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I'm considering a Copperband


SuncrestReef

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Last year when I had an aiptasia outbreak, I added a dozen berghia nudibranchs to my tank and they wiped out the aiptasia in 2 months.  This year, the aiptasia are back, and I added more nudibranchs but the only difference is I now have a melanurus wrasse, and I think the wrasse has hunted down the nudibranchs because I'm not seeing the same progress as last time and haven't seen a single nudibranch at night for over a month.  Last time I would frequently find them with a flashlight at night.

Now I'm considering adding a copperband butterflyfish to see if it will help.  I've read they can be hit or miss on attacking aiptasia.  I've also read they can be difficult to quarantine.  And I've read they can sometimes nip at LPS.  To be honest, I'm not terribly concerned about my LPS since I'm going more and more towards all SPS.  

Questions:  

1. How successful have others been with copperbands for aiptasia control?

2. Is it worth the risk to add a copperband without going through quarantine?  

Any other advice?

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I have had a few Copperbands over the last 15 years or so because I love the look of them but was never lucky enough to get one that did anything to aptasia. I honestly have had better luck with peppermint shrimp and you know how hit and miss they can be. I bought the product F Aiptasia and stay on top of it now. When I see one I just hit it with the F aptasia and it is gone. Works on runaway GSP too. As for quarentining, my experience only, I have never quarentined a fish but the copper bands can be pretty sensitive so I would look for one that has been healthy in a shop for awhile. They also seemed to be a gentle fish and are prone to being picked on by others so make sure the rest of your fish are a friendly sort.

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I recently went with. Copper band. I used aptasia x on the large ones.  Within a couple of weeks it went after the aptasia. It literally tore at it. After only a couple of weeks , is all gone. It forages with the other fish. 
 

Readily eats meaty frozen stuff.

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25 minutes ago, goldenbasketreef said:

Copperband is the best natural predator to aiptasia anemone.

I have one in each of my tank and no aiptasia at all.

Have to keep trying till you get one that stay alive in the tank

 

18 minutes ago, Manny Tavan said:


Finally got a copperband to live in my tank for the last four months. The two big aiptasia are still there lol

Nice to hear u finally got one to live. They are difficult. 

Edited by CuttleFishandCoral
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I’m in the same boat, John. My first batch of nudibranchs worked great, but the aiptasia slowly came back. It took a while through. I haven’t bought any more since they cost a lot. Thinking about trying a filefish this next round.


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back in 2003 my dad and i had tanks full of aptasia.  we were both new to keeping reeftanks and didn't know how bad aptasia were.  we each got a copperband and we were both lucky enough to get them to survive.  both fish loved aptasia and frozen food.  didn't touch any corals.  it's unfortunate that most copperbands don't survive and they keep bringing them in.  i know j-dog had a cobberband in QT and i believe he had to get it live black or blood worms cause it wouldn't eat frozen.  it might now but i'm not sure.      

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I agree that copperbands are really hard to get through quarantine and that Aussies are your best bet.  One thing that helped me was a product called Masstick.  You make a paste and stick it on a rock or PVC or even the glass and the fish will graze on it.  (It's helped me with angels and other fish that are hard to get through quarantine, too.)  You can read more about it here:  https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/masstick-fish-food-easy-reefs.html.  Once they get into the display tank they are going to have to compete with the other fish, so you should transition them to free-floating frozen (or whatever/however you normally feed) in the quarantine tank.  Good luck!

 

Edited by Gil&Fin
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I have copperband and he is doing great in my tank, but he doesn't touch aptasia at all. Wend nudibranch route and all gone. Had a success in the past with filefish. I had no issues with filefish attacking corals, but you can always trade in after aptaisa are gone.  

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26 minutes ago, ibondy said:

I have copperband and he is doing great in my tank, but he doesn't touch aptasia at all. Wend nudibranch route and all gone. Had a success in the past with filefish. I had no issues with filefish attacking corals, but you can always trade in after aptaisa are gone.  

That’s the Aussie one u got for me I think. Much hardier. Sucks it doesn’t do after aptasias though. 

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Wow I just watched a video and briefly read about F Aptasia. Does it actually harden around the aptasia once coated? 
From what I understand yes, I follow and watch a lot of Melevsreef and he's been talking about F Aptasia for a while, another forum I'm a member of has several members that swear by it

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21 minutes ago, TaylorW said:

From what I understand yes, I follow and watch a lot of Melevsreef and he's been talking about F Aptasia for a while, another forum I'm a member of has several members that swear by it

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Going to have to try it out. Cant have shrimp or nudibranchs because I love my wrasses. 

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1 hour ago, TaylorW said:

From what I understand yes, I follow and watch a lot of Melevsreef and he's been talking about F Aptasia for a while, another forum I'm a member of has several members that swear by it

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Typically anything that nukes an aiptasia leads to a bigger outbreak of aiptasia months later. Ask me how I know

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Typically anything that nukes an aiptasia leads to a bigger outbreak of aiptasia months later. Ask me how I know

You just cover it with this and wait... Then the aptasia just crumbles away. It's different than all the other stuff on the market, people really seem to like this because it doesn't irritate them (or nuke them [emoji54] lol) into multiplying like mad. There's all kinds of threads on it on Melevsreef and I saw a few others on a couple other forums too, if I had any aptasia I'd definitely try it out. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Just picked up a Copper Band from Seahorse and it eat frozen it's first day in the tank - was eating in the store which is why I brought it home.  They have actually been having pretty good luck getting ones eating before sending them out... not sure where they are sourced from.

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