I could cry

[Brisbane Lion]

Hi everyone

It has been a while since I posted anything here so apologies for my absence. I HAVE WHITESPOT! The worst 3 words one could ever say. 3 words I thought I would never utter again. And of course its my own fault. About 4 years ago I got wiped out and from that moment on I purchased a QT and anything wet since has gone through my QT. I have managed to stay free from any disease since. Until now! Until now every fish that went through my QT I coppered. It didn't matter whether the fish looked sick or not.....it got coppered. Call it a reaction to the wipeout but it worked.

I recently started reading about how coppering fish out of hand was not necessary or "ethical". I thought about this and thought it had merit. Remember time heals just about anything and it had been quite a while since I had dealt with any disease. So next time I placed a fish in my QT I decided to just observe carefully and NOT COPPER. Six weeks later and not having observed anything untoward on my fish, it was time for it to be moved to the DT.

It was with some trepidation and concern but in went my fish. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY DID I DO IT? 2 weeks later and I HAVE ITCH. And I could cry............my reef tank looks fabulous.....my fish looked fabulous. Well except for the last one which is now exhibiting white spots in its tail. Quick clear the room of all sharp objects as I feel like using one on myself. Do I really have to catch all my fish, move them to another tank for copper treatment and let my DT lay dormant for 10 weeks? Don't answer....I already know what it is :-(((((((((((((

Why have I posted this? I guess I am hoping for a miracle in as much as someone has developed a cure that can be used in a reef tank. Ok, you can stop laughing now. Tell you what....just shoot me instead and put me out of my misery

Thanks for listening guys......Unfortunately I don't feel any better

 

[roenicknewf]

Sorry to hear your troubles ..
Would it be a possible to get the fish back out and do hypo on them ..
I hypo every new fish in QT ,symptoms or not

 

[Rea17]

The issue with hypo is that it ONLY works on ich, and even then it is iffy. You could still bring a bucket full of other parasites into the tank.

Lion, I'm very sorry to hear that. I think the second lesson is usually the one that hits home, when we knew better and did it anyway! You'll get through it, but yes, treatment and fallow as soon as possible.

As far as the "ethical" use of copper goes, a few weeks of treatment is going to be better for everyone (fish included) in the long run. If you are using Cupramine, you don't need the full .5mg/l recommended dosage on the bottle, .3 will kill off ich and be easier on the fish. I like to run .35-.4 to be on the safe side. If you are so inclined, there's also quite a bit of talk out there about Chloroquine Phosphate. I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet, but it's supposed to be as effective as copper without the (known) toxicity and bad side effects.

Good luck!

 

[Brisbane Lion]

Thank you Rea17. I agree with your statement on hyposalinity. I have used it before with disastrous results. I am very interested to learn more about your statement on Cupramine and the .3 dosage

 

[Mickey]

I'm so sorry for your situation.

I too feel like crying. Had a tank crash two weeks ago, lost most corals and half my fish (long story). I used this as an opportunity to take out over half of my live rock to try to get rid of a plague of brown/green palythoa that were just taking over everything. Never had ick in my tank before, at least never seen, and always quarantined new additions. Tonight I come home from work to check out the tank and my Hippo tang has ick. Other remaining fish seem fine. I assume its because of all the commotion. I'm sitting here now trying to figure out what to do and ready to cry.

Mickey

 

[Rea17]

Thank you Rea17. I agree with your statement on hyposalinity. I have used it before with disastrous results. I am very interested to learn more about your statement on Cupramine and the .3 dosage

There are several threads on here about the lower dosage. It seems pretty widely recognized that .5 is simply too high, and pushes the danger zone for certain species. I have also seen a lot of discussion about the 2 week treatment period being too short, and needing to extend it to 3-4 weeks to ensure that ich has been eradicated.

 

[Deinonych]

I agree with the lower dosage (0.35 - 0.4mg/l). I can personally attest to the fact that 2 weeks is too short, especially for active infections. I had a foxface that was sensitive to copper (stopped eating), so I took him off copper after 2 weeks in treatment and transitioned him to CP. There was a 5-day period in which I was removing copper using Cuprisorb (and also to get him eating again), and during that period spots reappeared after a couple days.

 

[ca1ore]

I treated a purple tang with ich for a full four weeks! No recurrence.