Copperband eating, but getting thinner.

[marie]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

......

It's a good thing he does not eat aiptasia...as this is only water as well with toxin, nothing nutritious in there. ....

Playing devils advocate here..... you came to this conclusion how?!?

My cbb loves aiptasia and berghia nudibranchs literally live on the stuff and can't live without them

[daniella3d]

they are mostly made of water and are toxic, it is well known.

just squash an aiptasia and see to what it retract to...practically nothing. Even large anemones become tiny when they expulse all the water they contain. As to their toxicity....it is also documented. Larger anemone can even crash a system and kill fish if they get stuck in a pump. Smaller aiptasia are also toxic, and not because they are smaller does not mean they are less toxic than larger anemones.

Aiptasia can easily sting and kill coral. I have seen it often in my nano tank where they are growing out of control.

so yeah...I came to the conclusion with observation and logic. How often do we read in these forums "my copperband ate all the aiptasias and then died"...

It is easy to verify that aiptasia are not part of copperband diet, it is well document what exactly they eat. And last but not least, do your own research on this, you will find lots of info on aiptasias and copperband diet.

"Like all members of the Cnidaria phylum, Aiptasia have the ability to sting for both offensive and defensive purposes. All Cnidaria have a stinging cells called cnidocytes, each of which contains a stinging mechanism, cnidae or nematocyst. Aiptasia possess both cnidocytes on their tentacles as well as specialized cinclides around the lower part of the column (small blister-like protrusions) through which it expels acontia.
Acontia are threadlike defensive organs, composed largely of stinging cnidocytes cells which are expelled out of the mouth and/or the specialized cinclides when the Aiptasia is irritated. (Many anemones do not have acontia or cinclides but Aiptasia do.)
The nematocysts of Aiptasia have a toxin that is more potent than the majority of corals kept by the hobbyist (with the Elegance Coral - Catalaphyllia jardinei being one exception) and can cause tissue regression in sessile corals, immobilize prey, and even kill unlucky crabs, snails or fish."

"Crude extracts of the coelenterate Aiptasia mutabilis (Anthozoa, Aiptasiidae) nematocysts have been tested for their cytotoxicity of Vero and HEp-2 cells monolayers. The results indicate that the nematocyte venom contains one or more toxins with an extremely powerful cytolytic activity. An extract containing the equivalent of as little as 0.6 nematocysts/microL is sufficient to induce significant cellular necrosis, and IC50 can be estimated to be ca. 2 nematocysts/microL on Vero cells.'

Originally Posted by marie

Playing devils advocate here..... you came to this conclusion how?!?

My cbb loves aiptasia and berghia nudibranchs literally live on the stuff and can't live without them

[marie]

Just to keep everyone from worrying that they may have killed their cbb by letting it eat aiptasia.... I have had my cbb for 4.5 yrs, he has eaten all my aiptasia and not only didn't die but still eats them the minute any aiptasia arrive in my tank. I placed a clam covered in baby aiptasias into the tank and the cbb had half of them cleaned off the shell before the clam reached the sandbed.....

[daniella3d]

If you stop feeding your fish and give him only aiptasia to eat...see how long he's going to live

Originally Posted by marie

Just to keep everyone from worrying that they may have killed their cbb by letting it eat aiptasia.... I have had my cbb for 4.5 yrs, he has eaten all my aiptasia and not only didn't die but still eats them the minute any aiptasia arrive in my tank. I placed a clam covered in baby aiptasias into the tank and the cbb had half of them cleaned off the shell before the clam reached the sandbed.....

[marie]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

.......How often do we read in these forums "my copperband ate all the aiptasias and then died"...

It is easy to verify that aiptasia are not part of copperband diet, it is well document what exactly they eat. And last but not least, do your own research on this, you will find lots of info on aiptasias and copperband diet.

......'

Originally Posted by daniella3d

If you stop feeding your fish and give him only aiptasia to eat...see how long he's going to live

So what you really mean is, it's not the aiptasia that killed them but starvation. You need to word your sentences better to reflect that, so people don't go around thinking they are poisoning their fish because I can assure you my copperband is far from poisoned....aiptasia is just a part of his well balanced diet

[Douglas]

Well.....she didn't care for the Mussels. Now I'm on the hunt for live worms. It doesn't thrill me to have to fed her live food, just because.....now it's something I have to purchase on a regular basis, and there are limited places to get them. I much prefer frozen.

[marie]

Originally Posted by Douglas

Well.....she didn't care for the Mussels. Now I'm on the hunt for live worms. It doesn't thrill me to have to fed her live food, just because.....now it's something I have to purchase on a regular basis, and there are limited places to get them. I much prefer frozen.

If you can find a live food that she likes, persist in mixing frozen food with it. The key is to keep her alive until you can convince it to eat frozen. Lance's fish only ate clams for 2 years before it finally started eating mysis shrimp

[daniella3d]

If you get a live white worms culture, all you have to do is to feed it with a bit of bread soaked with a bit of milk and a few drops of Selcon. That's it.

Then you'll have plenty of live worms to feed your fish. Not only the copperband, all your fish will love them. The worms multiply fast so there is always a good supply on hand.


quote=Douglas;729102]Well.....she didn't care for the Mussels. Now I'm on the hunt for live worms. It doesn't thrill me to have to fed her live food, just because.....now it's something I have to purchase on a regular basis, and there are limited places to get them. I much prefer frozen. [/quote]

[daniella3d]

Yes starvation and God only what toxin to top it.

Probably if a copperband eat aiptasia as a small part if its diet, it's not so bad but if it's the only thing consumed, it's probably enough to kill it from malnutrition and ingesting toxin constantly.

Eating a little bit if cyanide here an there probably won't kill someone but eating it constantly would probably get you to your grave.

I have read that the toxin from aiptasias can be quite powerfull. How much the copperband can digest this without being affected? dunno...

Aiptasias ARE NOT part of a well balanced diet one bit. It is not part of a copperband diet at all. Do some research about this.

The proof is there..if aiptasias were part of a natural diet of the copperband, then ALL copperband would eat them...but not even half the copperband actually eat them.

Feather dusters and worms are part of their natural diet, thus they all eat feather dusters with gusto.

I know 9 persons who have copperband butterfly fish, and out of these 9 only 1 eat aiptasias and only occasionnaly. Does that sound like a natural diet? not really.

Originally Posted by marie

So what you really mean is, it's not the aiptasia that killed them but starvation. You need to word your sentences better to reflect that, so people don't go around thinking they are poisoning their fish because I can assure you my copperband is far from poisoned....aiptasia is just a part of his well balanced diet