Copperband Butterfly

I was thinking about getting one down the road in a few months. I heard they are very susceptible to diseases and can be very picky eaters. Anyone who has cared for one, could you give me an idea of how hard they are to care for compared to other fish?

 

I haven't cared for one but they specialize in eating aiptasia and other polyp like corals. If you get one make sure it has been feeding at the LFS for days and find out what it is eating. Have them feed it before you take it home.

 

Good luck I tried 3 diffrent ones and had no luck. Some made it acouple days, and 1 of them made it 2 weeks. I dont know what the deal is. Gonna try another one one of these days.

 

thanks! BMOUCHKA, not very encouraging lol. Well I'll have a few months to do my research so perhaps I'll get it right. Don't have any aiptasia (yet) so I'll need to feed them something else.

 

These guys are a great specimen to keep however they can be hard to get established to your tank.

+1 on 2in10 comment of make sure that you have the lfs feed them before you pick one out because this is their main cause of death when intoduced to a new tank (not eating) and make sure that your params are good and make sure to introduce it to your tank perfectly (with floating the bag and adding some of your water to the water it came in a couple times over the span of about an hour). This helps it acclimate to your conditions. Do this and you should have no problem. They are a hard species to keep only if you dont take the time necessary to care for them. Out of the 10 we may get in a month at my shop about 80% of them live using the acclimation process via a slow drip system or just simply adding some of your water to the water he came in as described above.

 

Oh nice Saltfred. That sounds better. What did you feed them at the store? I've read brine and mysis can work. I have a hatchery so I could feed them live ones.

 

I've had one before.Very beautiful fish.Watched him feed a the lfs-ate like pig.He was good for about 2 days then stopped eating but still looked very well feed.Turns out he was chowing down on my trumpet coral but didn't notice because he was eating them from the back.It started out with about 40+ heads and ended up with about 25-30 so he went back the store.If you have lps corals be very careful.They tend to taste them till they find some they like.

 

It depends on the specimen really. We start ours on live brine and ween them off to accept frozen brine and mysis. Generally speaking they should be ready to accept just about anything once they are aclimated and leave our shop to their new home. I like to mix it up with frozen and fresh brine, frozen brine with spirlina, frozen mysis, and other meaty foods. All of which should be available at your lfs.

 

Oh and I forgot to mention, if you have a hatchery that is great because you should have a easy time getting it to eat because they are more likely to accept live food at first versus frozen. But, once he is established do not be afraid to mix it up.