Is the Mystery of Feeding Copperband Butterflies Solved ?

[albertthiel]

Interesting indeed .... note that a friend of mine whose reef tank has been running for 42 consecutive years (yes 42) has been feeding this way for a long long time


http://www.reefnation.com/copperband-butterfly-feeding-experiment/


Albert

[Stussi613]

42 years??

Wow, I'd love to see pictures of that!

[albertthiel]

42 years??

Wow, I'd love to see pictures of that!

As you now I have a 600 page + thread on another forum and I am sure there are some nice pics on there of that tank. I'll dig some up and post them here later today for you and other readers of the thread ....

It is a 6 footer with LED lighting now (started off with FL tubes then MH's) and an algae scrubber trough and a huge skimmer etc.) and a lot of what he did is all DIY ... and believe it or to he still runs the original RUGF that he installed all those years ago ... and the tank is doing better than "well" and all the fish in there that are pairs are spawning including his Mandarins, and Gobies, and others, and he even keep  a Copperband in there, + tons and tons of corals.

He kept a Moorish Idol for over 5 years and lost it due to a major long power loss when the NY area was hit by one of those big storms .. in fact there are even write ups on it on the Net on how he kept that  Moorish Idol alive and what he fed it.

I'll find some of the articles and post some links as well ... Amazing what one can do  ...

And what is the secret to it all really : well very simply : Nutrition and feeding a lot of live foods such as California Blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) and clam meat, and pods and more pods, and adding some NSW fro time to time ...

Albert

[Herstead]

You are talking about Paul right? He also has a patent for a sea horse feeder. I plan on getting a Marginalis, which is almost identical to the copperbanded, have read up on his thoughts and plan on growing my own black worms as they do not seem to be difficult to grow.

As for the Idols I was talking to a LFS in Toronto who has kept them for years and apparently there is now a flake food with sponge in it. That plus black worms and avoiding certain locations of origin are the main keys. I would love to try keeping an Idol but am going to wait a few years, getting more experience.

- Jonathan

[albertthiel]

You are talking about Paul right? He also has a patent for a sea horse feeder. I plan on getting a Marginalis, which is almost identical to the copperbanded, have read up on his thoughts and plan on growing my own black worms as they do not seem to be difficult to grow.

As for the Idols I was talking to a LFS in Toronto who has kept them for years and apparently there is now a flake food with sponge in it. That plus black worms and avoiding certain locations of origin are the main keys. I would love to try keeping an Idol but am going to wait a few years, getting more experience.

- Jonathan

Yes that is the one (Paul  B.) and for those interested the Sea Horse feeder can be seen here : http://www.saltcorner.com/Articles/Showarticle.php?articleID=26

He actually has a different version of it which is shown in my Nano Reef Aquariums book but I do not thin he decided to get a patent on that one.

And yes the C. marginalis looks pretty much the same and so does C. muelleri (darker).

I agree on the Moorish Idol, progress in the food they need has definitely been made, but there still seem to be issues in keeping them alive in the long term.

I wonder which LFS in Toronto you are referring to ... I was not aware that someone there had actually been keeping them alive for years and years. I wonder how many actually ...

Thanks for the info though ...

[Herstead]

From what I remember the store was new, the owner had had personal experience with them though. I will try to figure out which store it was. When we went to Toronto we saw about 10 or so fish stores in 3 days so they blur together a bit.

- Jonthan

[albertthiel]

From what I remember the store was new, the owner had had personal experience with them though. I will try to figure out which store it was. When we went to Toronto we saw about 10 or so fish stores in 3 days so they blur together a bit.

- Jonthan

Thanks, and yes if you saw that many stores in 3 days I can image that it is hard to remember ... don't worry though if you cannot figure it out I may email Frank Aguirre and ask him as he may know

Albert

[Herstead]

I checked the stores we went to, it was Reef Boutique for sure. Luckily he has pictures of his store on his webpage so I could be sure.

- Jonathan

[albertthiel]

I checked the stores we went to, it was Reef Boutique for sure. Luckily he has pictures of his store on his webpage so I could be sure.

- Jonathan

Thank you ... I appreciate the info and will look for his web site  ..

Albert