Copperband intro

jcherepo

Well-Known Member
BRS Member
Picked up a new copperband today. A bit smaller than my yellow tang. In a 180 so figured enough room for both of them. Dropped in durning moon light so trying to acclimate slowly and quietly. Any suggestions are welcome. Noticed tang was a bit territorial, so put in a piece of plexiglass to help separate.


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My copperband was added after lights out as well but he is a bit bigger than my yellow tang. No real issues. He seems to put his head down and spikes up if confronted by the yellow but no real aggression. Thankfully.
 
for me the struggle was food, I had a purple tang when I added a copperband and it was constantly chased away. there are a couple CBB feeders ideas out there if you google for them that would help.
The trigger that got my CBB eating was live black worms and little neck clams from the grocery store. Rinse and freeze the clams then I would drop a frozen clam in the tank and as it would defrost it will open slowly, this gives the cbb a chance to pig out as the tang or any other fish could not get their mouth in but the cbb could. If you put a live clam in you just need to crack the shell first.
For the black worms I used a long target feeder and once he started aggressively eating the worms out of the end I would start adding frozen myisis and brine shrimp, took about 3 weeks but I was able to transition him to frozen this way.
Unfortunately for me he became another failure statistic as I waited too long to get rid of the Purple tang and he was just too skinny to recover. Best of luck
 
Yeah my cbb eats everything but pellets. LRS, mysis, brine, blackworms, frozen bloodworms and even nori from the clip.
 
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I built Paul B’s brine shrimp feeder for my mandarin and hopefully the CBB takes to it as well. Also been feeding shaved clam (thanks again Paul) which goes quickly. I will try the whole cracked clam as well. Thanks again!


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Yes - Thanks again for all of your valuable info and research! Loaded up on little necks at the fish market in Southold the other day, and they must have thought I was crazy when I told them that some of them were for my fish! Good thing I am friends with them!


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Thanks for all of the suggestions. I built Paul B’s brine shrimp feeder for my mandarin and hopefully the CBB takes to it as well. Also been feeding shaved clam (thanks again Paul) which goes quickly. I will try the whole cracked clam as well. Thanks again!


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how did your feeding come out? is the is the mandarin using it?
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I built Paul B’s brine shrimp feeder for my mandarin and hopefully the CBB takes to it as well. Also been feeding shaved clam (thanks again Paul) which goes quickly. I will tr the whole cracked clam as well. Thanks again!

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Mandarin is doing well. Still trying to get him to use the feeder. He has been doing a number on my pod population which I don’t mind! I have also been target feeding him baby brine which he seems to like. Just picked up a white worm culture this week from JeanR (great guy) and will be supplementing feedings with those once I have some volume.

Unfortunately my CBB did not make it. He lasted about a week. He picked on live rocks and occasionally the baby brine I would spot feed. Never touched a clam or worm for me. Next go around I will put him in a separate tank and get him eating before adding to the DT.




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Yes I would tend to agree with you. I have had my yellow tang since he was the size of a quarter 9 years ago. He is now about 5 inches across and probably getting to be a bit too aggressive in my tank. I should probably consider rehoming him at some point, but the kids are pretty attached to “Sunny”! Decisions!


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Every fish is different. My experience has been the opposite but my cbb was purchased larger than my yellow tang and they are fine.

And I agree on get him eating first. Mine was a pig from day one.
 
My $.02, only bring home a CBB if you see it eat frozen food actively while at the LFS.

Far too often CBBs are too stressed to eat anything prepared, and while in that state of being stressed they are typically not able to get the nutrition to survive the transition / acclimation process and they end up perishing. They need to be eating and putting on weight and they have a good chance and tend to be hardy fish if they make it more than a month or two. If not eating and putting on weight from the start, they are typically gonners (an no, our efforts to "rescue" them from the LFS will be in vain. We don't "rescue" dying fish from stores, we buy them leading the stores to order more and in the end killing more sensitive fish.)

Purchase with great caution. (I'm not in any way implying or accusing the OP of anything here, just taking in general about my own exp with these fish over the years. I've had two that I was able to keep for several years each, and in the end attribute inadequate feeding to their eventual demise. Currently I'm on my 3rd CBB and feeding it more aggressively and never missing a day, so far so good.)
 
No accusations taken. Appreciate the input. You raise a good point in supply and demand economics. Will be a bit more selective going forward. Anyone ordered livestock from Mike over at NYAquatic? I have spoken to him a couple of times and seems like a good source.


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I have no experience with NYAquatic, but as I said above when talking about CBBs specifically I would not buy that particular fish online ever because I insist on seeing at least moderately aggressive feeding on frozen food before I believe a CBB is strong enough to have a chance. Nearly all of them "are eating" meaning picking at rocks for natural foods and whatnot, but I wouldn't trust any online vendor to be as rigid about "eating" as I would be with this particular fish in mind. Nothing against online vendors, there are some very good ones, but most starving CBB's will outlast any etialers arrive alive warranty, (and then starve only to be replaced by another stressed and starving CBB, and then another.....)
 
If you ask, I believe mike will make a video of the fish eating prepared foods for you.
 
That sounds like some pretty good customer service, i would consider a CBB under those circumstances
 
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