help with feeding CBB [Archive] - Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board

surgeonfish

10-27-2007, 09:45 PM

I bought a medium sized Copperband butterfly fish on Sunday in Calgary. I was told the three CBB in the tank were doing well and eating frozen brine shrimp. I put it in a 40 gal quarantine tank with some mature live rock and lots of aiptasia. It does not looked stressed but is still not eating. I have tried frozen brine shrimp and mysis shrimp +/- soaked in garlic, and small live brine shrimp. It occas picks at the live rock but ignores all food. I was going to try and buy some clams in the half shell. Any other suggestions? How long will it live without food? I was considering putting it in my main tank as their is lots of live rock.
Help please,
Shane

Delphinus

10-27-2007, 10:21 PM

Incredibly fussy eaters. I have one and the only prepared food it will consider is mysis. If yours won't even touch brine shrimp then you definitely have an uphill battle ahead of you, good luck.

Maybe try some live oysters or live clams from the grocery store (someplace like T&T if your local Safeway or whatever doesn't carry that). Crack the shell open and plop it in the tank and see if he'll at least eat that.

Course, if he comes to expect that then there may not be a lot of incentive to try the mysis, but it may at least get you over the initial period.

There is also clam juice at the grocery store that you can try soaking food in. Now, mind you, I tried it, to get mine to try pellets or flake, and it didn't work. But it might work for you, it's worth a shot. BTW, it's putridly vile stuff, I have no idea how to tell if it's gone bad. :lol:

Palster

10-28-2007, 05:58 AM

When I had my CBB he went to town on all of the Aiptasia in my tank but after that was gone the only way I could entice him to eat was clams or mussels with the shells slightly cracked open. I think I remember reading a thread on the net where they suggested that you start out with the clam or mussel trick then once they were on to that you could try placing other food inside the shell of the clam for them to pick at with the hope of eventually weaning them on to the other food.

skylord

10-28-2007, 07:53 AM

Maybe you have enough aiptasia to keep him fed for now. I watched mine eat mysis at J&L so I grabbed him. I couldn't get him to eat the cubes I had from Hidden Reef so I tried some PE mysis and he still ignored food. Tried clams and a few other things and no go. I needed food and got some cubes from J&L and he ate that like he hadn't eaten in a week.....hmmm he hadn't :biggrin: So you might try a different brand if you have access.

Scott

andresont

10-28-2007, 02:22 PM

skylord

10-29-2007, 03:10 AM

I think its the only cubes J&L sells. I believe its Sally's San Francisco Bay Brand....I just looked in the freezer and I am down to the last pack so the cover was tossed.

Scott

andresont

10-29-2007, 03:24 AM

Ok, so what color is it and whats inside, like a frozen paste or chunks?
Thanks so much i will pick it up next time i am there.

But i think they sell more then one kind, i have 3 kinds in my freezer... what do you do? just drop the cube in or suspend in the feeding plastic net?

