Copperband butterflyfish

[dschflier]

Well I currently have a copperband in my 210 and I have 1 pepermint shrimp in my 90 and 1 in my 40 breeder. I used to have aptasia in each of my 3 tanks. All of my tanks are attached by a common sump. I introduced the pepermint shrimp in all three of my tanks originally, but my niger ate the 2 I put in my 210. Stupid move on my part but I was getting desperate.

 

I originally bought 5 bottles of joes juice and any time I would see the aptaisa I would try and kill it. That seemed to do the job for about a week a t a time but then they would always come back. I also used Viniger which I found pretty much did the same thing.

 

I put the shrimp in each tank and I have never had any more aptaisa in my 90 and 40 but as I said earlier my niger just got a good meal in my 210. My aptaisa problem in my 210 was getting worse. I have always liked copper bands and figured I would give one a try. I am not saying that they will work in every case and they are not easy fish to get eating initially, but mine is doing great and I really enjoy the fish. On top of that if you come over you will see the only place left that has aptasia is in my over flows and sump both places that you generally dont see so I dont mind.

 

Maybe it isn't a fish to get just to eat aptaisa but if you think you can give good care to the copperband besides being beutifull fish they are really interesting to watch. They are always picking for stuff in the rocks and I have found that mine holds his own fine up against my bigger fish. I think it is also important that in my tank the copper band has room to get away from my bigger more aggresive fish

Edited December 12, 2007 by dschflier

[moore030]

Do Coral Banded shrimp eat peppermint shrimp?

 

I got two peppermint shrimps to munch on aiptasias (at scales), but they both seem to have disappeared, and none of the aiptasias were eaten either.

[madmax7774]

here's my real life experience:

I have a 2 year old 110G system that was pretty far gone with an aptasia problem last december. It was so bad in fact that a good friend of mine who works at a LFS told me to just get rid of all the rock and start over. I was hesitant to do that considering the huge effort I put into building my rock towers. As a last restort, I bought a pyramid butterfly from BRK, and several "peppermint" shrimp. After 4 days, all of my aptasia was gone. The Pyramid was like an aptasia lawnmower. and whatever he left behind the peppermints got. Personally, I think the pyramid butterfly is kind of ugly, but since he does such a fantastic job of keeping aptasia under control, he has earned himself a permanent spot in my tank. In my opinion Joe's juice is a waste of money. The same thing can be accomplished with lemon juice, or boiling water, or kalk solution, or baking soda. all are methods that have been tried and have found success for some, and not for others. You are always going to have aptasia. Even if you manage to get them all now, more will find it's way into your system eventually as hitchikers on other things you bring into your tank. Your best bet is to find an animal that you can tolerate in your system that will keep them in check.

John

[jamal]

Do Coral Banded shrimp eat peppermint shrimp?

 

I got two peppermint shrimps to munch on aiptasias (at scales), but they both seem to have disappeared, and none of the aiptasias were eaten either.

 

yes they do. coral banded shrimp are not reef safe in my opinion. all shrimp will be dispatched in his presence

[FishWife]

cbb's are extremely delicate. they do usually eat aiptasia but it is difficult to get them to feed on prepared foods. they are very skiddish at first and will be bullied by tangs and other aggressive fish. you may want to try peppermint shrimp instead as they are much safer with corals tube worms and feeding on prepared foods.

 

 

Right. And our system is nothing like stable right now. But, our QT tank is... so Scott says we're going to try a combination of all the above.

 

I REALLY appreciate the real-life stories! Thanks for replying! Off to edit my blue zoo order!

Edited December 12, 2007 by FishWife

[davelin315]

I think that coral banded shrimp have gotten a bad rap... I have always enjoyed having them and have noticed that they are only dangerous if you happen to have something that is slow... which most shrimp are not. They even serve as cleaners!

 

John - interesting about the pyramid butterfly, that's something I never knew! I saw some in Khanh's tank the other day and they were smaller. I had always thought they were ugly but his looked really good in his tank. Now that I know that they eat aiptasia, I may consider them in the future!

[mutley29]

As with all things, sometimes they work as planned, sometimes they don't.

 

 

 

I had a Copperband in my system for 3 1/2 years until a couple weeks ago, see pic below.

 

 

 

 

Prior to getting the CBB, i tried, Pep shrimp, Joe's Juice, Boiling water, Kalk paste and covering them with epoxy, none worked as well as the Butterfly, In my current tank i have zero Aiptasia in the display side, my overflows are full of them, i even used to scrape a few out to feed to my CBB.

 

 

 

In the time i had that fish it NEVER nipped corals, clam mantles or bothered any other fish

 

 

 

 

They are a delicate fish, maybe i was lucky and found it a very easy fish to care for.

 

 

 

Here's some good info on Aiptasia

 

 

 

Hope this helps

['Ric]

What is that red in its fin? It killed it?