Copper Banded Butterfly - chelmon rostratus

[AsymmeTree]

Greetings forum readers -

 

We are all aware of the proported benefits of the chelmon species. However, there seems to be a general mystery behind their caretaking and adaptability. Let us investigate the myriad of problems we encounter:

 

1) The collection process.

 

A beautiful species, it is coveted by the aquarist for its elegance. There is a demnad for the fish, and to meet the demand is the fisherman in a far-away place. Do they use cyanide? Nets? Whatever way they catch the critters seems to have an impact on their survival in the store. I have seen them perish the day they arrived. So i imagine, our problems with maintaining them begins here, LFS.

 

2) The finicky diner.

 

And to top it off, when we get them home they won't eat. I have read many things regarding the supposed consumption of aiptasia to the destruction of reef and live-rock. What i do know, from my own experience, is CBB eats a lot. They will not eat aiptasia, unless the aiptasia are catching and eating floating bits of food. It seems that the aiptasia catch food and the CBB eat the food the aiptasia catches. Therefore eating/destroying the aiptasia. I have to admit, the CBB is adaptable to foods and feeding, judging from the varying accounts on other forums (try wet web media's FAQ for chelon species). If a CBB adapts to a tank and eating habit of aiptasias, and other foods then GOOD FOR YOU, YOU LUCKY AQUARIST. Count your blessings. For the rest of us, there are many references to CBB being coaxed into eating (again check WWM for the FAQ titled Serving A Butterfly Buffet (A WWM Reader Shares His Technique)).

 

Regarding the picking proclivity of the CBB, most perceptable items in the tank will not be bothered. No one has written about the CBB gnawing acroporas or other SPS. Some express concern about the compatability of CBB and sponges or other interesting incidental reef organisms, but there are no reports complaining of a CBB and interesting incidental reef organisms. A note: my small tank has had its share of catastrophes, but through it all the coraline algae triumphs. My first CBB was not getting enough to eat (i grossly underestimated it's needs, shame on me) and took to nipping the coraline algae on the glass. It was the only way i would notice this behavior, otherwise i am sure i wouldn't have picked up on it picking the live rock. So, there is , i believe, one example of the CBB desperately adapting to its tank. A shame for me to ruin an opportunity with a healthy fish... Needless to say, my new CBB will be spoiled like a tubestrea...

 

3) Plays well with others.

 

Again, a subject of some debate. Admittedly, i have NO EXPERIENCE with a large portion of aquarium kept fish species, so you tell me. I have read about CBB and other species not getting along. In fact, the CBB gets bullied easily (i read an account of a damsel beating down a larger CBB). But, i don't know. I can say that my damsel hates everybody, but he (it is a male) comes to a compromise with other fish, eventually. He has compromised with the CBB, so far so good.

 

 

I am interested to know what you think. Thanks for your time.

 

Mahalo-

Fritz

[Paladin]

I had a CBB that passed away a couple of months ago. He was my favorite fish too. Anyways to comment on your thread:

1) when I was shopping around for a cbb, I wanted to make sure that the company that my LFS was dealing with was one that net-caught fish, because, like you, I've heard disasters with CBB's caught with cyanide, and I wanted to keep away from those.

2) my cbb was feeding right away from the frozen mysis and brine shrimp. Although I've heard that they were finicky, I guess I got lucky. And also, I had a lot of aiptasia on my rocks, and my cbb cleaned it up. To this day, I haven't seen any of those nuisance anemone ever since I put the cbb in.

3) he got along with all my fish, which included a volitans lion, regal tang, maroon clownfish, and banded eel. Originally I did have an adult yellow-tailed damsel in there, and once I put the cbb in, the damsel was tearing into him. The cbb was constantly chased around, and unless I did something, the cbb would have died from just exhaustion and stress from the damsel. So I took out the damsel and gave him to an uncle who had a saltwater tank.

I had the cbb for over a year, but, like I said, it died. I don't know the exact reason, but it could have been to starvation. It was always eating when I put food in, but the other fish were faster at catching the food than the cbb. I didn't know that the cbb wasn't eating enough, but I guess I should have focused more on making sure that he got plenty of food.

[Neon]

I have one.very fun fish

btw he outlived a tang and foxface

[AsymmeTree]

perished.

 

again, under mysterious circumstances.

 

the tank? the other fish?

 

my tank is a cbb coffin...

 

shoot.

 

 

F