Copperband Butterfly not eating

[KeepSwimming12]

Hi,
I just bought a copperband butterfly and this is day 3. He hasn’t eaten yet and looks like he’s battling some lymphocytes. He has a small black nodule on one of his fins which I’m praying is nothing too serious. He doesn’t seem to agitated by it but loves chasing his reflection on the glass. He’s been picking at the rocks which is better than nothing. I’ve had some really good luck with CBB’s in the past and hope he’ll be the same. Any tips on what I should try? I’ve only got mysis and lobster eggs at the moment. He seemed a little more interested in the lobster eggs vs the mysis but I also understand that fish sometimes don’t love eating once they’ve been moved. Thanks!

 

[fishguy242]

Hi, let's get you some expert help here, best wishes..
#fishmedic

 

[Tamberav]

As far as food…

Live black worms

Live clams, the kind you get at the supermarket.

Frozen blood worms (they sometimes take this and you can use it to transition to something better)

LRS

 

[miyags]

Try different foods like Tamberav posted..I feed my fish with raw shrimp thawed and cut to tiny pieces.one small shrimp will go a long way...Lymph should go away on its own when fish starts eating...Don't know what the black thing is....They eat like pigs for how skinny they are.

 

[ying yang]

Feeding clams and oysters to copperband?

Hi there,ive read about feeding fish and inparticular copperband butterflies, So i read about buying fresh clams and then freezing them,i live in big city in england but cant for life off me find a fishmongers lol. So found a fishmonger section in a not so local supermarket,so i bought these raw...

www.reef2reef.com

Here's a thread I started on feeding copperbands.some good info in here from several posters about what and method of feeding and a few articles by experienced reefers if I remember correctly .
But what I do is get small clams from supermarket and cut up small with scissors and feed mine using tweezers ,aim is to then have it feeding out my hand which it does do but my tank so high its hard so just use tweezers to make sure he getting enough then throw some more in to get blown around and all livestock in tank love it.
Also when buy more clams I buy a large scallop and few oysters and sometimes mussels which all tank loves apart from mussels for some reason only a few fish eat these now.
Good luck with your fish and tank in general

White spots on fins looks like lympho and black spot I have no idea sorry

 

[miyags]

looks like you have a bad case of red slime. Increase your surface flow,and siphon it out with a waterchange..I remember when I was dealing with red slime, my Copperband would not eat as well as he did before. Maybe they are more sensitive to it?

 

[Coralsdaily]

I have had 100% success in getting copperband to eat with live blackworm, and if you can find that in local store, frozen blood worm also works well. Be sure to quarantine

 

[KeepSwimming12]

As far as food…

Live black worms

Live clams, the kind you get at the supermarket.

Frozen blood worms (they sometimes take this and you can use it to transition to something better)

LRS

Try different foods like Tamberav posted..I feed my fish with raw shrimp thawed and cut to tiny pieces.one small shrimp will go a long way...Lymph should go away on its own when fish starts eating...Don't know what the black thing is....They eat like pigs for how skinny they are.

Feeding clams and oysters to copperband?

Hi there,ive read about feeding fish and inparticular copperband butterflies, So i read about buying fresh clams and then freezing them,i live in big city in england but cant for life off me find a fishmongers lol. So found a fishmonger section in a not so local supermarket,so i bought these raw...

www.reef2reef.com

Here's a thread I started on feeding copperbands.some good info in here from several posters about what and method of feeding and a few articles by experienced reefers if I remember correctly .
But what I do is get small clams from supermarket and cut up small with scissors and feed mine using tweezers ,aim is to then have it feeding out my hand which it does do but my tank so high its hard so just use tweezers to make sure he getting enough then throw some more in to get blown around and all livestock in tank love it.
Also when buy more clams I buy a large scallop and few oysters and sometimes mussels which all tank loves apart from mussels for some reason only a few fish eat these now.
Good luck with your fish and tank in general

White spots on fins looks like lympho and black spot I have no idea sorry

Thank you for all of your help! I might try bloodworms to start with. Blackworms sound great but unfortunately where I live in Australia, everything is very niche so I’ll try online if the bloodworms don’t work as a starter food. Clams also sounds great and I’ll try them next if the bloodworms don’t work. Raw shrimp is something I havent heard of in relation to CBB and I’ll look into it more to have another backup

 

[KeepSwimming12]

looks like you have a bad case of red slime. Increase your surface flow,and siphon it out with a waterchange..I remember when I was dealing with red slime, my Copperband would not eat as well as he did before. Maybe they are more sensitive to it?

