Copperband in a 54G ??????

[meowzer]

Well would you????? It is a It's a 54G bowfront mixed reef, and I have a 6line wrasse, 1 perc clown, 2 yellow clown goby's, 1 flame hawk, a longfin sleeper goby.....snails and emerald crabs..and 1 sally lightfoot
since adding the flame hawk I have lost my peppermint shrimp and am now fighting aptasia.....oh Joes Juice is working, BUT....I thought if I could get an aptasia eating fish.....it would help...lol
they say minimum 50G....BUT I would like some experienced opinions
thanks

 

[caz2022]

For what its worth, I had one in a 55 for 2 years, until I broke down the tank and sold it all. I found that getting them to eat frozen/prepared food is the hardest part.

 

[meowzer]

So what did they eat...and please don't tell me the corals...LOL
I could buy one on the small side, and if it seemed to get too big, I could put it in the 225G

 

[flower]

I have had several copperbands, if the copperband eats your aiptasia it will also nip coral. If it leaves the coral alone it won't eat the aiptasia either.
My book says safe with soft coral it may nip at LPS but not SPS. Oh and 75g min full grown is 7.9 inches, and eats clams.
I would get rid of the shrimp killer and get some more peppermints.

 

[meowzer]

LOL...Flower I waited months for this flame hawk...I love it

sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh...what to do...lol.....hmmm...I have zoas, kenya tree, various mushroom, some yellow polyps (sorta) some pipe organ......it might be okay in that tank.....do ya think

 

[abeandlulu]

I have had 2 copperbands before. The first one I had for about a year. He started out in my 90 then I put him in the 265. He never picked at corals ate frozen food and I had no aiptasia. One day he got to close to my amenome and was lunch. The second one ate all the aiptasia but no frozen food and he died. I think it would be okay.

 

[flower]

Go for it!

I had almost the same corals, but the urchin killed my pipe organ...I love copprbands, my last one was killed by my Pink tube anemone

 

[meowzer]

Well It is on my ...MAY DO list....LOL....what's the worst that can happen...it eats my yellow polyps that aren't yellow

 

[spanko]

A suggestion from wet web media.
"One of the best tricks for getting these fishes to feed is to get a live freshwater clam from the pet store (or food/grocery store). Rinse it well and drop it into your marine aquarium (you may want to notch the back hinge to get it to open faster). It will begin to die and open within 1-3 days. As the clam purses open, the butterfly is irresistibly tempted to stick its nose in there. After it has eaten all of the clam out... stuff the clam in future days with the frozen meaty foods of your choice. The association/habit will have been made with the clam shell. It will wean off of/ignore the clam shell in time."

 

[pirates]

well so far my copperband does not eat my corals or anything els i feed every day to get it to eat mysis shrimp then worked on other foods i have it eating mysis, brine, Marine Cuisine and working on more but work on them when you get your fish eating then go back on your feeding the way you did before you got your copperband and use Kent Marine Garlic Xtreme and use apt stress coat marine that will help it worked for me so far so good if it was me i would get the copperband but thats me i love the fish it was not touched anything my blue tang nips at my lps but does has not killed anything i still have my shrimp and no aiptasia

and has not bothered my anemone

just read as much as you can here is some info
It is best housed in very large reefs, or in peaceful community tanks. It should be kept singly, not with conspecifics or similar butterflyfish, and should not be kept with any stress-inducing fish. Caution should be exercised if housing these fish in a reef aquarium. They may pick on invertebrates, especially anemones and feather dusters. They are an excellent fish when used to control aiptasia, or glass anemones, in the reef aquarium.
The Copperband Butterflyfish is a difficult fish to feed; it is a shy and deliberate feeder that may need a variety of foods offered to it in order to start feeding