New Copperband! YAY...He's Not Eating! NOOO

[superhero]

Hey everyone. It has been almost a year since I added any fish to my tank and this past Saturday I went out and bought a Copperband Butterfly. I had previously tried to house one of these fish to no avail. When I was at the LFS on Saturday I saw this little guy for only 25 bucks and figured that if he was eating i should give him a try. I asked the owner if he was eating and sure enough after watching him devour some mysis I had my answer. Since bringing him home on Saturday i have yet to see him eat. I tried offering him mysis, plankton, and brine shrimp all with some garlic extract, but he has yet to touch any of it. Any ideas about what I can do to entice him to eat?
-Tony

 

[saxman]

based on price, your fish was most likely collected from the IO, and IO fish tend to eat appies, but are tuff to wean onto prepared foods (Aussie fish are the exact opposite, but are really pricy).
that being said, make sure you're trying the exact food it was eating at the LFS. also, you may need to try and entice it with live gutloaded Artemia or live blackworms (be super careful with these as they don't live long in SW).
another thing you might try is smearing food into a piece of coral skeleton and allowing the fish to browse on it.
also, if you have high-ish 'trates, it might be an issue as would any boisterous tankmates.
HTH

 

[juniors04]

I been having the same problem with My Yellow head Butterfly fish. I got him from this site and has been in my tank since January 6th. To this day the only thing i see him eat is off my rocks, off the sand, and off the glass. I offered live brine shrimp, and live blood worms and still did not eat it.

My Facula Butterfly fish loves to eat! He even eats the green algae sheets.

 

[aquaknight]

I had an Caribbean Longnose (Prognathodes aculeatus) do that, eat good in the tiny LFS holding tank, only to be rather finicky at home.
Over the years I've had 10 Butterflies, 7 of those when into QT's. Is he in a QT? With Butterflies, I usually can't stress QT's enough, they're just not for diseases, but a peaceful home for them to learn how to eat. Usually with a new Butterfly they won't eat out of the water column, but they will eventually eat the mysis/brine that settles on the bottom of the tank.
If you've only tried using garlic, try feeding without it. I've noticed with Butterflies, it turns them off to food, as much as it's "suppose to" entice them. Also try rubberbanding algae sheets to a piece of live rock in the tank.

 

[superhero]

I do have him in my QT tank. It's rather small, (only one of those 12 gallon eclipse systems) but that's the best I can offer right now. I will try feeding without the garlic and also the algae sheets rubber banded to something. Thanks for the input guys I'll let you know what happens to him!
-Tony