Copperbands like most other butterflies are one one of the more difficult fish and are generally a high loss animal. This does not mean that you can't or shouldn't keep one but simply means you might have to go through more than one bfore you get one that for lack of a better term "takes" to your aquarium.

As far as diseases go, they are not especially prone to ick (like tangs for example). They commonly arrive with flukes which are easily dealt with via a 4-5 minute fw bath. They also have a tendency to develop lymphocystis following the stress of capture/shipping. This is a viral disease which is not contagious and will clear up in short order provided excellent water quality and feeding. Probably the most serious disease common to CBB's and other butterflies is septicemia (internal bacterial infection). This is easily identified by red streaks either on the fishes body or fins. I have not much success treating this with various antibiotics and the fish usually die within a week. Septicemia is caused by stress and poor water quality which is why it is common in new arrivals and also why it is pretty much impossible to keep a CBB in less than ideal water quality for any length of time.

The next challenge is getting to eat. It really varies, some fish are little piggies right out of the bag while others take quite awhile to begin taking prepared foods. I usually start them on mysis, bloodworms or brine shrimp in that order. Mysis is much more nutritious so it's best to get them started on that first if they will cooperate. One thing I have noticed is that most of the time it is pretty easy to get them eating in a fish only type of setup but once they get moved to a reef tank they will often go back to hunting the rocks for food and will stop taking the prepared foods that they were eating previously. If this happens, I always recommend that people make a real effort to get them eating again by feeding frequently and turning down the current so that the food can settle on the rocks and that gives the cbb time to stare at his food for while (they like to do that). Otherwise they will quickly clean up all critters on the live rock and end up starving. Another issue is competition from more aggressive feeders. Feeding at dusk or dawn can help in this regard because cbb's are usually the last to go to bed and the first to get up in the morning.

Once they are well settled in they are really a great fish. Mine was taking all kinds of food including flake before I brought him home but once he got in my reef he spent about a week just hunting the rocks and not eating anything I offered. Now he is very bold and will even compete with my tangs for food. He eats mysis, brine, bloodworms, and even seaweed selects (I think he's just trying to be one of the tangs).