Cupramine - 14 days treatment are really necessary?

[leo1405]

Hi guys,

I was thinking about copper treatment with cupramine and looking ich cycle of life:

The instructions say to keep the fish 14 days with 0.5 copper concentration.
my question is: 14 days are really necessary?

which parasites has cycle of life with more than 10 days?

thanks in advance,

 

[snorvich]

my question is: 14 days are really necessary?

Actually, a minimum of 30 days is required

which parasites has cycle of life with more than 10 days? And it must be at a therapeutic level.

All of them.

thanks in advance,

 

[leo1405]

but the copper kills the parasites on free swimming state, right?

 

[JoelA7]

Cupramine instructions:

Final copper concentration is 0.5 mg/L (0.25 mg/L in freshwater). Leave at this concentration for 14 days.

From the Seachem website: http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Cupramine.html

 

[snorvich]

You asked for advice. If you have a predetermined answer, go for it. Otherwise you might do some reading here.

 

[JoelA7]

Hi Steve,

Did not mean to offend. I'm not the OP. Just thought that the manufacturer's information was relevant to the discussion.

Best,

Joel

 

[HumbleFish]

In a perfect world, 14 days works just fine. But being there are so many different strains of ich - some with longer life cycles - treating for 30 days gives you some wiggle room.

 

[snorvich]

Hi Steve,

Did not mean to offend. I'm not the OP. Just thought that the manufacturer's information was relevant to the discussion.

Best,

Joel

The manufacturer's instructions are the minimum contact exposure and therapeutic dosage. However copper exposure should begin low and gradually increased until it reaches the level of therapeutic dosage.

However, the the "gold standard" test of a medication or procedure is whether or not it leads to an increase in the number of neurologically intact survivors that survive. In the vast majority of cases, 30 days is the gold standard contact time for copper (or other drug such as CP) with the ich parasite life cycle at a therapeutic level to insure the stage that is susceptible to eradication emerges. In a small number of circumstances, exposure beyond 30 days is required to guarantee eradication. That is one of several reasons why copper is occasionally deemed to fail, the other one is that the concentration falls below therapeutic dose.

It is generally known that LFS that run copper at less than therapeutic dosage can mask various parasites which later emerge when the animal is transferred to water which does not have a low level of copper.

And no offense was taken.