Aiptasia Assassin Hired

[Instar]

CBBs are not a cure all! I would expect a well established 200g system is probably about the minimum - is that about right Larry?

To say a 200 is about the minimum would be a slight exaggeration but established in regard to water quality - yes. There are lots of caviots to getting things right with a CBB. If its put into a pack of wild or strong and established fish, it can cause the CBB to never feed normally as in Gary's case. That makes for a ton of work and expense to keep it alive. If you have two systems, that would be the greatest advantage. You can give it a nice large home by itself to heal its injured snout and get accustomed to you and frozen food and life in a tank. Most of the time they are extremely difficult to get started to eat on frozen foods and in this case having food in the water for them to look at is necessary. If its all taken by pigs that have been in the tank for a while, that stacks the deck seriously against the CBB. In a peaceful tank, they tame very nicely and will eat from your hand if they are not bullied or out raced to the food and will quickly become your favored fish. Once in great shape, then maybe they can compete in the main system, so long as there is plenty of space for everyone both day AND night. CBB's like many fish, like to find a cave sometimes that they can call their own. They need a lot of food top keep from emaciation, so a large tank with refugium and skimmer are your best bet. It could very well be around 200 gallons by the time you add it all together. There is always someone with an exception to the size issue, but those are very experienced reefers that also have a lot invested in equipment.

[don-n-sa]

Great Info Larry!

[GaryP]

CBBs are not a cure all! I would expect a well established 200g system is probably about the minimum - is that about right Larry?

I have had two CBB that have done very well in my two systems. One is a 75 gal with sump that is a total capacity of around 100 gal. I got that fish from another MAASTARD and it was eating frozen when I got it is the easiest to care for of the two fish. This fish will feed in open water. This tank does not have as much flow and I feed in an area that has the least flow. It will tank bloodworms, brine, and seems to especially like mysids although it has to work hard to eat a big one.

The other one was purchased from a local LFS. It has taken a year to get it to start eating frozen but I feel its just a supplement to the mussels and other stuff it eats in the tank. Its in a 125 with a sump and refugium. Total capacity is around 180 gal. This tank has a very healthy grammarus shrimp population and I am sure he probably hunts those at night. As I said in my earlier post, its a shy eater when I feed frozen food.

CBB are not naturally open water feeders. They like to pick things off the rock and sand. It will wait until stuff settles to the bottom before feeding. With the flow in this tank and the other aggressive eaters in there, not a lot get to the bottom for him to feed on. CBB will not aggressively chase food in strong currents like tangs and wrasses will do. It seems like the food has to fall in front of its face for it to feed, so if shutting off flow during feeding time is an option you may want to do that. Another option may to put a small amount of food on the bottom for it to feed on with a turkey baster while distracting the other fish with something to chase in the flow. Also as I mentioned before, Instar turned me onto the idea of mashing bloodworms into an open brain skeleton for them to pick at. It seems as if feather dusters are a part of their natural diet. This may replicate that sort of food. Don't expect to have any feather dusters in your tank with a CBB. That includes things like Christmas Tree corals too, although Mikey Boy's CBB hasn't seemed to touch his.

Overall, I would agree that CBB can be a very difficult and trying fish to keep alive. Instar has helped me a lot in finally keeping mine alive. I went through 2 of them before I was able to keep my 2 current one's alive. I think we need to get him to do a presentation on butterflies at an upcoming meeting, with an emphasis on CBB. Getting them to feed is the key. The one I have in the 75 was never a problem because it came from another successful tank. I am starting to see a lot of success with the one I have in the 125. I plan on adding a different species of butterfly (long nose?) to that tank after I finish my upgrade to the 180.

[Instar]

BTW, GaryP's are the fattest healthiest CBB's I've seen. And like I said, there is always an experienced reefer with a lot in equipment that can provide an example of total gallons with all the refugium, sump, skimmer, overflow and tank thats less in gallons. But more is better in this case because of the total weight per ounze of body weight in food they need to consume. Its high protein food too, such as mussels, clams, mysis, ocean plankton, sandbed worms. It takes a serious system and water changes for that to work in the long run.

Also, the CBB, once tamed and acclimated to life in the tank and frozen food will not know its not a tang. It will chase food and compete with all the others just the same, current or no current. Mine are pigs and are the first fish to come to my hand for food. The others all hang back. In case someone doesn't want to tame one, please leave it in the ocean then. It has to be tamed to live a long healthy happy life in your reef. Things are different in there as is the availablility and time of availability of the food.

Yes, they will get a few pods and bristle worms now and then from the rocks and sand but not enough to sustain them in your tank. You can tell when they get a Gammarus shrimp cause its hard to crunch (some of those even get away after they are caught) and a live little bristle worm will make them shake their snout like they just ate a good hot pepper and can't wait for another one. But that all depends on them recovering from handling and shipping first and starting to eat. They can't eat that or smaller aiptasia until their snout is healed from handling, stress and salinity shock. As always, best as one of the first fish in the tank with tangs being the last addition to the tank. Some where along the line this seems to have been forgotten about in the stages of planning the reef it seems?

[Instar]

One more note; your CBB will benefit highly from having a pair of cleaner shrimp in the tank if you are one of the people able to keep those.

[GaryP]

One of mine hangs out in the same cave as a fire shrimp that I think is probably cleaning him. I never see him on the other end of the tank with the cleaner shrimp.