did the same steps I did with my Juvenile Naso. I put him in the aquarium by himself where he won't feel threatened. I have been feeding Mysis and Brine everyday twice a day so that he gets lot's of exposure.

Looks like it's working

Thanks for all the help. I'm still gonna try that clam on the half shell thingee.