My fat copperband butterfly

[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?

[daniella3d]

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.

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?

[daniella3d]

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.

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]

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

[fishoholic]

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.

[daniella3d]

I just read of a study on cyanide effect on fish and it destroy their internal intestinal flora and dammage the liver, so even if the fish eat it does not gain weight as it cannot absorb the food.

If your fish was gaining weight ain't that a sign it was not poisoned by cyanide? I wish I could find more on this, but basicaly that's what I read for the symptoms of cyanide related deadth.

I am guessing that a lot of copperband death are blamed on cyanide, wether it is cyanide or not, hard to tell without a proper test. I have also read that a fish dead from cyanide poison has very pale gills but that's probably when they die right after cyanide exposure, not 4 months later.

Originally Posted by fishoholic

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.

[Samw]

That is great to see. Well done.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

I just read of a study on cyanide effect on fish and it destroy their internal intestinal flora and dammage the liver, so even if the fish eat it does not gain weight as it cannot absorb the food.

If your fish was gaining weight ain't that a sign it was not poisoned by cyanide? I wish I could find more on this, but basicaly that's what I read for the symptoms of cyanide related deadth.

I am guessing that a lot of copperband death are blamed on cyanide, wether it is cyanide or not, hard to tell without a proper test. I have also read that a fish dead from cyanide poison has very pale gills but that's probably when they die right after cyanide exposure, not 4 months later.

Not really sure from a research point of view, I just have heard other members from here say that the fish could look perfectly healthy, be eating and doing well then die from cyanide without warning and that the cyanide could last in their systems for up to 6 months. The was a big thread a long time ago about it and there were people who added some scientific research to it, but it was a while ago and I can't remember what all the thread said. When I have some time I will try to find the thread and post a link to it.

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

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.

All of my CBB experience has been like your third one...
Always fat, healthy looking and a voracious eater but then you go to freed your tank one day and you cant find it, then you finally see it...

After getting my hopes up with this fish a couple of times, I will not attempt another one.

If you can give a fish the absolute optimum care and it still dies, I just dont feel they belong in my tank...

[daniella3d]

wow that's really sad. Why are they so often cought with cyanide if this kill the fish each time or most of the time?

I am wondering if they are just fragile and die when they lack a certain food over time, or if they really all die from cyanide?

The thing is, without proper testing we do not know. If they die from cyanide poison then this is easily fixed by bying stock certified net cought, but if they die from lack of certain food in their diet, then this is pretty much hopeless and then it should never be imported.

Now I am pretty scared for my little one

Originally Posted by gobytron

All of my CBB experience has been like your third one...
Always fat, healthy looking and a voracious eater but then you go to freed your tank one day and you cant find it, then you finally see it...

After getting my hopes up with this fish a couple of times, I will not attempt another one.

If you can give a fish the absolute optimum care and it still dies, I just dont feel they belong in my tank...