ich not responding to copper & hyposalinity

[newreef69]

Hi,

I have a 180 gal fowlr with about 12 fish in it. About a 2 weeks ago, I notice the white cheek tang develops some white spot on its body. It was next to impossible to catch it without breaking down the aquascaping. So I left it in there.
Two days later, the aichelles tang develops the same symptom to which I thought was ich.
I decided to treat the whole tank with copper according to instruction and I have a salifert test kit to ensure proper treatment. However, after a week of treatment, the two infected tangs show no sign of improvement and their appetite have gotten worse.
I switched my tactics and went with hyposalinity and still no sign of improvement.
My apologies for not having pictures. But they are small white spots all over the body of the fish.
My purpletang now developed a popeye. What do you recommend?
Many thanks for your help.

 

[limitdown]

1wk of copper treatment is not enough. There were a few times that I treated for over 3wks and still had spots on my fish. I now treat for 2 entire wks AFTER all symptoms are gone, which means a total of 4wks+.

If you have copper in your system, do not concurrently do hyposalinity, the fish won't be able to handle it. From my experience, I've found copper to be much more effective than hyposalinity.

I've found Seachem's Cupramine to be the most effective and least harsh copper product in the market.

With testing, I've had serious problems using API's copper test kit with Cupramine. I now only use Seachem's copper test kit, which I find to be very accurate.

With dosing, I've found slower to be better. Seachem recommends 16 drops per 10 gallons (ie 0.25mg /liter) on the first day and then another 16 drops after 48hrs (ie to 0.50mg/liter). However, I've found that some fish don't take the 0.25mg on the first day too well and now I only dose 0.10 to 0.125mg/liter on the first day, and then another 0.10 to 0.125mg after 48hrs.

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

Remember that their is no instant cure for ich ... ich naturally fall off of the fish in about a week and neither copper or hypo really kill ich while its on the fish.

As I recall Cupramine recommends a two week program .. but I suspect most treat for 3 weeks. Cupramine tends to be difficult to accurately read for some copper test kits ... Seachem, Red Sea and the new Salifert test kits seem to work properly .. not so sure of the others.

Hypo and Copper at the same time maybe overkill. Further - remember that unless you compensate for the reduced alkalinity normally associated with hypo your copper product may become more toxic and harm the fish.

Keep a close eye on ammonia levels in the tank. Copper tends to suppress beneficial bacteria - also note that hyposalinity in a show tank tends to kill off the infauna in the live rock and substrate which can result in significant water quality issues.