Copperband Butterfly, feed it a clam, start preying on my nice clams?

[Jonnywhoop]

I purchased a small copperband from an LFS. It was eating bits of PE mysis in the store, so I went ahead and purchased him. I tried frozen baby brine, live black worms, and frozen blood worms to no avail. I will be purchasing PE mysis tomorrow night. However, if all that fails, I will resort to live clams from the store which in many google searches seems to be the trick.

 

However...

 

If i start feeding him clams, will he start targeting my croceas/maximas? so far he pics around their shell for food but nothing towards the mantle.

 

Thanks NR!

[Tenor]

He will pick your clam when he starving. Try Mysis shrimp would work. My Copper eat frozen Mysis very well

[Jonnywhoop]

Just tried feeding PE mysis to him and showed little interest. He ate literally one live black worm... I guess I will try the clam tomorrow. I am just a little skeptical about my croceas.

[Roshan8768]

Idk if you feed with your pumps off, but frozen mysis often looks better to picky fish when it looks more "alive" in the stream of your return. I had a CBB once, very picky eater but he eventually ate frozen mysis from a pipette. Had to be target fed though... it was the only way he would get enough food. Otherwise the rest of the fish would finish the food and he wouldn't get enough

[Tenor]

It's very hard to find to right CBB accept the frozen food. I lost five of them before found the right one. I have mine little over six months now and she only eat frozen Mysis and all Aiptasia in the tank.

[HVani]

When I worked at a LFS I had the most luck getting CBB to eat by offering live black worms. From what I have read it close;y mimics what they eat in the wild. Once they were eating this then I started adding frozen mysis and could get most of them to eat with enough time. Of course there were some that just flat out refused but 8/10 times I could get them to eat with black worms

 

You got him to eat something so I would stuck with that if it was me.

[Jonnywhoop]

Yeah I fed it with pumps on. He would stalk a black worm for a bit but then turn away Tonight I am going to try the live clam trick by making a little hole in it and dumping it in the tank. Do I just feed it live, raw? is there a way to sterilize it some how?