Copperband Butterfly in bad shape/being picked on.

So my Copperband Butterfly (1.5 inch) has been in the tank for about 3 or 4 weeks now and is the calmest fish in the tank, today I noticed that another fish had bitten his tailfin and found that it's my female clown (2 in.) doing it, and my yellow tang (4 in.) seems to be nipping at him too. The butterfly hasn't been "grazing" as he usually does and since I noticed the others nipping at him he has sat in one spot, usually with his tailfin touching the sand, and at times he laid completely on his side for a few seconds. I recently removed a blue hippo from the tank to treat for ich and so I looked for the same symptoms on the butterfly....which I saw small specks on his fins but not on his body. The specks were much smaller than those on the hippo, so I'm not sure if their ich or not. Anyway, to keep the other fish from nipping at him and stressing him out further, I removed him and put him in my quarantine with the blue hippo. Not sure if this was a good move or not but I felt desperate to save him. Any help or suggestions on what to do next would be VERY helpful. Thank you!

 

I had 2 copperband's one that died shortly and one I had no problems with tell a rock fell on him(now I use zip ties for my rock work). I would not stress yet if it was me. Ich is often misdiagnosed. If it is ich it will not get any bigger than a grain of salt. I would guess it may be a fungus because he is stressed from being picked on. In my experience fungus will not harm this fish unless it gets in its gills. I am not as experienced as other on here but I would leave him alone and not stress him anymore than necessary.

 

Thanks for the reply! I was more concerned about the other fish nipping his tailfin down to nothing than I was about ich. He didn't seem to be swimming away from the other fish quickly like normal so I didn't want them taking advantage of that.

 

It is pretty common for new fish to get picked on, especially if the other fish have been in the tank for a while. I had a couple fish that where being harassed, but after the new fish got used to its new home everything was ok.
I hope that is the same in your case. Good luck.

 

A common problem with copper banded butterflies is starvation. A lack of a recognized food or competition for food causes them to starve. I would take note during feeding if he eats anything. If not it is likely he has not eaten anything in a long time. The other fish are reacting to a week fish.

J

 

Mine actually loved mysis shrimp. He ate as well as the others. I hope yours gets well, these are one of my favorite fish.

 

I wouldn't have moved the Copperband to another tank. If you were insistant on moving something, I would have moved the others.

 

In addition to what others have said, yellow tangs and CBs really don't mix. YTs will almost always pick on them and CBs are very timid, so, they will not tolerate it well. It sounds like there are other problems as well though...

 

Raise the temp of your qt to around 80 and make sure the fish is eating. The temp raise is not meant to treat anything only to improve appetite. Does the fish eat anything you place in with him? If he doesnt he is likely starving and at this point it may be too late. One thing you could try if he is not eating is go find an anemone or two at your lfs and throw in there with him. Add bits of mysis shrimp to the top of the anemones once they are in there. The CB will eat them accidently and then may decide he likes the prepared food.

 

Thanks for the replies guys...... you've given some great advice, but unfortunately he died during the night right after I posted.

I'm 90 percent sure that Jason and Ryland are exactly right. He ate well and picked off the rocks during his first couple weeks in the tank, but I didn't notice as much activity the third week and in hindsight I'm sure he was starving. I had even bought a decent sized sponge for him to pick at but never saw him near it. Unfortunately I think this is one of those lessons hard learned as a beginning aquarist. My tank just didn't have enough for him to pick at and he didn't eat the mysis. Thanks again for all your help, thanks to a lot of you the rest of my tank is doing great!