Is this the right stuff?
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/tlist/food/sanbay.php?category_ID=25

~~~

skylord

10-29-2007, 03:31 AM

Ya..but they dont offer the frozen on line. Right brand I believe.....I should be able to pick some up tomorrow and will lel you know for sure.

Scott

Chin_Lee

10-29-2007, 05:28 AM

Give the arctic pods a try for the CBB. They sell them at OA and so far everything eats it in my tanks.

andresont

10-29-2007, 07:33 AM

Ya..but they dont offer the frozen on line. Right brand I believe.....I should be able to pick some up tomorrow and will lel you know for sure.

Scott
i would apreciate that !

andresont

10-29-2007, 07:34 AM

Give the arctic pods a try for the CBB. They sell them at OA and so far everything eats it in my tanks.

Thanks Chin, tried this already, my CBB would not touch it.

surgeonfish

10-31-2007, 03:25 AM

Day 8 and still not eating! The CBB is thin but does not appear stressed. It is adapting to the new tank. It occas picks at the liverock but I don't think it is eating anything. All the aiptasia is still present. It didn't touch the clams in the 1/2 shell. I have tried 3 brands of mysis shrimp and two brands of brine shrimp also without success. I will keep trying.

Sebae again

10-31-2007, 03:47 AM

Did you try adding garlic ? How about blood worms ?

surgeonfish

10-31-2007, 04:20 AM

Did you try adding garlic ? How about blood worms ?

I tried soaking the mysis and brine shrimp in garlic and adding garlic to the tank during feeding with no luck. I have not tried blood worms but will see if I can get some locally.
Thanks for the help.

surgeonfish

11-11-2007, 07:35 PM

Well it is 21 days today. After 2 weeks not eating I finally found some blood worms locally and he likes them. I have been adding garlic and Selcon. I don't know if he would thrive on just blood worms? I am going to try tubifex worms next. I am scared to move him into my main tank with several damsels and tangs as he likely will starve if he only eats worms that are lying on the sand.

michika

11-12-2007, 12:45 PM

You can try adding in other food stuffs to the bloodworms and serving them togther, to see if that illicits a response. Sometimes you can get fish to acknowledge that one item is food, and generalize that knowledge to another item (seeing it as food), by serving them together.

Have you tried mixing in any dry foods, such a cyclopses (sp?), pellet food, etc.?

Der_Iron_Chef

11-12-2007, 01:15 PM

I'm just wondering if maybe adding it to the main tank would actually improve its eating habits. I know by watching some of my fish, that they learn what/how to eat by observing the other fish eating (e.g. my chromis are now constantly pecking at the seaweed clip). If it was eating frozen brine shrimp while in a "community" setting, perhaps it will do so again once amongst other fish who are doing the same.

Just a thought!

surgeonfish

11-13-2007, 03:03 AM

Thanks for the advice. There is also a few green chromis in the tank that eat everything. The CBB watches them eat but doesn't seem to increase his desire to try these foods. I have tried frozen and flake cyclops without success. I will try adding different foods at the same time as the blood worms.

Delphinus

11-14-2007, 06:36 AM

Have you tried an oyster or clam (live oyster or live clam from the supermarket if you have one that sells that sort of thing, it sure is fun going up and asking for "one oyster please" :lol: )? Or a mussel ..

I buy about 4 or 5 at a time, throw them in my sump, and about once a week I'll crack one open and throw it in the main tank.

Probably not great for water quality, but .. well, at least he's eating something this way..

surgeonfish

11-14-2007, 06:52 AM

I have tried cracking open a clam with no success. I was too embarrassed to ask for just one clam, so I bought half a dozen instead. Maybe I will try muscles next.
Thanks

Delphinus

11-14-2007, 07:01 AM

I hear ya. Now I more or less do it just to see the looks on their faces.

Actually sometimes they'll just give you the oyster since they'll weigh all off about 0.000001 grams and that's not enough to register on the weigh scale. I've had it happen a couple of times, but I felt kinda bad about doing that so I make a point to ask for 4 or 5 oysters. The oysters seem to stay alive (not always, but usually) in the sump at reef temps, whereas clams and mussels seem to die off pretty quick.

Once, at Superstore, I had my son with me, at the time he was 1, and the lady thought I was asking for the oyster for him to play with. I was sorta too dumbstruck for words. "Ummm .... yeah, I'm giving my ONE YEAR OLD an oyster to play with. Of course that's what I want it for!" ... "No, no, it's for my fish .. no, my fish at home, oh never mind.." But she gave the oyster to me for free .....

fishoholic

11-14-2007, 12:44 PM

Once, at Superstore, I had my son with me, at the time he was 1, and the lady thought I was asking for the oyster for him to play with. I was sorta too dumbstruck for words. "Ummm .... yeah, I'm giving my ONE YEAR OLD an oyster to play with. Of course that's what I want it for!" ... [SIZE=1]

What you don't think oysters make good toys :lol: (sorry I couldn't resist)

On a side note we just bought a CBB and I'm paranoid now that he's not eating. How common is this? I've tried to watch him eat and he'll go hide under the rocks, from a distance it sort of looked like he might be eating a small piece of mysis and sort of looked like he might of picked up some pellets off the sand bed, however I wasn't close enough to tell. Our CBB seems healthy and swims around a lot so I guess I'll just try to make sure he stays that way.

Delphinus

11-14-2007, 03:47 PM

I honestly almost regret buying my CBB because he is such a ridiculous feeder.

