[dylan]

how long have u mananged to keep this great fish alive in captivity??

[TrevC]

Up until it started eating my Staghorns!

I'm going for another but going to avoid Stags

[Dave.I]

Two years plus then he went for my trachy's! Bye bye!

[BOM8ER]

My Emperor killed mine after 1 week but doesn't even look at another fish in my tank, for some reason Copperbands get picked on allot and many people report by yellow tangs mainly

[Social D]

My first one lived for around 3 weeks that was many years ago, My second got caught in a seio pump and died, My third one must be coming on for
9 months in the tank, Mine does pick at lps but for me what i do lose makes up for the job he does on aips which can do more harm than your average copperband on the whole

[dave14]

Mine has died today after 11 months, had noticed last night it wasn't interested in feeding, came home tonight and it had been sucked against the side of powerhead, no visible signs of disease.
Anyone know how long they live in the wild?

[tommo]

Copperbands will rarely do well for more than 12 months unless wormed carefully and target fed a large and very regular amount of rich crustacean based foods with lipids. Because of their natural diet of crustaceans there are a multitude of parasites from various tapeworms to acanthocephalans that use these crustaceans as an intermediate host. All but one dead copperband i have dissected (out of alot) have been host to one sort of parasite or another. some last weeks, some last months before the inevitable. Essentially, they become very weak and their appetite reduces as a result of their infestations, which results in the symptoms described above.

At an estimate based on some other butterflies, though i have no data, copperbands could live between seven and ten years unhampered and well fed. I had a 'pair' for three years before i successfully electrocuted both myself and they.

HTH

Tom

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

We Have one in the sps system at approx 3years ,very in your face fish a real pig and like most fish in that system hand feeds .

I think the success of this fish is down to what wholesaler it comes from and to make sure it gets a few aps every now and then ,top fish


jas

[tommo]

As far as i am aware, TMC has started using cedapraz on their own fish (i will check this) which will certainly be a big help. I would still recommend that people take the initiative and worm their own fish using kusuri wormer or fluke M until it becomes more common practice in the marine retail industry. I know a number of retailers now doing this in the Northwest area and i have introduced the practice to three shops in which i worked previously.

Some of the best copperbands I have ever had came as a mini experiment from a console shipment direct from the Phillipines through a manchester based consolidator, they came in a variety of sizes (some of which were clearly captive reared, others clearly wild to make up numbers) and appear to still be doing extremely well from those i have been able to keep track of! The moorish idols that came with them are also doing very well

Tom

[dave14]

Good info tommo, is the kusuri wormer the koi carp stuff?

[tommo]

As pointed out in the achilles (something i forgot) you are better getting the discus worming version if its only one or two fish you wish to treat. they koi carp stuff has only got a three month shelf life and theres loads of it at high strength LOL

HTH

Tom