Copperband Butterfly

[1bigstud]

Just under two week ago I bought a copper band butterfly.
I have a 75 gallon reef with about 120lbs of live rock, a 30 gallon sump.
My water quality is good.
In the tank are 2 clown fish, a flame hawk, a golden head goby, a melanarus wrasse and two clown fish.
The first week he was very skittish. I havent seen him eat yet during the first week he always seemed to be chasig food when I fed my fish. I feed frozen mysis.
Lately he looks very beat up and seems lethargic. hes got a few white spots on his fins and looks very beat up in general.
Any ideas what could be wrong and how to cure him?

[albert_dao]

Sounds like... Copperbands.

If you're lucky, sometimes they eat well for 3 weeks then roll up and die without a single mark on them. This from non-cyanide sources.

They're just a really tough fish to keep in general. TBH, I bet you less than 1 out of 5 survive under experienced care. The odds are even more dubious if you count the fish sold to inexperienced aquarists.

[Slyguy00]

I had one as one of the first fish in my tank. It was super easy to care for, ate almost anything I put in the tank and got along with everybody else in the tank. The only reason I got rid of it was because I was informed that they nibble at corals. But other than that IMO awesome lookin fish, and easy to look after. But thats just from my personal experience. Maybe I just got lucky with that particular fish.

[albert_dao]

I had one as one of the first fish in my tank. It was super easy to care for, ate almost anything I put in the tank and got along with everybody else in the tank. The only reason I got rid of it was because I was informed that they nibble at corals. But other than that IMO awesome lookin fish, and easy to look after. But thats just from my personal experience. Maybe I just got lucky with that particular fish.

You got lucky... Don't know who told you they nibble corals, but they screwed you. One of the most reef safe fish and it's pretty difficult to get a good one :(

[Magickiwi]

When I get new fish in my tanks I feed thawed Cyclopeze for the first few days. I've never had a problem getting a fish to get down on some Cyclopeze when they first get into the tank. In fact my entire tank goes bananas for Cyclopeze.

I don't know if you've tried it yet but it fattened my yellow tang up nice and plump when I first brought him in. I also credit it with turning my little green carpet nem into Sarlacc The Magnificient. (Star Wars thing, if you don't get the reference then nerd up!)

And as others have mentioned the copperband butterfly is a very difficult fish. They get stressed pretty bad during capture, transport, and then into the LFS. By the time we see them they are starved, weakened, and probably have been exposed to a number of parasites and diseases they aren't prepared to fight off. It's not surprising that their survival rate in the home aquariums is very low.

Quarantine him if you can, and try to fatten him up. A fish that's eating has a much better chance to fight off disease and injury.

[AdamsB]

I tried 2 of these guys. First was a little bigger than a toonie, very cute! He lasted about 10 days, didn't see him eat at all. But very active and wasn't shy. My girlfriend found him stuck to a power was one day while I was at work. I think she was more upset than I was.

Second I got from J&L, he was good and big. I thought the last one was possibly too young. This time I was determined for him to eat.

-I got some clams from a fish market for him to eat, cracked them open, elastic banded to a frag disc. My cleaner shrimp and 6 line loved it!

-Tried drilling a pill box with holes and putting mysis in there, again my shrimp loved it!

-Tried both methods again but soaked with garlic guard. Everybody loved that! Except the copper band.

-I generally feed cyclopeeze, ripped up nori, and some flake and pellet foods soaked in garlic to my other fish and that didn't strike up any feeling or emotions in the copper and either.

He then developed some white spots after day 5-6 and by day 9 he was gone. It was this experience that makes me now quarantine all fish regardless of where I get them. It's not just disease prevention, it's making sure they eat and general well being.

[Slyguy00]

Sounds like i got lucky forsure. They dont nibble at corals? I wish i had of known that!

[Magickiwi]

Sounds like i got lucky forsure. They dont nibble at corals? I wish i had of known that!

They will nibble on anemones and feather dusters though.

[Din Gior]

I have my copperband for quite awhile now and eats only frozen mysis(he can't eat any other frozen food), aptasia, acans, he can eat other damaged corals as well. He finished all my feather dusters and spaghetti worms and doesn't touch anything else.

[asylumdown]

It's been my experience that without a QT period where copper band's can be trained on captive foods they have an extremely low success rate. They're naturally slow and picky eaters and in the early days it's a good chance all the food has been eaten by other fish by the time they figure out that white stuff floating in the water is edible. If you give them that acclimation period they can become incredibly robust fish.

