How long in copper

[Spunky Bob]

Hi all,

I had velvet and lost half my fish but I saved the rest in QT.
They have been in QT for about 3.5 weeks now with copper.

Fish in QT are a yellow tang and cleaner wrasse, we sold the rest to start anew.

(Lost 2 yellow tangs, Kole tang, Orange shoulder tang, pair or a grade davinchi clowns, 2 bangai and a lawnmower blenny)

I didn't have a test kit at the start and the copper (cupramine) was a bit low but there have been no symptoms so it has been working. I have since got a test kit and raised to to the correct level.

Still another 4 weeks in QT before returning to my tank but is it safe to keep the fish in cupramine for this length of time?

I would carbon out the copper for the next 4 except we have had a orange shoulder tang on order and it's being sent next week so I wanted to leave the copper in the QT.

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[JustinM]

If kept in low levels of copper, it will mask the symptoms. You can keep them at therapeutic for the remaining time if you see no stress from them.

 

[lagatbezan]

Copper kills the free swiming stages of both ich and velvet, so if you have another sterile qt that you can setup, you can move the fish from the copper qt to the new sterile one after 14 days (Min 10 days, but 14 to be safe) BUT only the fish should be moved and no equipments. Move the fish from the one qt, to a small bucket filled with clean fresh water and then from that to the new qt thas been setup using a colander. and then observe in the new qt for 30 days.
the qt tanks should be at least 10 feet away from each other.
You can reuse the old tank with the copper in it for the new arriving fish, but its always best to bring up the copper level gradually and not just add the fish to it full strength.
I would personally tear down, sanitize, let fully dry and then reuse qt.

 

[Spunky Bob]

Hi. All, thanks for the advice.
We decided to sell the fish and start new when the big tank is ready so my original fish are gone and we have a white cheek tang freshly in the QT.

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[scooter31707]

IMO, no more than 20-30 days.