I can't remember how long it took for him to become a total fiend with regards to mysis, but he is that way about mysis now. Other than the shellfish I put in for him, mysis is the *only* thing he will eat. He would rather starve than eat flake or pellet. I've gone as long as 2 weeks and I thought it was cruel and unusual. My problem now is that I try to feed other things mysis, and I can't, because he steals it all, no matter how long I try to chase him away. My dendrophylla, my blastomussas, my bubble coral .. in fact I've all but lost my dendrophylla because it can't eat enough. What tiny polyps I have left I faithfully try to feed everyday but because it takes 20 minutes to swallow the food, all it takes is for 1 second where he dashes in, steals the mysis and is off before I can swing my net angrily at him. And I've tried putting a jar over the dendrophylla, but the slightest movement and those feeding polyps are retracted and that's the end of that for that day. :( Second only to my sixline wrasse, I have to admit this fish is among my least favourite additions to my reef now. When the tank is torn down I might move him into my ritteri tank, he can steal all the mysis he wants in there and it won't matter.

surgeonfish

11-15-2007, 03:29 AM

fishoholic:
For the first 2-3 weeks, my CBB also looked non stressed and appeared to be actively looking for food mostly on the bottom. He would occasionally pick at the live rock and sand but don't think he was actually eating anything. He refused anything except blood worms. He did get pretty thin.

Delphinus:
Besides the CBB, what else is in your tank? Do you have any aggressive eaters such as tangs that would out compete the CBB. My fish is now eating blood worms. However, he still takes his sweet time inspecting each worm before eating it. I think he will starve in my main tank with several hungry tangs and damsels.

Delphinus

11-15-2007, 03:41 AM

He's in with a desjardini tang, flame hawk, sixline wrasse, and potters angel. The tang the CBB had a few territorial skirmishes at first, the tang was really annoyed to get a newcomer and I thought I would have to remove the CBB for his safety. But eventually he accepted him (although he still won't tolerate the CBB hanging out near "his" nori stick).

Technically they could all outcompete him but since they're not fussy they get all the other food I feed first. Flakes and pellets and nori, and then a few minutes later I feed the mysis. I use a turkey baster and feed him a couple at a time. This method takes forever, but he's learned to wait at the front and watches that turkey baster.

It did take a while for him to sort of "get" it though. I hope yours comes around ....

surgeonfish

11-15-2007, 03:59 AM

Tony
Thanks for the advice. Maybe I will try training him to feed from a baster as well so if he is not getting enough food when I move him out of the quarantine tank I could always "target feed him" so he doesn't starve.
Thanks

Borderjumper

11-15-2007, 04:15 AM

surgeonfish

11-15-2007, 04:30 AM

I've been tagging along here. I bought a CBB a month ago, and to this day he wont accept any food. He picks at the rock constantly so something is keeping him alive. Ive tried 2 brands of mysis, bloodworms, brineshrimp, live clams and live muscles. Like yours.. he doesnt appear stressed at all.. looks at the food and swims away. Hes in tank with other fish ( who ignore him), and I was hoping he would see the other fish eat and at least get excited. I've pretty much decided Ive done all I can do, and its up to him to either eat.. or............

Borderjumper
Frustrating isn't it. Do you know if he was eating at the LFS before you bought him? Is he looking thin? I was told my CBB was eating brine shrimp but mine has not eaten three brands of frozen or even live brine shrimp. Is he looking thin? Someone suggested that if he is not eating within a few days, he will NEVER eat and recommended I return him to the LFS as he will inevitably die. If I ever decide to buy another CBB in the future, I will make sure to see it eat myself before buying it.

Borderjumper

11-15-2007, 04:55 AM

Yes its fustrating.

He's a very small CCB..toonie size.. maybe thats part of my problem. He's a tad thin, but not skinny or showing any signs of pinching.

The money doesnt bother me.. and if he wont eat here he wont eat at the LFS so I will not stress him out by trying to catch him and return him just so he can die there.

He will eat feather dusters.. but those were cleaned out of my tank the second day I had him. LOL I have even tried supergluing the ends of bloodworms onto a rock so they wiggle in the current. I know he isnt eating aptasia.. they are looking just fine:wink:

I stressed for weeks overfeeding my tank hoping maybe he would pick some food off the rocks if it settled. I gave up doing that after checking my nitrates. He will live or he wont.. its his choice.

Delphinus

11-15-2007, 06:05 AM

Probably not the best advice, but for what it's worth, I've read once somewhere that if you get a longnose butterfly (Forcipiger flavissimus or if you can find one, F. longirostris), they tend to do a LOT better in captivity and will more readily accept prepared foods ... and CBB's might "hang out" with them and may become more accepting of prepared foods.

However, I don't remember where I read that, plus, I haven't found too many good accounts of how reef safe the longnose butterfly's are. They might be perfectly safe but I couldn't find a lot of examples on the boards, so I don't know how safe your clams might be (if you have any that is). I kind of wish I knew the answer but with a number of clams myself I'm not comfortable taking the risk.

But if you don't have clams, it might be worth a shot. They're strikingly beautiful fish, I've come real close to picking one up a couple of times.

fishoholic

11-20-2007, 05:11 AM

Thought I'd update on my CBB he's about 2" in size and is now eating PE mysis :biggrin: While feeding the tank we dropped some mysis very close to him and after it hit him in the nose, he ate some. After a few bites he started to chase away the clowns to grab some more. Yippee! (no worries the other fish got food too :wink: ) Just thought I'd share, I'm very happy he's eating now. All I have to do now is convince him aiptasia is good to eat too! :lol: