Cupramine Treatment in Process Questions / or HELP

[cshutchinson]

Things appear to have stabalized now and all the fish are doing well. I am beginning to think ammonia burn may have contributed to the death of the ignitus anthias, and the powder brown tang.

Unfortunately, this was my fault. It was difficult to control the ammonia in this new QT. Apparently I was not diligent enough with my water changes even though i did so many. Just before the ammonia went to zero, my water changes were not eliminating all of it. This low level ammonia over several days likely contributed to my fish losses I guess.

What a hard lesson to learn. I should know better. Did I have flukes? Possibly, but I don't think they killed the fish. I did see a few drop off, but in the final days the fish seemed to be suffering from ammonia burn more than anything else.

Anyone have any thoughts here?

On a positive note, the cupramine and Prazipro are causing no problems being dosed together. All the fish are very healthy now and get more lively each day.

 

[LaurieC]

You could keep a bottle of BioSpira on hand to add to the tank to deal with the ammonia. Otherwise water changes. I just found my two neon gobies have ich so I'm starting cupramine tomorrow. I'm nervous after reading your posts. Very sorry to hear of your losses--you did a great job in a very difficult situation.

 

[pavelow360]

I completely understand what your going thru. This morning I awoke to a tank full of dead fish, snails and an urchin!

My black domino damsel looked as though he went blind and was meek when he used to be the tough fish in tank. then I noticed this last Friday my Koran Angel's side was a lil whiter than normal - I thought he was changing as Juvinile's do when they are turning into adults then I noticed him twicthing, then he was rubbing across a shell on the bottom of tank. I said oh no we have ich, so I have Cupermine stuff and dropped 20 drops in waited til Sun eve did it again and my Purple Pusuade was dead next day. Then fish looked like they were laboring in breathing, manwhile the Domino was getting worse, then I called my local pet shop told him the situation he told me to do another full treatment and - bam! This morning my whole tank - GONE!!! Suprisingly though when I shut off the light and turned off the pumps/filters my strong willed Yellow Tang woke up and came to front of tank, I pulled him out (he had a white coating on him???) Dipped in fresh water then set up a bucket with correct temp and salt water levels and he died an hour and a half later from when I found him.

Can anyone tell me what the heck happened - where did I go wrong?????? I'm very sad today....

Thanks in advanced - Serena

Did you put the copper in your tank with inverts? sounds like it, that is what killed all your inverts

Were you testing for copper? sounds like you didn't, in all likelyhood from what you posted, you overdosed your tank, that is what killed your fish

Do you test your tank for ammonia etc? if your fish went blind, he could have been affected by ammonia or nitrite levels. also if you had any problems with these things, the addition of copper probably finished everything off

 

[cshutchinson]

Things have smoothed out now. All the fish are doing fine. I will complete my 5 weeks of copper in the QT next Monday. The fish have been in the QT for 6 weeks now since September 22nd. I have done two PraziPro treatments for what it was worth, I couldn't tell.

My Cupramine levels have been locked on .5 mg/L with testing every other day.

My plan is to introduce the two yellow tangs back to the DT first on December 1st and add a few fish each week after that. December 1st will be 10 weeks fallow.

The blue hippo tang bothers me the most in QT. He still flashes from time to time, but he has no signs of ich and I am not sure how he could after 5 weeks of cupramine. He is growing and eating well. He may be the very last to go to the DT around the first of the year. I have read some blue hippos alway do this, not sure.

How does this sound to the experts?

 

[cshutchinson]

How ich survives 5 weeks of copper beats the heck out of me. Maybe my Seachem test was bad, but I have used up three of them. Surely the chances of all three Seachem test kits being bad are slim.

I sometimes wonder if there is something in the QT that PraziPro and Cupramine aren't treating. Honestly I don't know what else to try.

The blue tang is the only one showing symptoms of ich. But it looks like another six weeks plus I guess. I am not sure I have the willpower to do it. I started Cupramine again after taking it out last week.


At some point it seems the Cupramine is going to damage the fish internally. Ironically my DT is fallow now and I don't have fish ready to go in it.

THIS REALLY SUCKS!

 

[RegalAngel]

Any parasites on the fish will last no more than two weeks. Once they fall off and then become cysts, the free swimming tomites will attach to the fish. But since you have Cu in the tank, the Tomites will be killed.

So, once the two weeks is up, the fish are ready to go to the DT. Good luck.