Mr. Picky (Copper Banded) evicted!

[snapcrackler]

I brought home my first ever Copper Banded Butterfly the other day, yes I am a SW newbie I have been freshwater all my life and just took the plunge a few months ago on my first SW tank (I'm hooked now). Anyway I put the banded in my tank, which already has about 40 snails and 40 red legged hermits, 1 coral banded shrimp, 4 damsels. The Copper Banded chowed down flakes, then chowed down bloodworms, and then proceeded to shut down my entire snail population by doing his "pick and run" thing on all of them. He didnt kill them, but they had all stopped dead in their tracks because they were afraid to come out. If they peeked out a little again, he would just bite them again. The copper banded even yanked a couple of bristleworms out of the substrate which I thought was kind of interesting. After he had terrorized the snails thoroughly, he started picking on all my crabs, and then found himself back in a plastic bag and in my vehicle. I took him back to his home at LFS. My LFS is pretty cool and they had a good chuckle about this, and then happily traded me for a Lawnmower blenny and change. So I guess unless I have aiptasia or something, no bandeds for me for a while. Man what a picky fish. He did like to hang around my coral banded shrimp though.

 

[reefrunner69]

I'm sorry for your experience (that seems out of character for a copperbanded butterfly), but it was an interesting story!! Congrats on the LMB, they are very cool personable fish

 

[snapcrackler]

Thank you for the reply. I just visited that same copper banded at the LFS last night, I forgot to mention that, he was picking at stuff in that tank too. Maybe he's just a pickin' fool. With your post in mind, though, I might try to aquire another copper banded a few months down the road and see how he likes my tank.

 

[ReefLady]

Our Copperband picks at our snails all the time. He doesn't seem to hurt them, and certainly doesn't kill them, but any Nassarius that dares to climb the glass gets pecked off. It's almost comical.

Not sure if this is common with the Copperbands, but it's definitely the same behavior that ours displays. Thankfully, our tank is large enough (and we have enough snails), that the same snail probably doesn't get picked on often. 8)

 

[jamal-188]

My first copperband was killed by my porcupine puffer. I got another one saturday and it's in my Q tank w/ a yellow tank for the next few weeks. Hasn't eaten any flakes or seaweed yet and he tail is a little ripped up, the yellow tank(1/2 the size of the copperband) must be picking on him?

 

[HoopsGuru]

Fish should be kept isolated in QT to prevent the transfer of disease and parasites and also to avoid confrontations in a small environment. With the fact that your puffer already displayed that it doesn't like tankmates, I hope the replacements are not heading into the same aggressive situation.

 

[jamal-188]

Fish should be kept isolated in QT to prevent the transfer of disease and parasites and also to avoid confrontations in a small environment. With the fact that your puffer already displayed that it doesn't like tankmates, I hope the replacements are not heading into the same aggressive situation.

Yeah, my fist copperband was in my 10g Q tank for 2 weeks but he didn't live long when I introduced him into my main tank. I have no idea why the puffer killed him, he didn't bother any other fist or crabs or anything. I wound up taking the puffer back to my LFS to avoid any possible problems with other new fish.