Copper Ich situation...

[Charley Diesing]

So yesterday I noticed my 1" blue tang in my QT had Ich so I started using cupramine followed the directions as told, but today both my Tang, and Flasher wrasse are hiding not moving, not swimming anywhere, wont eat anything. Copper is at .25 I plan on raising it too .5 tomorrow like the directions say.

Soo I guess is this normal? Should they bounce back? Or will they look the miserable all the way through the duration of copper?

Thanks,

Charley

 

[f3honda4me]

Those fish are pretty sensitive to copper. I would up copper about .1 per day until you get to around .35 or .40 at the highest.

Other option would be to try hyposalinity.

 

[Charley Diesing]

Those fish are pretty sensitive to copper. I would up copper about .1 per day until you get to around .35 or .40 at the highest.

Other option would be to try hyposalinity.

So will the .35-.40 kill the Ich? Will it just take longer? Would .25 kill the Ich off eventually? Because time is not an issue, I have to leave my tank fallow for 10 weeks, starting yesterday...

 

[f3honda4me]

While I will bow to those more knowledgeable, I believe that .30 is the "minimum" to kill ich, assuming you're using cupramine.

 

[Charley Diesing]

Alright thanks I would love it if some more people would chime in.


I guess I'll shoot for .35

 

[geaux xman]

I would leave the copper level at that level til the fish is eating. When the fish is eating, then you can increase the dosage.

I would aim for .35-.50ppm. .25ppm might do the the trick, i dont think anyone knows for sure. it probably wil to some extent, just not at the kill percentage that we would like.

i think its pretty much undisputed that .35ppm at 3-4 weeks will almost always kill the ich. nothing is 100%.

 

[Charley Diesing]

double

 

[Charley Diesing]

Alrighty. Well the Blue tang looks better today coming out of hiding, looks like he's breathing normally. although I don't see him really moving much at all, just kind of sits in one location.

Although the wrasse looks awful...

Do you think I should replace some water, bring down the copper some, and then bring it up slower...

Its at .25 Should they recover?

 

[Charley Diesing]

They're both looking pretty bad... Any advice?

 

[geaux xman]

It might be best to remove the copper and try to get the fish to eat. Were they eating prior to copper?

If my fish doesnt eat for about 3 days after adding copper, I would either move the fish to another QT tank or remove the copper via water change.

 

[wnppmy]

This is a newbie report, do they eat flake food, might try garlic food, tho mine tuff damsels, did wonders, likely won't hurt anything, suppose to help immune system, but get a verify on this.

I did hyposalinity but only partial results, keep us posted.

Cleaner Shrimp might help as have one, but they won't handle any copper at all as well as any hyposalinity either. Can verify below 1.017 definitely lethal on shrimp.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Unless fish are really covered with ich; I think they ,should be given a few days in the HT/QT before copper is added. They should begin eating, then slowly add Cu. The one thing that we always avoid when discussing ich treatment, IMO & IME, is that not all fish will be saved all the time. Tangs usually handle Cu very well, some wrasse are sensitive. But, I don't think Cu at .25 is going to bother 99% of fish at all. I agree with
geaux xman; Cu at .35 is (almost) always effective; but I wouldn't go below this. Also; were these the only fish in the tank when they were put into the HT/QT? How is ammonia and are the fish having breathing problems?

 

[f3honda4me]

This is a newbie report, do they eat flake food, might try garlic food, tho mine tuff damsels, did wonders, likely won't hurt anything, suppose to help immune system, but get a verify on this.

I did hyposalinity but only partial results, keep us posted.

Cleaner Shrimp might help as have one, but they won't handle any copper at all as well as any hyposalinity either. Can verify below 1.017 definitely lethal on shrimp.

Cleaner shrimp don't do anything for ich. Ich is below the skin.

 

[Charley Diesing]

Unless fish are really covered with ich; I think they ,should be given a few days in the HT/QT before copper is added. They should begin eating, then slowly add Cu. The one thing that we always avoid when discussing ich treatment, IMO & IME, is that not all fish will be saved all the time. Tangs usually handle Cu very well, some wrasse are sensitive. But, I don't think Cu at .25 is going to bother 99% of fish at all. I agree with
geaux xman; Cu at .35 is (almost) always effective; but I wouldn't go below this. Also; were these the only fish in the tank when they were put into the HT/QT? How is ammonia and are the fish having breathing problems?

Well sad news... Wrasse died. I did a 5 gallon water change and added carbon, getting the copper down... The blue tang seems to be doing good.

Also the fish were in the QT for 4 weeks before I started copper, they were all eating, pellets, flake, frozen, etc...

I guess I'm going to wait until the tang starts eating at the current copper level(probably around 0.1) then I will slowly ramp up again...

 

[Charley Diesing]

Ammonia-0
Nitrates-5
Nitrites-0

Tested all of these today, and I have an ammonia seachem alert-er. So Ammonia has always been at 0.