Cupramine burns the gills on fish, then they die?

[3rdimension]

That's what this local fish dealer told me today. He claims to have the healthiest fish around, has thousands of gallons running on different systems and he only uses copper power to treat ich. He told me to not use Cupramine for the reason I mentioned in the title.

I never heard that before and never had any problems using cupramine, except for one time I may have overdosed a little bit when trying to treat a valentini puffer, which I wasn't aware puffers were more sensitive to copper treatments of any kind. So what about copper power? Doesn't that product disrupt the biological filtration?

I definitely don't want to do that, since it'll only cause more problems for the fish down the road. Also other copper treatments that I'm unaware of could more than likely suppress fish's appetite and damage their liver and kidneys.

So has anyone done further research on the side effects of Cupramine and Copper Power? Which is all around safer for the fish without doing too much damage to the fish and the biological filtration?

 

[MrTuskfish]

Your LFS is dead wrong. Cupramine is the safest copper med around, IMO.

 

[SDguy]

So I just spent 5 minutes looking up copper power.... not only can I not figure out the manufacturer, but I can't figure out what exactly is in it.

And then we have curpamine.... here's the first link that pops up on a google search:
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Cupramine.html

 

[h2so4hurts]

More proof that many local fish dealers are idiots.

 

[3rdimension]

This guy runs an aquarium business from his basement. I think he only said that because that's how he's going to get more money, by giving people the wrong information, so they'll keep buying fish after the ones they've purchased died. Then that wouldn't make sense since he also told me that he will not sale people a fish unless it's eating and healthy. That's how much pride he takes in his customer service and the fish he sales. He just sold a Clarion today and he has a very rare Gem Tang in stock as well. He gets fish most other LFS stores don't usually order.

 

[3rdimension]

Now that I took a google look at Copper Power, I remember using this product about 10 years ago on my main 180 gallon system when I didn't have a quarantine back then. The copper may not have killed my fish, but it killed about half the biological bacteria in the tank, stressing them out, killing over $300 in fish within a few days. I was upset!

 

[RegalAngel]

High levels of Cupramine, 0.5-0.7 can result in gill hyperplasia, so try to keep the concentration down in the 0.18-0.20 area. Long term use (30-60 days) at this concentration will not be a problem.

 

[Tin_Whistler]

I can't think of anyone I know that I would consider knowledgeable about fish that doesn't prefer cupramine to any other copper med.

I would wager this guy sells copper power, and doesn't sell cupramine. I'm not familiar enough with copper power to tell you if it's good or bad. But the idea that cupramine is bad, if used properly, is laughable in my opinion.

 

[3rdimension]

High levels of Cupramine, 0.5-0.7 can result in gill hyperplasia, so try to keep the concentration down in the 0.18-0.20 area. Long term use (30-60 days) at this concentration will not be a problem.

Thanks for that info. I appreciate it. I'll go with that then.