[Social D]

Ok we all keep these fish mainly to keep aiptasia under-control ..which despite its pita is a coral afterall although an unwanted one
My copperband is now well over a year old in age .. yippee .. but one has to question how this fish can live after those aips have died?

Im not saying this is the answer but its my belief that they need certain coral to survive like they do in the wild, mine has taken several months to devour some very expensive lps namely a lobo and elephant ear, At first you might take the fish out .. beacuase you paid over a £100 for your prized coral ... does the copperband appreciate this i doubt it!.

So would you spend out £100 on some coral that may keep the fish alive or buy some corals that will keep it going for a few months.

To me the price is or coral should be seen as another price to pay for keeping them alive for long periods, Im just posting this on experience from my fish, seems to me they do the natural thing when they start to get hungry.

But would you continue to feed it £100 coral for its lifespan, i think its worth investing in for longevity!?

I cant help wandering if we didnt panic about fish eating our corals they would live longer much longer, are we to put corals before fish or vise versa?
Im quite prepared to spend out on living coral food for my fish if it keeps them alive that little bit longer are you?

i cant help feeling that we as hobbyists starve our own pets to death ...

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

TBH i don't think they need corals to do well as we have one in the sps system feeding on whatever we add food wise to the tank .There are no aps and no LPS corals to feed on and at the same time they don't or should i say haven't taken interest in the sps .

We have had 2 for over 2 years now and are doing very well .

I think the secret is to make sure they are fed well and the gut is full


jas

[karnivor]

I think its also important to say that you never really get rid of the Aips, it just appears that way. The truth is that the Copperband is constantly finding them and keeping them under control, as anyone who has lost their Copperband will testify.

[Dave.I]

They dont need corals to thrive imo.I had one for over two years and yes it ate aips but they soon disapeared.His staple diet was mysis shrimp.Sadly i had to get rid of him when a newly introduced yellow longnose taught him to eat my trachy's and acan.I wish i had kept him and sold the corals now.I think that people rely on brine shrimp far to much.Brine is bloody useless! Ok fish eat it but the only thing its good for is if its gut loaded and used as a vehicle for other stuff like omega 3 and garlic etc,although i would question how much is actualy in the shrimp!
Its alot like mandarins.How many people actualy turn off all the flow in there tank twice a day and feed mysis to there mandarins? I would bet its less than 5%.
IMO if a copperband is kept in a system full of tangs and other bastard fish and then fed brine shrimp,nori and flake as a staple diet and doesnt get any mysis then it will definitely start picking on corals due to lack of nutrition.My regal angel is the same.If i dont feed him a big meal twice a day and give him nori to graze on all day he will start on my acan and favia.On christmas day i forgot the nori so he had and acan polyp.Fair enough! He hasnt touched it since because he's had his usual mysis breackfast,nori nibbles through the day and mysis dinner.
Personaly if i had a fish that was eating corals badly then i would normaly get it out.
I dont think that corals are even a minor part of there diet in the wild.They will take tube worms,small crustaceans and mysis shrimps.They arent really designed to eat corals.

[lindsay]

I agree with Dave,if i don't feed the right amount of food to our copperband then it starts to look and pick at some sps,give him a good feed and hes off down the tank a happy chappy lol.The good thing is they seem to stop having a go at corals if they are fed,unlike some other fish that once start to eat a coral cant stop until its gone.This said i have not been able to add a copperband to the lps tank despite having a go 3 times because all those acans in good numbers is just toooo much for their little brains,shame lol.The ones in the sps tanks have always lived a good amount of time,in-fact i have sold two of ours and replaced them with new ones over the last 5 or 6 years.

[djjd]

i have read somewhere over the last couple of weeks where they've split open 2 different types of butterfly to see what their digestive system consisted of and both consisted of anemones but 1 of them was 16% and the other 19%.the other percentage was of algal and fauna.so to say that a coppperband like the 1 i have just purchased to get rid of some aiptasia
will need corals to survive is negligable as they're diet varies quite inconsistently.

[EVERTON 1]

My copperband was great, held it's own at feeding time with my Tangs,it was well fed and had a varied diet, 6 mths later it took a shine to the clam ( large expensive clam ) in the tank, and for some reason wouldn't leave it alone, so the copperband had to go to a new home.

Brian

[tommo]

Copperbands almost invariably should be wormed before adding them to a display aquarium. Their natural diet of benthic invertebrates lends them to pick up various gut based parasites, they, as other butterflies also seem to be fluke magnets. Both of these problems can have a severe effect on their health in the aquarium and i believe are the reason for many unexplained copperband deaths.

Kusuri discus wormer or cedapraz are not toxic to fish and serve the purpose of worming the fish well, many times you can see dead worms leaving the fish in faeces!

It is beneficial to train the copperband to hand feed, that way, you can focus attention on it at feeding time and make sure a fair share is taken by the fish.

Buying small phillipines copperbands can be a good idea. they tend to do better in aquaria and a noticeable proportion are now caught as fresh post larvae and captive raised.

Another thing i have invariably noticed is that anyone who claims their copperband wont eat has something wrong with their water. they are easy fish to keep, just need that extra time and effort spending on them. They are also more social than often claimed and can do well in pairs and groups.

HTH

Tom

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

Good post Tommo ,,

Never had to worm them but can say i find the fish an in your face very aggressive feeder and one of ours is in a system with 2 vlamingi tanks of good size but this does not put the copper band off at feeding time at all and is in the food rush with them .




jas

[dylan]

slightly of track back to the old brineshrimp argument , ive been useing brine and garlic and brine and spiralina with very little flake and all my fish are fat and healthy and some are well over two years old guess it's all a matter of opinion

[Dave.I]

I think the enriched stuff is ok,just not as good as mysis.

[tommo]

Dylan, I have seen some fish (copperbands being a prime culprit) become addicted to brine shrimp, and refusing all other foods. Garlic is also dangerous to many fish if used continuously and will damage the liver thanks to the allicin it contains which is a toxin. im not saying its a bad thing, but it has its uses and has had its day as a wonder cure!

You change the diet of your fish one way or another and watch them change with it, it can be remarkable to see the difference in reef fish!

Tom

[dab]

jason@jasonsaquatics, on Jan 2 2010, 08:26 AM, said:

Good post Tommo ,,

Never had to worm them but can say i find the fish an in your face very aggressive feeder and one of ours is in a system with 2 vlamingi tanks of good size but this does not put the copper band off at feeding time at all and is in the food rush with them .




jas

totally agree, i have 6 tangs in my tank,and my copperband holds its own at feeding time,as all ready mentioned its about spending time making sure it gets enough to eat