Copper Banded Butterly won't eat?

[RobertP]

I have a CBB in my tank now for 5 days and he is not eating. The pet store told me they were feeding them frozen brine shrimp, which I bought, but he is not eating them. Prior to this fish I had mainly clown fish which are happy with flake food. The tank is a 72 gallon tank. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[UnderWorldAquatics]

Try frozen mysis shrimp, it contains natural attractants, and has high HUFA's, make sure you get freshwater mysis shrimp, the saltwater kind is not near as good(hikari is saltwater crap) find someone down there from the list that has some of mine or find some PE mysis at a local store, Ive never had a butterfly that wouldnt eat mysis, and that includes all the "unkeepable" varities.

[AJ_77]

Hi, welcome to the Board. There's a thread down the page here, from Jan. 21 about CBBs and feeding etc. (http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3652)
Some good info in there, also check out wetwebmedia.com - they have a "Chelmon FAQ" that is extensive.

I agree with dba, the FW mysis is the real deal, and seems to be the favourite food after aptasia. Someone else said theirs eats the mysis like popcorn - that's about it!

It may take a few days to clue in to it, but when the thawed pieces float down over the rocks or across the bottm, it tends to be irrestible, IME.

Also, although my tank is not big, it's more or less a dedicated CBB tank, with a couple of other small, docile roomies. Being a skittish thing to begin with, I wanted to offer a calm environment for it. Seemed to help in this case.

[Mak]

Yes Mysis is geat but mine first stomached EmilyBs fish food recipe http://members.rogers.com/dbh/dh.html which all my fish eat. It's easy, cheap, healthy and stinky :lol: . But I do try to get whatever food I can get my hands on. Oh yeah J&L Aquatics carries the PE Mysis Shrimp.

[EmilyB]

Mak, that is so great.....I'm just going to have to bring you a condy...... :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm glad your fish like this type of food as much as mine....my last batch I got lazy and used a jar of those fresh shucked oysters, and Cooper is just NUTS over that. He and Puff are looking like begging dogs now.... :roll:

A person with fewer fish could certainly downsize this recipe (it's just a memory based takeoff of Bob Fenner's )

I think it helps too, if there are other fish in the tank gobbling food, the CBB quickly takes note of that it seems....

[Mak]

I'm just going to have to bring you a condy

Nooooooooooooooo!!! You can have mine :shock: , my stupid Clownfish won't leave him alone. She won't stop blowing my ex-DSB ( She has created a big pit and collapsed a portion of my rockwork :x :lol: ) all over the place even though I bought her a big fat BTA :? I even bought her a little Tomato Clown :? . The little one goes nutz in the BTA but it's not enough to entice the big one to stay with the BTA as of yet :roll: :lol:.

Hope I can make the meeting :? :D .

[Mak]

Robert, mine took about two weeks or so before he would fully accept prepared foods. What is your live rock situation like? Is he picking at you LR? How does his belly look? Is it pinched at all?.

Also you can't always trust the LFS (that's not to say that there ripping you off or anything like that). Also as much as moving from the LFS to your tank may put them under enough stress to stop eating for a while.

[BC_Grl]

Mak, I hope you can make it to the meeting, too :D