A highly selective fluorescent indicator for copper, substituted with an aminoquinoline group at the position 3 or 5 of the BODIPY has been synthesized. The indicator has very low fluorescence quantum yield in acetonitrile with emission maxima at 580?nm. Upon binding copper it shows 50?nm bathochromic shifts with a change of solution color and a large increase in the fluorescence intensity. The fluorescence lifetime in acetonitrile was too short and could not be determined; whereas fluorescence decay profile of the copper complex was described by a mono-exponential decay with the lifetime of 4.38?ns. ESI-MS enabled detection of a Cu¡¤1 CN complexes which was fromed by C-C bond cleavage of acetonitrile.