melev

I wanted to share something with y'all today, and hope you understand where it is coming from. Recently I picked up a Copperband butterfly fish, put it through acclimation & Safety Stop baths, and then placed it in the Peacemaker in my reef for three days to get used to its future friends. I fed this fish often, making sure it was eating, key to this particular fish's survival. CBBs are usually quite tough to keep, and starvation is probably one of the main reasons more of us don't succeed. Or maybe they are cyanide caught, perhaps. I don't know.

When I released him into the reef, for the most part there was no aggression. He steers clear of the Purple tang, that's been obvious. As I watched it eat worms and bugs from the sandbed, I felt this one might be a success story at last. However, I noticed some white spots on his body and tail. Perhaps it was ich, perhaps it's brooklynella. #1) I didn't want to have to try to catch it out of a 400g reef, and #2) he didn't seem to feel bothered by it at all.

10 years ago, I had a Powderblue Tang. When it got stressed, it would burst out with Ich (just covered in white snow). However, he'd calm down again and it would go away. He did this on and off a few times each year. However, no other fish got infected by him, and what I saw that day I knew I wouldn't see a few days later. It was just his thing. So Ich doesn't really concern me, and in all the years I've been in this hobby, I've only observed one Yellow Tang die of ich in my care, and it was sudden, within 48 hours of purchase.

Rather than worrying about it too much, I focused on using plenty of food. I've been using a mixture of Rod's Food blends nightly, as well as some fish eggs from V20. I'd also used some adult brine shrimp that the CBB likes, which the LFS has recommended where I purchased it. And a week ago I ordered an African (this is supposed to be the best choice) cleaner wrasse. It arrived yesterday at the LFS, and a few hours later I brought it home to acclimate.

The last time I bought a cleaner wrasse was probably 2004, and it didn't work out at all. I didn't gain any experience whatsoever. When I watched him closely in the acclimation bucket, he didn't act normal to me. He kept sticking his face up out of the water, as if he needed more air. Rather than put him through anything else, as soon as the water volume he was in was quadrupled (he came in a bag of water that was probably .2 of a gallon, so when the 1g bucket was full, his acclimation was complete), I caught gently in my hand and released him into my reef. I wanted to use Safety Stop again, but I just had a feeling he was too stressed as it was, so as the words "who cleans a cleaner wrasse" rang through my head, I lowered my hand into the reef and let him swim out.

Watching the fish react, I opted to quickly add some flake food to distract them momentarily to take the spotlight off of him. He swam around without any real direction and into the glass several times, and I wondered if his vision was an issue. However, he seemed to know where to go and what to avoid other than the glass panels. When the metal halide turned off, I noticed he seemed to be interacting with one of the tangs. He appeared to be cleaning it. How cool is that?! A couple of hours later, I fed the tank with thawed frozen Rod's Food again, and a while later the lights went out.

Today, I see the fish pretty much lining up for a cleaning, and it's not even been 24 hours. The tangs swim near him, then stop and let him inspect them and he'll nip something off their fin or body. The Pajama cardinal fish don't seem to like it. What about the Copperband? Well, I went looking for him and he's busy working his way in and out of the rockwork, foraging for worms. I have a few aiptasia and I'm watching those to see if they will suddenly vanish, but no such luck. The cleaner wrasse did try to follow the CBB for a bit, so I'm thinking he will clean away the stuff I'd seen on his fins. It already seems to be less, but until he's squeaky clean, I don't call it a success story. But it's my game plan.

No doubt by now you're saying I should be using a quarantine tank. I tried and killed six Copperband butterflies using QT, so I wasn't about to try that again. When a fish dies, I take it personally. I waited years before trying again. The last one I tried was two years ago, and he died in the Peacemaker, which I'd filled with a big colony of tiny featherduster tubeworms for him to devour. He never ate one thing the entire time.

What I don't know is why the Cleaner Wrasse was acting so weirdly initially, or if that is what they do naturally. But it's really fun to see how he's interacting with the fish. I'm hoping he'll take care of the issue on the CBB as well. I'm hoping he'll take care of the issue on the CBB since that's why I got him, and I'd like to see him live a long time as well.

Those are my thoughts today. Happy reefing.