butterfly food

[btuck]

After many attempts at trying to get my copperband butterfly nice and fat I decided to get some professional help. Knowing that everybody on the internet is a professional I called upon the almighty google. I typed in copperband butterfly diet. Not to my surprise I saw many of the same things that I've been seeing over and over again. Shrimp, squid, mysis. All of these have been tried with no avail (except for the mysis that he has already been eating). One last thing that I had not tried was clam on the half shell.

Two stops later I had my clams. I even decided to try a couple of different ones. I picked out a larger one and a few smaller ones. I bring them home and decide to give them a try. Wow these little guys sure are hard to open. Simply sticking a knife in between the shells seems not to be working so I take a more drastic approach. Into the garage I go small clam in hand. I'll show this little guy. I mean how hard can it be to open a dead clam. Turns out very hard. The small one finally cracks open with the help of a large monkey wrench. I place it into the tank and of course the butterfly shows no interest. All the other fish and snails and crabs got a nice little meal, they eat better than I do sometimes.

Back to the internet to do more research. I decide to go to wet web media and they keep insisting over and over again that the CB do love clams. You can take a whole clam place it into the tank whole and it will begin to open after a few days do to rotting. So I decide to try this. That evening I put the larger clam into the tank. Within just a few hours the clam begins opening. I'm excited this is going to take less time than I think. The next day my wife points out to me that the clam is gone. Not opened just gone...shell and all. My first thought is the starfish has gotten himself a nice little meal that he has taken back to his lair of death and opened and killed. But after a bit more searching I think that maybe just maybe the clam is in the sand buried (due to powerheads). So after just a bit of short searching there is Mr. Clam nice and buried and ALIVE as can be. Decide to dig him out and get him within eating range, come back 15 minutes later and Houdini has disappeared again into the safe confines of the sand, with nothing but a nice little syphon sticking out of the sand.

After a bit more research I learn that clams are indeed sold alive. I think hell it's on ice how alive can it be...but it is!!!!!

More research indicates that this is a Cherry Stone clam...a member of the Quahog family. For all you Family Guy fans you will see why I decided to include that little tidbit of information.

Anyway I now have a new member to my reef tank. I'm thinking of trying a salmon fillet next to see if it comes back to life as well. Sorry Anthony I'm not doing this coral propogation anymore, I'm just going to my local grocery store to bring the dead back.

Thanks for reading my long post!!!!!

 

[Slickdonkey]

That's neat. I'm gonna try a Maine lobster.

 

[prbhasson]

Slickdonkey, I could go to the store and get you one today if you really wanted. Living here in maine we have vendors on the side of the road selling live lobsters.... I think it would make a mess of your tank though, they can get quite big...

 

[NaH2O]

ROFL, btuck! Are you wondering why it was so hard to open that "dead" clam now?? lolol

Let me know if you need any help next time

 

[shallowreef]

I wanted to do a lobster when i first started but decided i liked a reef better. Plus i heard that if you keep lobsters in an aquarium just so that you can eat them later it doesn't taste as good. Idon't know how much truth there is to that, but thats what i heard.

 

[danno14]

great story

what you will find is that your new pet will experience a tremendous boost to its metabolism due to the heat. I had clams live 3-4 months, growing like crazy, till they flamed out.

Try keeping the clam=food in the freezer. When it's time to feed, drop one in. The shell will gradually open as it thaws, and the meat will likely be consumed before it has time to rot. This also stimulates the CBB hunting instinct (or at least it has for all those I have seen fed this way
Easily my fav butterfly.

Have fun!
D

 

[mungus]

Awesome story man!! Thanks for sharing.

Brian

 

[SueT]

definitely my favorite butterfly, or fish for that matter. Thankfully mine doesn't ask for clams and will pig out on mysis, but it does have to be those fat ones from PE.

 

[steve-s]

Try keeping the clam=food in the freezer.

I can't emphasize that part enough. Using live foods while in a controlled environment like a QT is risky enough, in a display system it's a potential disaster. Please do not add any type of live foods that have not been prefrozen to kill potential parasites first unless raised by you and properly cleared of pathogens.

I do however agree to keep trying the clam idea. I would also include sponge flesh, blood worms and soaking the foods in a liquid marine vitamin containing B12. It is a powerful appetite stimulant. FWIW, had you added this fish to a QT first, your potential for getting it to feed on prepared foods would be that much easier. Right now your fighting natural instinct vs training it to feed unnaturally. As long as the natural habitat exhists, your job will be that much harder.

Cheers
Steve

 

[btuck]

The butterfly doesn't seem to like any food that doesn't resemble a mysis shrimp. He was eating them when I bought him and that's what he has eaten ever since. Like I said I've tried to get him to eat other foods and even tried to replicate his natural hunting instinct. I've stuck food in this nook and that cranny. I've even taken the now dead clam shell and stuck mysis into it hoping that he will learn the trait. All to no avail, he just waits for the mysis to float out of the shell and sucks it up once in the water column. I have been soaking the mysis in selcon which I believe contains the B12. I will continue to try new things until I am successful.

 

[NaH2O]

btuck - let me know if you want to borrow some Vita-Chem to alternately soak the mysis in.

Steve - is it a big deal if the butterfly doesn't want to eat other prepared foods other than mysis, provided it is alternately soaked in a vitamin and fat?

 

[steve-s]

Steve - is it a big deal if the butterfly doesn't want to eat other prepared foods other than mysis, provided it is alternately soaked in a vitamin and fat?

A varied diet will help overall health, color and longevity. The vitamins will only go so far, they are meant to augment, not replace. It will make a difference but the hobbyist may not always see the benefits directly. A majority of that difference will be in resistances, color, vigor and longevity. It's one of those things that you sometimes need to "compare" if you get my meaning. It's like trying a two homemade meals that are comprised of the same foods. Both might taste great but unless you try them side by side, you may not pick up on the differences.

Make sense?

I will continue to try new things until I am successful.

What other types of frozen foods does your LFS offer?

Cheers
Steve

 

[NaH2O]

btuck - I can give you some of my Rod's Food to try. I also have some other stuff, as well.

 

[btuck]

I can try it. I'm sure I can get just about any type of food. I would like to try the Rod's food Nikki. I have tried the arctic pods and he just looks at them. He does get excited when I first put them in as if some type of feeding response has been initiated, but then just swims around looking for mysis.