What will a CCB eat?

[Aquattro]

So I have an outbreak of aptasia, purple clove polyps and a few button polyps. I need something to eat them since my peppermint shrimps took off somewhere. Will a CBB do it? Or will it eat my "good"stuff too? I have acros mostly, and a small hammer, a frogspawn and a duncan.
Oh, never add purple polyps to your tank unless you want them everywhere. Stupid things...

[i have crabs]

i have a racoon butterfly and he wiped out the aptaisa quick now he chomps the button polyps and zoo's but isnt killing them off really. im shure a cbb would do the same but are much less likely to live long enough to do so

[Aquattro]

Hmm, good point. I like the racoons as well...

[Borderjumper]

I have a CBB in my acro tank and he wont eat anything except PE mysis. Oh and feather dusters for desert. There are zoas in there as well as some cloves and he doesnt touch anything. Im changing tanks out in a month or so.. do I trust the CBB enough to put him in my reef tank with my acans and scollys? Nope hes gonna be looking for a new home.

I had one in my acan tank and he didnt seem to be eating anything except the mysis too. I sold that one to a friend that only had 2-3 acans and the CBB killed all his acans! Maybe it had been picking at mine too, but there were so many none took enough damage to show? Who knows. I read something interesting on RC I think. Their theory was CBB pick the mysis out of the mouths of LPS, accidently finding that the polyps are yummm too, which turns them into polyp eaters.

Have you talked to Japarto about those file fish.. arent they supposed to eat pests? I dont know if they are reef safe or not.

[Lance]

My CBB will only eat clam meat. He does, however pick at the rock. There is no Aiptasia in the tank, so I don't know if he'd eat them or not; however, there are Majanos and he won't touch them. He seems interested in Mysis, etc. but has yet to try it.

[fishoholic]

I have zoos, lps, and mostly softies in my tank (no sps or a duncan) and my CBB leaves those corals alone. My CBB eats PE mysis (very well) feather dusters and his favorite is colourful clams :twised: I had a small sps frag for a short time (sps never does well in my tank, they just bleach out) and while I had it my CBB left it alone.

[subman]

Mine will eat ONLY PE Mysis no other brand nothing else! I have sps, softies and LPS doesn't touch anything.

[Delphinus]

My CBB took a few months to develop a taste for aiptasia but once he did, he was an aiptasia's worst nightmare. I could hold a rock in my hand from another tank and within 2 minutes he'd have cleaned the aiptasia off it. He would not touch, however, majano anemones nor much of anything else. He never developed a taste for much of anything else, except mysis. I had to feed mysis daily because of him, once in a while I'd throw in a mussel or manilla clam or whatever to give him some variety. He lasted nearly 3 years before I lost him and if it wasn't for all the horror stories out there about them only lasting 2-3 weeks lately I'd be all gung ho to one day try another.

I have a raccoon butterfly now and while he has decimated the majano's, he is not touching aiptasia. He is, however, trimming the tentacles off brown polyps. You think purple polyps are annoying? Try brown button polyps. Unkillable and nobody wants a rock with them because they're brown. But at least the raccoon is going after them or at least annoying them somewhat.

But I've noticed my zoanthids are starting to recede. Not too surprising. But for now I'm ok with it because I'd rather de-majano my rock, they were totally out of hand.

The other thing is that the raccoon is more accepting to other foods. I've seen him chase after flake, now I still don't know if he is EATING the flake yet, but showing an interest is already 100% more action I ever got out of the CBB. The CBB .. the only things that were "food" to him were aiptasia, grocery store clams (he never once took out a tridacnid, although there were times he showed interest in new clams so I'd have to cover them with a jar the first night) and mysis. I tried and tried and tried to introduce other foods but they just weren't food to him. He'd even spit it out if he ate some by accident (I would mix stuff with mysis in an effort to "train" him onto other foods). He was far more stubborn than I, so I gave up since it's easy enough to dump in mysis.

