Copperband Butterfly

[Demogarr]

Well, I have had it with these freakin aiptasia. I have gotten rid of them before, but these obviously evolved when the tank got upgraded, and now they are out of hand. So I put in a large order (6) peppermint shrimp, they went in the tank friday. Not being one to wait around, promptly ordered one copperband butterfly, will be here next week. I got the Australian variety, I have read that they are hardier and are net caught. I am getting him from www.themarinecenter.com looks like a great place. I have some PE mysis shrimp on the way to, so when I post back about getting him to eat, I hope you guys have some good suggestions, hopefully the mysis will entice it enough to get the feeding going. Anywhere to get live food just in case frozen doesn't work??
On a better note, I just talked to my wife while posting this, and she swears to me that she just witnessed a peppermint munching on some aiptasia, I am glad that first of all they are really peppermints, and second of all that they like aiptasia.
SWEET.
I hope the copperband does allright, they are beautiful fish.

[squid]

The trick with peppermint's....don't feed the tank.

Depending on how many fish you have in the tank, don't feed for 2 - 3 days. Then feed pretty heavy. Repeat as necessary. Most of the time within a week or so, all the aptasis will be gone.

Peppermint babies need to eat all the time. If you feed the tank, they will stop eating the aptasia and go after the food.

[Brooke]

Don't worry too much about getting the copperband to eat when you first get it. We got ours from the marine center as well and I'm happy to report that we've had it for over a year. Give him a few days to settle in, start eating aips, etc. I wouldn't even bother with live foods. Chances are that its already accepting frozen. Ask the marine center what they are feeding it. Just add the mysis to your regular feeding schedule and when he gets hungry enough...he will eat the mysis. Also try a homemade seafood mush. Ours happily eats both and just about anything else that we put in the tank.

Good luck with the new fish!!

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Lise and Brooke gave ya some great information!

I had a huge aiptasia problem in my tank and did everything to battle these pests and finally did it the natural way with three peppermint shrimp and a copperband butterfly.

I am happy to report today that I have no aiptasia in my tank and still have the peppermint shrimp and the copperband butterfly as well.

My copperband eats frozen mysis shrimp and my home made "mush" and is nice and healthy. The way I got the copperband to eat the mush was not feed the tank for three days and then introduced the mush first and the rest is history as it enjoys the mush very well and is always the first food to go into the tank and then I add some mysis shrimp for dessert!

Here is a pic of my copperband!

[Homer]

I too had a bad aptasia problem earlier and in March got a copper band from the same place. Within a month or two, all the aptasia were gone. Now, some still grow on macroalgae in my sump so I take clumps and place them in my main tank so the copperband can clean them up. He does within minutes.

Homer

[MontanaRocknReefer]

One thing I would like to mention is there is a small drawback to keeping a copperband butterfly and that is all your little feather duster worms will be consumed by the butterfly but it's a small price to pay after having an aiptasia outbreak believe me!!

[Demogarr]

Thanks, I don't mind letting go of bristle worms and fan worms that much, if it means getting rid of these aiptasia!