Yeah it’s unfortunate looking lol. I’ve got some great stuff that I’ll start using that managed to clear it from my seahorse tank. It’s funny you say that because Copperbands definitely eat better in reef environments and they may not like the slime being there. Mine has tried to pick at the slime with not too much luck lol. The fact he isn’t sitting in a corner doing nothing and is picking all over the tank makes me hopeful for the moment. Fingers crossed!

 

[flyfisher2]

Is the Copperband actively looking into your rocks?
If so I'd try to squish the food into the crevices. That worked for me
Seems that the key is to find one that is actually eating from your LFS. I went through several and the one I have now (since October of 2021) went off eating for a week before I got him back to normal. Once they are eating its a relatively easy fish to keep.
Good Luck

 

[kingjoe]

Hi,
I just bought a copperband butterfly and this is day 3. He hasn’t eaten yet and looks like he’s battling some lymphocytes. He has a small black nodule on one of his fins which I’m praying is nothing too serious. He doesn’t seem to agitated by it but loves chasing his reflection on the glass. He’s been picking at the rocks which is better than nothing. I’ve had some really good luck with CBB’s in the past and hope he’ll be the same. Any tips on what I should try? I’ve only got mysis and lobster eggs at the moment. He seemed a little more interested in the lobster eggs vs the mysis but I also understand that fish sometimes don’t love eating once they’ve been moved. Thanks!

Try a live clam, oyster, or mussel. I generally have success with those. Live copepods can stimulate a fish's appetite, as well.

 

[Damage12]

Frozen bloodworms have worked to get them started eating, for me.

 

[Desperado]

As far as food…

Live black worms

Live clams, the kind you get at the supermarket.

Frozen blood worms (they sometimes take this and you can use it to transition to something better)

LRS

+1 the success i've had with copperbands has been fairly good. I don't get the longevity out of them I'd like (my purple tang is over 16 years old) but the 2 that i have owned I went to grocery store and got freshwater clams. pried it open and dropped it in tank. It may take a few times but after awhile all my fish became ravenous toward the clams. well not the clownfish bc they won't swim that far from their anemone lol but even the tangs tore it up. once i got copperband tearing up the clams i switched to quality frozen food clipped to veggies clip and let it thaw in tank as fish devoured it including copper band. after that I'd just occasionally throw in a clam as a treat

good luck

 

[131696]

Put blood worms on rocks turn off pumps and watch to see if he starts picking at them ,get a few clams put blood worms in them after calm is gone teach him

 

[KeepSwimming12]

Put blood worms on rocks turn off pumps and watch to see if he starts picking at them ,get a few clams put blood worms in them after calm is gone teach him

As a quick update, I bought some bloodworms today and put them in. He wasn’t interested at all and swam away from the bloodworms. I then followed your advice, put some more in with all the pumps turned off and leaped for joy when I saw him suck up a few of them. Then, to my surprise, he snatched one out of the water column once I turned the pumps back on. Definitely not the most ravenous Copperband I’ve owned but this is great news. Hopefully I can get him onto something more nutritious soon.

 

[KeepSwimming12]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to ask whether anyone had any tips on weaning a copperband from bloodworms to mysis. I tried to mix them in but he could easily tell the difference and didn’t eat the mysis. It’s nice that he’s eating but bloodworms alone is something I don’t feel comfortable giving to him long term. Thank you!

 

[miyags]

I had great success with raw shrimp and they are cheap.Cut up small and mix in a little with your worms?

 

[boeingn747]

Hi,
I just bought a copperband butterfly and this is day 3. He hasn’t eaten yet and looks like he’s battling some lymphocytes. He has a small black nodule on one of his fins which I’m praying is nothing too serious. He doesn’t seem to agitated by it but loves chasing his reflection on the glass. He’s been picking at the rocks which is better than nothing. I’ve had some really good luck with CBB’s in the past and hope he’ll be the same. Any tips on what I should try? I’ve only got mysis and lobster eggs at the moment. He seemed a little more interested in the lobster eggs vs the mysis but I also understand that fish sometimes don’t love eating once they’ve been moved. Thanks!

