Butterfly fish from live aqaria (not divers den)

[SDguy]

I'd personally not use hypo since all you see it twitching. I'm not a fan of hypo since, AFAIK, it's only good for ich. If your fish ends up having something else, not only will the hypo not help, but more often than not, you can't use medications with hypo. I like low dose cupramine with butterflies.

 

[jjk_reef00]

I'd personally not use hypo since all you see it twitching. I'm not a fan of hypo since, AFAIK, it's only good for ich. If your fish ends up having something else, not only will the hypo not help, but more often than not, you can't use medications with hypo. I like low dose cupramine with butterflies.

I suspect it is in fact ich because I did a fresh water dip on two of the fish and didn't see any flukes, I also didn't see and signs of velvet. I prefer copper myself but I don't know how effective lower doses are. The last thing I want to do is introduce ich to my display. I appreciate any feedback from anyone who can address my concerns.

 

[jjk_reef00]

All fish are now at hypo 1.009 and everyone seems to be doing well. The dot dash is healed and is eating like crazy. He is very bold and swims within inches of my hand when I feed the tank. He is the most active and even stands up to the Mertensii. The raccoon isn't eating a whole lot of frozen, he just picks at it. But he is the largest of the bunch and he eats quite a bit of nori every night. The black back just picks at the food but I think he is getting enough because he is active and curious.

 

[geaux xman]

i've hypo'd with prazi(2 treatments) before on a powder brown and the fish did fine. from what i've read from other peoples experiences it is okay to do concurrently.

as far as velvet, i imagine it would present itself during the hypo period if it existed. so i dont think you would have to worry much about introducing velvet into your DT.

i think with 5-6 weeks of 1.009 and 2 treatments of prazi, that should be just as effective as copper and prazi.

 

[Korrine]

FWIW, when I get my 150 up and running, I will run my fish through Crypto Pro and Prazi Pro whether I see any signs of anything or not. I also intend on keeping some butterflies. I'd love to get a Red Sea one, if possible.

Good luck. Keep us updated

 

[WuHT]

yes be wary of butterflies being a host for flukes.

1) once you get those butterflies eating, they're generally super bold and become very hardy. Thats when you should give the prazi pro a try.

 

[SDguy]

I had flukes become apparent a full two months into QT, so definitely do the prazi, even if you don't see signs of flukes.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

I suspect it is in fact ich because I did a fresh water dip on two of the fish and didn't see any flukes, I also didn't see and signs of velvet. I prefer copper myself but I don't know how effective lower doses are. The last thing I want to do is introduce ich to my display. I appreciate any feedback from anyone who can address my concerns.

Seachem says Cupramine is effective at .2 ppm (see their FAQ, second to the last question at http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Cupramine.html#faq8 ) even though the standard recommended dose is .5 ppm. I treat at .3 or so.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Well I dosed prazi last night and the raccoon is much better. He is eating everything. Overnight he is now the dominant fish in the tank, but he is also the largest. My problem now is the dot-dash is hiding and scratches on the rocks, and hasn't eaten yet today. Yesterday he was very bold and ate quite bit. I'm at hypo of 1.009. I'm regretting not using cupramine... I'm going to wait a few days to see how the dot-dash behaves and if he doesn't improve then I'm going to bringing up the salinity so I can dose low levels of cupramine.

 

[Lynnmw1208]

Well I dosed prazi last night and the raccoon is much better. He is eating everything. Overnight he is now the dominant fish in the tank, but he is also the largest. My problem now is the dot-dash is hiding and scratches on the rocks, and hasn't eaten yet today. Yesterday he was very bold and ate quite bit. I'm at hypo of 1.009. I'm regretting not using cupramine... I'm going to wait a few days to see how the dot-dash behaves and if he doesn't improve then I'm going to bringing up the salinity so I can dose low levels of cupramine.

Glad to hear the prazi is helping. I hope they all stop itching!

 

[aquaph8]

Really cool fish Ed. I would go for the cupermine, just go real slow with it.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Really cool fish Ed. I would go for the cupermine, just go real slow with it.