Can you give some more details on the white spots? Are they small? White spots on fins sounds like ich (C. irritans) to me. Copperbands are known to be susceptible to it, and a stressed copper band is particularly likely to fall victim. If you haven't quarantined your fish the parasite is almost certainly present in your tank, and there's really only one way to get it out once it's present, and that requires removing all fish to a QT where they're treated using one of the 4 proven methods to cure ich, and letting the display run fallow for between 6-10 weeks. Copperbands are also susceptible to a virus that causes a disease called lymphocystis that manifests as white or black wart like structures on their fins. It's just like fish warts, and given low stress, good nutrition and good water it usually clears up. My CBB had it when I got him and it cleared up completely. Google pictures of both and see if either condition match.

Since he's already in your tank, I suggest 2 things to help getting him to eat as a copper band that doesn't eat is basically a dead copper band that just happens to still be swimming:

1. Try dropping in a supermarket clam (the same kind you'd cook for yourself). Crack it open so that the meat is still attached to the shell but easily accessible. Copperbands LOVE clams, but don't always take to them right away. I prefer to freeze mine first to hopefully kill any pathogens that might be in them but I'm not sure if that's necessary.

2. Use a 'feed mode' to feed so that the food isn't blowing around so much. Copperbands hunt invertebrates from the rocks in the wild using those super specialized mouths. Reducing the water movement in the tank during feeding enough so that bits of mysis get caught on the rocks or in the tentacles of corals is as close to mimicking their natural feeding environment as you can get without using live food, and they'll be able to get way more in to their stomachs. They're not pelagic feeders by nature, and while they can learn how to do it, it's really hard on them to have to learn at the same time they're adjusting to a new tank and a possible exposure to ectoparasites.

[1bigstud]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.
Unfortunately the copper band didnt make it.
If i decide to get another one I will definitely use most of the techniques described here.

[mike31154]

That's unfortunate, but as evident by this thread & others related to Copperbands, the survival rate is low on these beauties. To be honest I have no idea why they're still offered for sale based on the high mortality rate. I too was tempted by the beauty of these fish & purchased one not long after getting into the hobby. Did fine for a while, but then I had the awful experience of watching him starve to death. That was enough for me to not ever consider trying to keep another.

[albert_dao]

The problem is that the Copperband is poorly collected. The wholesale value is relatively low and the collectors treat it accordingly. This is why you see them out there for $30 at the larger outfits.

Here's my take on it, if you have the opportunity to pick up a CBB that's stable and eating (3-6mo+), buy it and don't scoff if the seller is asking for 3 or 4 times the retail value. You'll spend that and more trying to get a good one from a store.

[reefwars]

Dealing with a 100% blind copper band as we speak result of poor collection and shipping

[wayner]

When it comes to Copperbands, I was told many moons ago from a fella who I consider to be quite knowledgeable that 80 percent of Copperbands that he brings in have parasites, mainly flukes, could be external or internal, sometimes its easy to pick up on symptom's like twitching of the head and body, sometimes there are no symptoms and they just wither away.

He treats all of them as soon as they arrive with Prazipro, it can be used as a bath or can be added directly to your tank with no ill effects on corals, or anything else for that matter., he swears by this treatment and says he lost very few after using this product.

So like everyone else in this hobby, I found it very hard to keep this fish for any length of time, they would always look very good in the beginning, even eating, then out of the blue., they would start to decline.

So a few years back I decided to try Prazipro, I added it directly to my Reef Tank, I know, risky business right, well, I don't know if I got lucky but the last Copperband I had was in my tank eating like a horse for 3 years before I broke the tank down.

I've used Prazipro twice now for Copperbands and have been successful both times, so, if you really feel a need to have a Copperband, I would give this method a shot as soon as you get him, I never waited for symptoms to appear. I treated as soon as I brought the fish home.

Just my 2 cents.

[asylumdown]

+1 on Prazipro. I use it on all of my fish in my QT procedure now. I think the moral of the story is that a copper band brought home directly from the store and plopped in to your community reef tank with no prep work is a disaster waiting to happen. Every time I've added CBB directly to my tank without QT where it's prophylactically treated for parasites and given extra special attention to help it eat, it has died. Every time I've done what I just said, it's thrived.