From wet web media
"Copperband Feeding - A recipe for Success - 12/13/07
Good evening Bob & Crew,
<Miguel from the GWN>
My thanks to you all for having built up a wealth of species specific information on your site. Brilliant stuff. I used many of the Crew's suggestions from the FAQ's in the development of my latest plan.
I saw the beautiful Copperband in the LFS and actually managed to resist the "impulse purchase" temptation.
I left this fish at the LFS while I read for hours about Butterflies / Copperbands on your site - prepared myself with an appropriate QT tank set-up for this particular fish and gathered up my arsenal of feeding tricks that I could use - and then went back and purchased this beautiful fish, but only after I saw him picking for food.
I used an established thirty gallon tank with live rock and sand for QT in case he would prove to be tough to feed and have to stay in QT a while (I learned that on your site too). I purchased some cured rock with Aiptasia (yes people, I actually spent money on this) and placed it in the QT tank along with the Copperband. This fish was extremely shy and found a nice spot behind the LR to hide in.
It took over two weeks of trying Mysis, Krill, Squid, Mega Marine (for the worms) and the Clam trick, back and forth with Garlic Guard, Zoe and Selcon before he finally started picking at some frozen Cyclops soaked in Selcon (my last prepared food trick prior to turning to live food which I was hoping to avoid). Throughout the two weeks of failed feeding attempts, this fish seemed to survive quite nicely by eating Aiptasia and picking at the live rock in the vitamin dosed tank water. He looked fine the whole time other than nicking the fatter part of his snout by, I suspect, sticking it too far into a hole in the rock. Because of the risk of uneaten food in the tank, I tested the water and did small water changes often during this time.
<Good notes>
Once he was eating the Cyclops, I tried the Clam trick again and he went for it. Then I started mixing in Mysis with the Cyclops, soaking in Selcon and he started eating this as well. After just a few days on prepared food this fish is eating with some enthusiasm, and both of us are looking good!
One last point that I discovered quite by accident. For whatever reason, this shy fish seemed to respond to the presence of food better (noticeably, whether actually eating it or not) if the lights in the tank were ON while the lights in the room were OFF. Not being able to see outside the tank seemed to reduce the fish's stress level considerably. (Oh, and Bob, when I told you I'd even try soft music if I thought it would help, and you said that it might help ME during the QT period... I took your advice - you should post that one too!)
<Will do>
In all honesty, without the information available on this site I can't even imagine being able to pull something like this off, not to mention knowing enough to leave a Copperband in the LFS until I had a chance to read more, assess my chances of success and develop a feeding strategy.
Still, not bad for a rookie, eh? (That's Canadian for "right"?)
Hats off to the team and my fish thanks you.
Mike from Canada
<"What's it all aboot... algae....?" Couldn't help myself. Cheers and thanks for sharing, BobF>"
....I just put it in the 10G.....believe it or not....the yellow clown goby had it trapped in a rock
