Copper in fish from LFS

[SoCalSURFrider]

I usually buy my fish at my LFS and I heard he uses copper in his tanks.... When I buy a fish from him I dont pour the water from the bag, but I use a net and scoop him out and the place him in the tank... Will my fish last long enough in my tank coming from the LFS?

 

[Sk8r]

It is very hard on them. It is a poison. Some fish it will outright kill. i would advise you buy fish online instead---and if you're brave, tell your fish store you'll buy gear from them, but not fish, so long as they use copper. Never ever ever let water from the fish store OR an online source touch your tank. I use my hand only as a net for non-poisonous species and actually give them a second dip in the same parameters water before putting the fish in, just to be sure anything riding in the water drops gets washed off.

 

[SoCalSURFrider]

So the fish I have in my tank now will eventualy die? They seem like they are doing fine now... I really dont want anything to go wrong with them.....

 

[crvz]

No, I don't think they'll eventually die, though it depends on the concentration of copper used at the LFS. If they're doing fine now, good chance they'll be alright.

 

[Sk8r]

Hopefully they'll be fine. Copper is a poison to living things: in small doses it kills parasites before it kills the fish. And hopefully he's selling fish through his shop so fast they don't spend long in it. In my lfs, a fish may stay 3 months, and that would be very bad. I still don't like it, even as a medication for actual ich outbreaks: if you can kill the parasite with hypo (low) salinity, it's easier on the fish. Didn't mean to scare you, but I just would ask very pointedly "When did you get him in?" and familiarize yourself with the copper tolerance of certain fishes. And it may, also, be that he is treating fish that arrive with ich with copper, but not using it in all tanks. It kills inverts outright, so you know a fish in a tank with inverts is not in copper.