Thanks, I'm regretting not dosing cupermine and I'm raising the salinity back up so I can begin the copper treatment. I hope I don't see any severe hunger strikes.

 

[Korrine]

just a thought before you begin...I'm pretty sure rock absorbs copper, right!?! Take it out b4 you begin the treatment.

 

[jjk_reef00]

just a thought before you begin...I'm pretty sure rock absorbs copper, right!?! Take it out b4 you begin the treatment.

Already been down that road:

The fish are at about 90% of the recommended .5 ppm dose of cupramine. My test kit is in the mail so I'll know the exact value early next week. The dot dash went on a 3 day hunger strike.
I think this is more because I changed the aquascape by removing the live rock, and the fact he had what I think is ich. He was shaking his head and scratching. For those 3 days he wouldn't come out of the pvc. Yesterday I did a 75% water change with a new dose of cupramine and prazi. Today he is eating again. He isn't eating a lot but something is better than nothing. I'm hopping my good fortune continues and they all make it through qt.

 

[geaux xman]

Ed, I dont know what test kit you got, but I much prefer the Salifert over the Seachem copper test kit. Even then, distinguishing between .3ppm copper and .5 copper is very hard to do. I would not trust dosing from a test kit reading.

I find the best way to make sure your copper levels are consistent is dosing the Water Change water. ie.. make up 5gal of SW and dose that 5g to .4ppm. then use that water to do WC. If you have a 20g QT, that would help keep the level at .4ppm.

That is much better than thinking you are at .3ppm, dosing directly to get to .5ppm. The levels might really be .5ppm and you ending up going to .7ppm overdosing.

I would still test the copper on a frequent basis though.

 

[jjk_reef00]

To be honest I've never tested copper levels, I've qt'ed a lot of fish using the technique you describe and it works great. I've heard from several people that butterflies are very sensitive to copper. I was a little paranoid so I thought it would help to know what my exact reading is. It has only been a few days but I don't see the sensitivity problems and I have 5 of them in qt. Only time will tell. It did help that all of them were eating well within a couple days of their arrival, and I was able to put some weight on them. If I had received thin fish that were not eating it could be a completely different story. I'm very pleased with my purchase and the quality of fish LA delivered.

 

[geaux xman]

yeah that method works great for me. I bought the Seachem to use as a backup to 2nd check my copper levels and just pitched it aside after a few test. Even the Salifert that i favor and use primarily now, it is hard to tell. I can probably read it with +/- .15ppm accuracy. So what i'm thinking it is reading as .4ppm, it could be .5-.6ppm.

what all do you have in your 300g FOWLR? is this the tank the BF's are going in?

 

[jjk_reef00]

Yes BF's are going in the 300 which currently holds a damsel and a dotty back. I lost all my prized show fish a few months ago when I was out of town and we had 20 hours without power. The two small fish were the only survivors. I feed very heavy and like to see my fish grow. Rummer has it that BF's don't grow very much in home aquarium. I'm really hopping this is not the case.

My 300 is in hypo because long long ago I started keeping fish without qt. Then my prized queen angel showed flukes about 3 months after being in the display. I almost lost her and medicated the entire display with prazi (corals and everything). No losses. I don't know if ich was in my tank but I want to try to get a fresh start. I'm trying hypo for 5 weeks. After this BF experiment I will never hypo another fish. Cupramine all the way.

Here is a link to some of my old pics:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1885348

 

[geaux xman]

thats pretty unfortunate about the losses in your old tank.

are you planning on adding some larger size fish again? an angel or two?

i really want a pair of golden BF's, but after my last couple of pairs of BF's dying in QT, i'm hesitant.

pic is from this guy from the UK board. he has 3 or 4 golden BF's in his tank.

 

[jjk_reef00]

I have a 1" cortez angel, and I want to try to get an asfur angel. Those golden BF's look really cool, and I've been toying with the idea of either a pair of goldens or trying to pair up 2 falcula's.
Do you know why the golden sometimes have black eye markings and some times it is greyish-blue?
Do you know what killed your BF's?