copperband butterfly ?

reefreak29

Active Member
i bought a copperbanded last week for aptasia control hes 5 inches, he loves brine shrimp but isnt touching my aptasia is this something that takes time or is it hit or miss?
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
Of course he loves brine shrimp. This is a treat for saltwater fish. It does not contain any nutrition (if we are talking about live brine). I would start feeding him frozen foods, and if does not go after this, he will go after the next best thing, the aipstasia. I say this is the next best thing because it is live.
 

saltydog

Member
Originally Posted by reefreak29
does anyone else own one and did it eat the aptasia?
I have one and he cleaned up my aptasia. He nows eats Mysis and Blood Worms. I sometimes move some rubble from my sump to the tank. These sometimes have aptasia growing or Copepods. He picks around on the rubble until its picked clean.
-Salty
 

saltydog

Member
I've had him for 18 months and I don't recall exactly. I'm guessing he took to them right away.
Thanks for the compliment. These reside in my 90 gal reef.
-Salty
 

wilsonreef

Member
I thought about a copper butterfly for the same reason. My concern is that I have a yellow tang and a hippo and the yellow tang tried everything in the book to kill the hippo at first. Im wondering if these two will gang up on the butterfly?
 
Do you notice the copper band picking on your polyps? I was thinking of getting one as well. My problem is that I have a red sea zebra tang that beats on every new fish I have ever put in the tank. It drives my wife crazy because we only have a couple of fish and she wants to get another one but he's/she's so mean.
 

saltydog

Member
If you notice the open brain in the bottom left corner of my tank.....it's was traded in to my lfs. The CB started picking at it maybe 6 months ago. Never bothered it, then all of a sudden decided it was good eating.
He hasn't bothered anything else. Knock, Knock

 

buzzword

Member
Mine ate all my aptasia right after he finished off the about 50-75 little pest featherdusters that were overtaking the left side of my tank. He doesn't bother any of the corals yet either. I have had him about 2 months.

 

crox

Active Member
Originally Posted by Buzzword
Mine ate all my aptasia right after he finished off the about 50-75 little pest featherdusters that were overtaking the left side of my tank. He doesn't bother any of the corals yet either. I have had him about 2 months.

So he's reef safe? Or eventually he will touch your corals?
 

crox

Active Member
Originally Posted by reefreak29
does anyone else own one and did it eat the aptasia?

You also can get some peppermint shrimp. IMO
 
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