The raccoon has so far not shown a LOT of interest in my clams, but I am worried about it. I have seen him sample the little bumpy raised things on the mantles of my croceas, so I have to admit it's a cause for concern.

[Delphinus]

Incidentally I am about to try a sargassum filefish for majano/aiptasia control in my smaller tank but I am reading mixed reviews as to what might happen after they're all gone. But that's another fish you may wish to look into, apparently they looooove little anemones.

[Aquattro]

Incidentally I am about to try a sargassum filefish for majano/aiptasia control in my smaller tank but I am reading mixed reviews as to what might happen after they're all gone. But that's another fish you may wish to look into, apparently they looooove little anemones.

That might be an idea. Or a swarm of camel shrimp...

Ya, Shelley, the purple things are those clove polyps, they've sprung up everywhere!

[fishoholic]

:redface: I just realized in my list of things my CBB eats, I forgot to say aiptasia. One thing I have noticed though, is that as soon as all the aiptasia is gone, it will come back when the shrimp or fish that eats it dies or goes away for awhile. In my old 60g my peppermint shrimp ate all the aiptasia, the rock was aiptasia free for over a year. 2 months after the peppermint died the aiptasia came back :evil: Recently in my 230g after 6 weeks of no fish, I noticed 3 aiptasia's make a come back :twised: However now that the 8 weeks are up and my CBB is back in the tank (will share pic.'s of everyone & give an update when I have time to) he's made the aiptasia disappear once more :biggrin:

[Doug]

Mine cleaned the tank of any pest anemone,s. He also ate mysis as a staple. And if you remember the pics, he loved the store bought clam halves I fed him. Of course he also liked to nip at ornamental clams.

When we moved him to Chemmasters 250g, we thought he may leave the clams alone but no. I believe Ben set up a look down clam tank in his 180g sump and the copperband still rules his 250.

[Aquattro]

I'm going to try a Racoon Butterfly I think. I have too many SPS with puffy polyps and I also have clams. The biggest issue I have is these purple clove polyps. They're sprouting up everywhere. Just a lesson, never introduce anything into your tank that you really don't want :)

[whatcaneyedo]

My CBB will now eat fan worms, spaghetti worms, aptasia, mysis, raw mussel/clam, acans, bristle worms, pods and 'ribbon' gorgonia polyps... this list just keeps getting longer. It doesnt touch my zoas, palys or anthelia so I doubt it would do anything to clove polyps but who knows.

[Myka]

I hope you don't mind me borrowing your thread Brad, but has anyone noticed a CBB eating hydroids? Or any fish for that matter...

[Aquattro]

I hope you don't mind me borrowing your thread Brad, but has anyone noticed a CBB eating hydroids? Or any fish for that matter...

Oh, hey, my thread is your thread! lol

One thing that sucks is an honest LFS. He wouldn't sell me anything to eat these things, and made me face the reality that I need to manually remove them. Which, of course, involves removing rocks. Sigh....

[Myka]

Aw thanks for sharing Brad! :D

Ya, hydroids are a pain in the butt. I was hoping something would eat them.

[Aquattro]

Aw thanks for sharing Brad! :D

Ya, hydroids are a pain in the butt. I was hoping something would eat them.

Hey, my pleasure! And good luck with those hemroids, something HAS to eat them!

[ElGuappo]

[QUOTE=Aquattro;430243]That might be an idea. Or a swarm of camel shrimp...QUOTE]

my camel shrimp loved zoas.

[Delphinus]

My CBB never touched hydroids.

I had a suspicion that my potter's angel might have nipped at them in my previous tank because they mysteriously disappeared on me (over about a 2 year period though). However in the current tank with the same fish there are hydroids and they are not disappearing (in fact they're spreading .. ugh). They are however a different kind of hydroid.

I'm thinking blowtorch for them now :lol:

[Myka]

Ya, I'm thinkin blow torch too, but I'm kinda lazy.