Copper Treatment Going Well.....except

[mkulberg]

.........my fish have lost their appetite in recent days. I have been treating with SeaCure at the prescribed .15 level(monitered closely) in a large quarantine tank. The cysts have all diappeared and I havent had any new ones in a week. In general the fish "look" healthy and there are minimal signs of stress. I am reluctant to stop the treatment since it has only been 8 days. Is this normal when treating with copper?

If not, what would you recommend to start them feeding again? or will the appetite reappear once the copper treatment subsides?

Thanks very much
Mike

 

[SAT]

Copper is a slow poison... kind of like chemotherapy for cancer. You hope the treatment kills the disease before it kills the patient. So yes, it not surprising the fish are off their feed. Chances are they will start eating again when they are feeling better. However, if you're not also testing for ammonia I strongly suggest you do so... don't tolerate ammonia over 0.1ppm.

SeaCure is plain old Copper sulphate. It works and it's easy to test for, but it's much more toxic to fish than other forms such as Cupramine. It's likely that you wouldn't see this symptom with Cupramine or a chelated form of copper. However, safely switching from one to the other is tricky unless you also change all the water.

 

[mkulberg]

Thanks for your quick reply, based on your experience, how long would you continue the treatment? Is 14 days sufficient as the manufacturer suggests? It may be tough to change to Cupramine at this point since the tank is 150 gals.
Thanks again
Mike

 

[SAT]

14 days is usually sufficient for a copper treatment, but I have seen recommendations for 3 weeks. The available data isn't very precise.

 

[TerryB]

Wow, you are putting copper in a 150 gallon display tank? I sure hope not.

Terry B

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

Yeah, me too!




Anyway, do frequent large water changes..When I used Copper in the past I changed 50% of the water daily

 

[mkulberg]

I am using a Bare 150 gallon, tank, what issues do you see that I dont?

 

[TerryB]

If you are using a 150 gallon tank without rock, substrate or inverts then that is fine. I am assuming that you are treating for ich (Cryptocaryon irritans). If so, why did you opt for copper rather than hyposalinity? I doubt that .15ppm will be effective against Crypt. If you are sure that you want to use copper then I would definately use Cupramine instead. Check the copper level twice a day and add more as needed. SeaChem suggests a dose of .5ppm for Cupramine, but I have had great success using it at .4ppm.

Terry B