Copperband Butterfly Fail

[Quartapound]

Sooo I picked up a CBB on Monday. LFS had quite a few, asked to see them feed, one out of the 5 did.... he looked good, so I took him home.

Decided against quarantine for the CBB, I put him in my frag tank (which is connected to my system, same temp, params, etc).

Fast forward to tonight, went down after work to check on him and he's laying on the bottom of the tank on his side breathing rapidly, few minutes later he was gone. He seemed to be in perfect health the day before, moving around and picking at the liverock.

I'm not really sure how he died, but I'm shocked at how quickly it happened.

...Could this have been cyanide? or just the stress of the move? ...I've heard CBB's are 'difficult' to keep alive but I wasn't expecting that!

 

[harleymike]

I had a few copper bands. Only one lasted. They are hard to keep. But if you get a good one they are beautiful fish. Usually its hard to get them to eat. Not sure what might have happened. Could of been stress.

 

[sirhc13]

Do you know how long the CBB was at your LFS? I had the exact same thing happen to a Powder Brown tang except I had him in QT. Looked great and was eating like a pig! was fine at lights out....then next morning was clearly in distress and gone only a few hours later!!. Talked to my LFS where I purchased it and they suspected cyanide poisoning!

 

[Quartapound]

Do you know how long the CBB was at your LFS? I had the exact same thing happen to a Powder Brown tang except I had him in QT. Looked great and was eating like a pig! was fine at lights out....then next morning was clearly in distress and gone only a few hours later!!. Talked to my LFS where I purchased it and they suspected cyanide poisoning!

Pretty sure he said it came in on Wednesday. I brought it home on Monday... So he died exactly a week after showing up at the LFS.

....I have a Powder Brown Tang in quarantine right now too (CBB skipped quarantine), from a different store. He's looking great, eating, etc... I'm hoping to have more success with him, so far so good. *knock on wood*

 

[Nonuser]

I used to buy fish from a store in your area and the prices were always great and the fish look pretty good at the store. I could even get a better deal if I paid cash. I would say 3 out of the 4 fish I bought there died either the next day or with in 2 days.

I stopped buying from them, deals are not deals if you lose the fish and I always felt it could have been something I had done wrong.
I now pay more for a fish from a different place but they last years.

It could be just coincidence.

 

[Kevin Cantelon]

I've had two CBB die on me within days and I haven't lost alot of fish over the years. They are hard to keep. your not alone.

 

[[KRAFTIG]]

Curious, does the challenge apply to all Butterfly species or just the Copperband?

 

[SamB]

Butterfly fish are notorious hard to keep in captivity.
Food source is the major issue as they naturally seek small worms and live foods in between corals, rocks etc - that is why they have their characteristic long "beaks" and small mouths
The other factor about these fish is that they are timid by nature and slow grazers so they cannot compete with fast tangs and other fish that will push them out of the way during feeding time. I have kept several copperbands and I have made them the "star" fish for my tank and I have paired them with anthias, clowns, assessors etc
In our tanks, we generally can't sustain enough of their natural feeding environment so we have to hope that they will take frozen brine shrimp etc
When I had my two copperbands, (2 different times) I desperately tried to get each of them to take frozen foods and I even tried blended scallops and krill and a whole host of options but they wouldn't take anything. The first one lasted about a week but the second one lasted about 6 months (I eventually gave him to a friend of mine)
The second one did so well because I started to feed it live blackworms - yes you read that correctly. I purchased the worms from Dragon Aquarium in Mississauga and fed the butterfly with tweezers and he/she went crazy for them ! These worms are sold for freshwater fish such as discus or cichlids and can be kept in the fridge for about a week. The problem was that these worms wriggle for a few seconds and then the salt water kills them and they sink to the bottom of the tank. The butterfly sucked them up like spaghetti when they wriggled but if they died on the way down he wouldn't suck them up. Consequently the dead and decaying worms made the tank very dirty, very quickly and my clean up crew couldn't keep up. Plus the water chemistry was difficult to keep consistent because of this added bioload
The worms did wonders to fatten up my butterfly and he was flourishing but the effort to buy the worms, keep them and the mess in the tank was way too much work
I haven't tried another butterfly fish and I don't think that I will again. They are beautiful but best kept in the ocean IMO

 

[jeffopentax]

I’ve also had 2 cbb at separate times. First one I had fat and healthy for a few months before I sold him. Second one disappeared after a few days. I think the key to the success of the first one was tisbe pods (which I can’t seem to find anywhere now[emoji35]), and small frozen clams from the grocery store. It went crazy for the clams. Didn’t have either of those on hand for the second one, but not sure if it would have made a difference.


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[harleymike]

Makes me wish they didn't even sell these harder to keep fish. Copper Bands probably have a 90 % death rate.
After my third one I said never again.
Ya, Im to blame too, bought 3 of them before I realized its a tough fish to keep.
But to each there own.

 

[Jewel]

I've been there too, bought mine from a good friend and he lasted a few days, so he went on the list of what not to bother with, not that they all didn't work out like the Manderin Goby, not even trying or Anthieas, Purple Goby, notorious jumpers,all I'm saying is don't feel bad for what ever doesn't work out.

We don't even know how many of these die in shipping, still unfortunate.

 

[Quartapound]

tisbe pods (which I can’t seem to find anywhere now

Coral Reef Shop has Tisbe pods (pretty sure he got some last week AND this week)

https://twitter.com/CoralReefShop/status/974553460778479617

 

[Nonuser]

My opinion is all but a handful of people should even attempt to keep some of the fish in the aquarium trade. Fish like butterflies, box fish, moorish idols and dragone

Coral Reef Shop has Tisbe pods (pretty sure he got some last week AND this week)

https://twitter.com/CoralReefShop/status/974553460778479617

yep I picked up a bag last Saturday. There was only one left and I got there before noon! But he’s got more in, I told him to increase his order lol.

 

[Steve Peters]

3 trys with cbb... three fails. No more cbb experiments.

 

[Nonuser]

NAFB has a shipment in with some.

 

[Wagonpitt]

Tried to buy one at big als kitchener a while ago. One of the guys talked to me about them and strongly recommended i dont get it because tank was too new. Went with his advice and leaving with out it kinda sucked but buying it and watching it die in near future would have sucked alot more. I still really would like one but dont know if ill ever get it.