 

[boeingn747]

I agree with fellow reefers that have said live clam. First, I will add that your ccb is starting to look like he is going down hill. His fins look tore up, like he looks like he is getting bullied a bit. Only 3 days, his fins should not look like that. I would say that time is of the essence. I would recommend going to a quality grocery store that sells good fresh seafood. I buy live littlenecks, cherry stones, etc. Live. I take them home soak them in bowl in fresh tank water for 10 min changing 3 times until your water is clear. They will purge whatever water they have inside and get fresh clean tank water. I just don't want any of that water in my tank. Then open the clam. I like to cut it up in fine bite size pieces. I then feed the tank the normal routine so they are less likely to be overly interested in the clams. I then go around the tank in a few spots and press the clam into the rockwork. CBB should be searching the tank day in and day out looking for tidbits here and there. He should eventually find some clam. The more he has the more he will want. Within a few days you should be able to add it right to the tank and he should come right for it. I then start adding frozen fish roe, and mysis shrimp on alternating days in with the clam. At first he may only pick out what he wants. Over time he should start to show interest in the frozen roe, and mysis. It helps to mix it in with the clam to get the clam smell/taste in with the frozen. Once you get him eating frozen, then I start removing clam until he is eating just frozen. This has worked for me. These are tough fish to get onto frozen food. I think it also helps to have a very mature tank that has had a year or 2 to mature and for the rock to really come to life. I believe that anything newer than a year with a CBB is just to new more of a risk to the fish than its worth. I also noticed from your picture that you have a pretty decent cyano issue going on. I would strongly encourage you to get back to your 25% weekly water changes, and it wouldn't hurt to start dosing microbacter 7 to help get that cyano undercontrol. I don't know how CBB are affected by nitrates and poor water, but I do know that the cleaner and more on point your water is the less stress overall issues you will have with your fish. I wish you good luck with your CBB. Once the stress of getting them eating on the reg is over, they are amazing fish and so much fun to watch scouring the rockwork.

 

[KeepSwimming12]

I agree with fellow reefers that have said live clam. First, I will add that your ccb is starting to look like he is going down hill. His fins look tore up, like he looks like he is getting bullied a bit. Only 3 days, his fins should not look like that. I would say that time is of the essence. I would recommend going to a quality grocery store that sells good fresh seafood. I buy live littlenecks, cherry stones, etc. Live. I take them home soak them in bowl in fresh tank water for 10 min changing 3 times until your water is clear. They will purge whatever water they have inside and get fresh clean tank water. I just don't want any of that water in my tank. Then open the clam. I like to cut it up in fine bite size pieces. I then feed the tank the normal routine so they are less likely to be overly interested in the clams. I then go around the tank in a few spots and press the clam into the rockwork. CBB should be searching the tank day in and day out looking for tidbits here and there. He should eventually find some clam. The more he has the more he will want. Within a few days you should be able to add it right to the tank and he should come right for it. I then start adding frozen fish roe, and mysis shrimp on alternating days in with the clam. At first he may only pick out what he wants. Over time he should start to show interest in the frozen roe, and mysis. It helps to mix it in with the clam to get the clam smell/taste in with the frozen. Once you get him eating frozen, then I start removing clam until he is eating just frozen. This has worked for me. These are tough fish to get onto frozen food. I think it also helps to have a very mature tank that has had a year or 2 to mature and for the rock to really come to life. I believe that anything newer than a year with a CBB is just to new more of a risk to the fish than its worth. I also noticed from your picture that you have a pretty decent cyano issue going on. I would strongly encourage you to get back to your 25% weekly water changes, and it wouldn't hurt to start dosing microbacter 7 to help get that cyano undercontrol. I don't know how CBB are affected by nitrates and poor water, but I do know that the cleaner and more on point your water is the less stress overall issues you will have with your fish. I wish you good luck with your CBB. Once the stress of getting them eating on the reg is over, they are amazing fish and so much fun to watch scouring the rockwork.

Hi, thanks so much for your advice. The copperband unfortunately had his fins torn up in the shop but he’s improving and the lymphocytic is subsiding. I’ve increased my water changes and have reduced nitrates and I can see the cyano is depleting fast which is great. I’ll try to find live clams and I’ve heard that CBB’s can’t resist them. Unfortunately where I live in Australia many things can be difficult to find but I’ll do my best. He’s eating bloodworms and copepods at the moment but that’s really not enough nutrition for him so I’ll see what I can do for him in regard to live food such as clams. Thanks for your help!