My fat copperband butterfly

Delphinus · #1 01-10-2011, 09:56 PM

Man I love CBB's.

Were these frozen white worms or live? When I google for info on white worms I get mostly pages talking about how to culture your own.

globaldesigns · #2 01-10-2011, 10:29 PM

Beautiful fish, I wish I had one. Well actually I had 2 over time, but each died. I fell into that statistic of too hard to keep.

Good luck to you, hope the little guy keeps up with the eating.

wayner · #3 01-10-2011, 11:39 PM

I love CBB's too, longest I kept one was 2 years - getting the itch to try again, I know I shouldn't, but I'm awful itchy.

The one I had for awhile was actually really small when I got it, I bought some mussels at safeway, he loved picking at them, - maybe that was the ticket to getting him off to a good start, who knows.

daniella3d · #4 01-11-2011, 12:08 AM

2 year is good. I wonder how long they live in the wild? I have read 5 years livespan or more?

How did yours died?

Quote:

Originally Posted by wayner

I love CBB's too, longest I kept one was 2 years - getting the itch to try again, I know I shouldn't, but I'm awful itchy.

The one I had for awhile was actually really small when I got it, I bought some mussels at safeway, he loved picking at them, - maybe that was the ticket to getting him off to a good start, who knows.

wayner · #5 01-11-2011, 12:55 AM

If I can remember correctly, must of been a parasite or something internal, never seen anything on the outside, he just stopped eating and hung around the rear corner. I find that with copperbands, at least the ones I've had, always seems to be something on the inside that does them in., last one I had started head twitching, lasted a week.

daniella3d · #6 01-11-2011, 01:11 AM

I am going to treat mine for flukes and internal parasites with prazipro for a week before introducing it to my main tank. That kill the flukes and the internal worms. I doubt mine has internal worms because he regained weight so fast and easily, but you never know. Better be safe than sorry.

Usualy the head twitching is caused by flukes but I have also read that if they are upset or scared they can swing their head sideway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wayner

If I can remember correctly, must of been a parasite or something internal, never seen anything on the outside, he just stopped eating and hung around the rear corner. I find that with copperbands, at least the ones I've had, always seems to be something on the inside that does them in., last one I had started head twitching, lasted a week.

jassz · #7 01-11-2011, 03:55 AM

He's a beauty! Thanks for sharing your successes.

fishoholic · #8 01-11-2011, 04:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniella3d

The fish has been at the importer for 3 weeks, and I have it for 10 days so that's a good month, but I know it could have been cought with cyanide and if so it could die any time even if it is eating very well and if it is fat. The fact that it regained weight so fast is a good sign against cyanide don't you think? I have read that fish poisoned with cyanide will lose weight even if they eat a lot?

I surely hope so because that little guy is really sweet.

The 1st CBB I owned I got lucky and while he didn't start eating until almost a month after getting him he eventually started eating PEmysis and I had him for 4 yrs then came home one day and found him dead, don't know what killed him or if it was old age or what but it really sucked losing him after having him for so long.

The 2nd one I never should of got. Basically a new saltwater guy in town (was around a few years ago and only for a few months) told me he could get one in for me for $15, the price was tempting so I took a risk and got him to order one in. When it came in he calls me and says something's wrong with my system I need you to pick it up asap. It looked ok but not great when I got there, but I ended up taking it hoping to save it. However 3 days after I got it it died, and it never ate.

The 3rd one I got I can only assume was cyanide caught. At the store I got it from he was eating mysis readily and continued to eat really well and get fat and seemed very healthy in my tank. I had him for just shy of four months, he had always ate well and he showed no signs of losing weight, or looking sick, then suddenly one morning I went to check on the tank and there he was dead

Still looked fine (no odd body discoloration or damage) just was dead. No idea what else it could of been other then cyanide, he was a small CBB so I am pretty sure it wasn't old age or anything like that.

I'm glad yours is doing well eating worms and I hope he lives a long time for you, but from my experience it's really rare and unfortunately perfectly healthy ones sometimes just die for no obvious reason (guessing cyanide caught) and show no sign of anything being wrong before hand either.

Tracey2 · #9 01-11-2011, 01:01 AM

Nice looking copperband. I feed mine live black worms and mysis, do you know how the white worms compare nutritionally to the black worms?

daniella3d · #10 01-11-2011, 01:08 AM

I am currently looking to buy blackworms as well to help give it a more balanced diet.

White worms are 70% protein, 14% fat and a few other things, can't remember the others. I do not know the nutritional value of the blackworms, do you?

The nice thing about the white worms is that you can enrich the food they eat easily so you can enrich them with Selcon. They are cheap and easy to culture and to keep.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tracey2

Nice looking copperband. I feed mine live black worms and mysis, do you know how the white worms compare nutritionally to the black worms?