My copper banded butterfly fish is a very good eater. He completely wiped out my apista population and has been eating brine shrimp since. I have been trying to offer him other foods, but he os not interested. I have tried blood worms, mysiss shrimp, clams, and dried food soaked in garlic liquid. Everyone else in the tank is happy to eat whatever. When I feed with anything other than brine shrimp he just ignors it, even if he hasn't eatin in days. Any suggestions?
My Copper banded butterfly will only eat Brine Shrimp.
- Thread starter CaptainReefer
- Start date
Get a long baster and fill it with black worms and scwirt it right in front of him, thats what I did to get mine eating, then I turned him on to frozen and eat all the time. Then I noticed he was just hanging out in the corner alll the time and would only eat very small amounts. Then I woke up the next day to find him dead. I was totally bummed. I loved that fish.
i went out of town for a week, had a friend feed the tank for 2 days, and came home to find my Copper Banned butterfly eating my red bubble algae. I was starting to get a lot of red bubble algae on a few rocks and I see him just munching away. He's the pest destroyer. I originally got him to get my glass anemone outbreak, which he destroyed in about a week after I got him. He was being picky for awhile and was only eating brine shrimp. After a few days of not being feed he realized that the bubble algae is kinda tasty and is slowly eating it all. YEAH!!!
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- Location
- Staten Island
Jrobbins did you retrieve the dead CB butterfly from behind the LR? I'm curious because I lost a small Blenny and believe he died and is behind the LR too. Will it cause a spike in Ammo or Nitrates???
Depending on the age/size of the tank and size of the clean up crew, different tanks can can sometimes more easily absorb the ammonia spike from a decreased fish.
If your tank is fairly new or smaller in size, you might want to consider using a small power head or a baster to try and 'blow' the fish out from behind the rocks. Also a good idea (for now) to test you ammonia on a daily basis and if you can't remove the fish, at least you can react with a quick water change (or more) to negate any rise in ammonia.
i went out of town for a week, had a friend feed the tank for 2 days, and came home to find my Copper Banned butterfly eating my red bubble algae. I was starting to get a lot of red bubble algae on a few rocks and I see him just munching away. He's the pest destroyer. I originally got him to get my glass anemone outbreak, which he destroyed in about a week after I got him. He was being picky for awhile and was only eating brine shrimp. After a few days of not being feed he realized that the bubble algae is kinda tasty and is slowly eating it all. YEAH!!!
Hopefully that will keep him going for a while. Do try some of the suggestions others have made and we'll keep our fingers crossed for you!
If he doesn't though, it might be a good idea to sell him to another reefer that has an aiptasia issue and perhaps he will eventually get around to eating real food for them...anything the keep these guys going as they are notoriously picky eaters and we (as a group) lose way too many of them
- Location
- Flushing NY 11355
Probably due to my tank is not that clean and I do have red grape algae. Both my CCD and seahorse eat it. I also have feather dusters on my X'mas rocks and CBB eat them too. In the past, I seems to have good luck with CCB including the ones I hold for friends. Mine finally died fighting with a scallop(believe it or not.) He was found dead half buried in the sand. When I pulled him up, his long mouth was clamped inside a scallop. His mouth still had the red tentacles of the scallop.
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