Help: cooperband fish not eatting sitll...

[Kostas]

So I bought a copperband butterfly fish on Sept 6 and its still not eating. but Its actively picking on all my 150lbs of live rock(but I don’t have anything on them for it to eat),
10days now since I got the fish it still looks healthy – but I’m worried it will get sick soon while it starves to death
It is kept in a 90g, I’ve tested the water all is good.
It’s only other tank mates are a pair of clown fish I’ve had for over a year.
I’ve tried feeding it mysis shrimp, scallops and I bought clam meat this week for it, but still nothing.
I’d appreciate any suggestion

[Borderjumper]

I dont know what else you can do.
Ive had two, and they both did the same thing. They didnt eat anything but featherdusters. I tried everything I could think of, but once the featherdusters were gone the fish didnt last long. They are really hard to get eating. Hope yours starts soon.

[trilinearmipmap]

Buy live clams about 1" size. Freeze them to kill them. Then thaw them one clam at a time, feed one clam each day, they should be gaping about 1/4" wide, enough room for the Copperband to get his snout in, not enough room for any larger fish to steal the food.

Attach the clams in the shell with a rubberband on to your mag float so you can move the clam into a good position for feeding.

Also try feeding at dusk after lights out when the other fish are asleep but the Copperband is still hunting for food.

If there are any large or harassing fish such as Tangs bothering your Copperband, you may need to temporarily move one fish or temporarily partition the tank with some eggcrate, a harassing fish will put the Copperband off his food.

[mike31154]

Beautiful fish, but I too made the mistake of buying one without ensuring it was eating at the LFS and not researching properly prior to making the purchase. I was new to the hobby and it was just such a fine looking specimen. It did ok for a little while but eventually starved in my tank, not a pretty sight. Second mistake was not taking it back before it starved, although I'm not sure it would have survived at the LFS either.

Not much help, I know, but if he doesn't start eating soon, I would consider returning him to the LFS.

[yeeg]

Originally Posted by Borderjumper

I dont know what else you can do.
Ive had two, and they both did the same thing. They didnt eat anything but featherdusters. I tried everything I could think of, but once the featherdusters were gone the fish didnt last long. They are really hard to get eating. Hope yours starts soon.

That explains why my hundreds upon hunfreds of feather dusters are gone...My CBB also nips at my xenia which I am more than ok with...

[Kostas]

Originally Posted by Borderjumper

I dont know what else you can do.
Ive had two, and they both did the same thing. They didnt eat anything but featherdusters. I tried everything I could think of, but once the featherdusters were gone the fish didnt last long. They are really hard to get eating. Hope yours starts soon.

Well I’ve had a double saddle butterfly fish and a threadfin butterfly fish for about three year, till one day I got a bit bored and did an impulse buy and added a third butterfly fish which was a huge mistake, it ended up not eating, got some disease and ended up killing all three of my fish.
So after that I got two clown fish, I’ve had them for a year now, but have had this Aiptasia anemone outbreak in my tank with no butterfly fish to eat them……so when I was at a local pet store and saw they just got in some cooperband fish I bought one right away.

i doubt i'll try with another cooperband, once i have no luck with a type of fish i don't push my luck in buying it again. did you buy your two at the same time?

[Kostas]

Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap

Buy live clams about 1" size. Freeze them to kill them. Then thaw them one clam at a time, feed one clam each day, they should be gaping about 1/4" wide, enough room for the Copperband to get his snout in, not enough room for any larger fish to steal the food.

Attach the clams in the shell with a rubberband on to your mag float so you can move the clam into a good position for feeding.

Also try feeding at dusk after lights out when the other fish are asleep but the Copperband is still hunting for food.

If there are any large or harassing fish such as Tangs bothering your Copperband, you may need to temporarily move one fish or temporarily partition the tank with some eggcrate, a harassing fish will put the Copperband off his food.

Triinearmipmap Great idea, thank you I will go out and buy some live clams tomorrow.
What is a mag float?? Shouldn’t I just drop the clam in the tank for the fish?
The only other fish are a pair of clown fish right now.

[trilinearmipmap]

The mag float is the magnet cleaner. You want to position the clam in a good spot for feeding.

[Kostas]

oh i feel silly, i have one of those too, i'll try that, many thanks!

[whatcaneyedo]

Try soaking food for it in Kent Extreme Garlic or whatever its called... it might help a little. Is your tank very old? I've killed several copperbands discovering that they need a large mature tank with plenty of naturally occurring food to survive.