leopard wrasse qt

[cshutchinson]

Lucid,

Can you share which copper test kit you prefer to test copper levels. I am looking for an alternative to the Seachem kit which really has me guessing from time to time.

Do you find that a total of 2ml per 10 gallons of cupramine gets you to a safe level when dosed incrementally over a period of several days? ( 2 drops per gallon x 2 doses / 20 drops per ml)

Thanks, just trying to get my procedure nailed down a little better.

 

[iamwrasseman]

i know you asked lucid but i also use a seachem kit and when compared to a professional test used in city water testing its pretty accurate until you get very ,very low but your testing higher that where it get touchy IMO.also i would like to add that leopard wrasses usually are quite resilient to ick out breaks .
are you worried about the wrasse or introducing ick into the DT ? i have 45 wrasses and 90% have been introduced directly into DT with absolutely no issues with disease . i do however use prasi pro when each and every one is introduced as an internal parasite precaution which i have found to be more of a worry than ick . this is just my experience and you can take it for what its worth
good luck !

 

[lucidheights]

Lucid,

Can you share which copper test kit you prefer to test copper levels. I am looking for an alternative to the Seachem kit which really has me guessing from time to time.

Do you find that a total of 2ml per 10 gallons of cupramine gets you to a safe level when dosed incrementally over a period of several days? ( 2 drops per gallon x 2 doses / 20 drops per ml)

Thanks, just trying to get my procedure nailed down a little better.

i use seachem when testing for cupramine and i find it to be a quessing game for the most part. I went as far as measuring 10.5 gallons and adding 2ml with a syringe to train my eye to detect the right color. To answer your question, yes dosing as per the instruction get you in the range of the therapeutic level. i should stress the importance of using a syringe, relying on the drops is not good at all. I really don't even check anymore, i just fill my 20gal to the very top and use a syringe to dose it. This particular time i did check because of the sand, but usually my qt is void of sand and rock.

 

[iamwrasseman]

its funny , a high percentage of men are color blind and have trouble with the color change kits such as copper,po4,and si . i have to have my wife do mine as the purple to pink change is so subtle that i just never see it happen until I'm off by a mile .

 

[lucidheights]

i know you asked lucid but i also use a seachem kit and when compared to a professional test used in city water testing its pretty accurate until you get very ,very low but your testing higher that where it get touchy IMO.also i would like to add that leopard wrasses usually are quite resilient to ick out breaks .
are you worried about the wrasse or introducing ick into the DT ? i have 45 wrasses and 90% have been introduced directly into DT with absolutely no issues with disease . i do however use prasi pro when each and every one is introduced as an internal parasite precaution which i have found to be more of a worry than ick . this is just my experience and you can take it for what its worth
good luck !

Yea i have read that about wrasses, i'm just afraid of the possibility that the wrasse might be hosting it in its gills. i also plan on using prazi, i will likely add it during the last week of the copper treatment so the water change would coincide with the end of both treatments. I have heard that it is okay to use both in conjunction.

 

[lucidheights]

its funny , a high percentage of men are color blind and have trouble with the color change kits such as copper,po4,and si . i have to have my wife do mine as the purple to pink change is so subtle that i just never see it happen until I'm off by a mile .

haha yea those calcium and alk tests, the color change always sneaks up on me

 

[iamwrasseman]

yes it is just be sure that the wrasse is doing well as the added stress could be the last straw but you probably wont have a problem .

 

[cshutchinson]

i use seachem when testing for cupramine and i find it to be a quessing game for the most part. I went as far as measuring 10.5 gallons and adding 2ml with a syringe to train my eye to detect the right color. To answer your question, yes dosing as per the instruction get you in the range of the therapeutic level. i should stress the importance of using a syringe, relying on the drops is not good at all. I really don't even check anymore, i just fill my 20gal to the very top and use a syringe to dose it. This particular time i did check because of the sand, but usually my qt is void of sand and rock.

Thank for establishing that standard for me 2 ml per 10-1/2 gallons. I will work up to that over a week when I start.

I get tested for being color blind (pilot) and I am not, but the shades I see on the seachem test strip and the shades I see on the sample don't match. The test strip shades are always much brighter and it makes it hard to determine what is right. I guess i need to practice more with some blind samples.

Yes, I agree about the drops, and thank you for helping to establish the mL standard. I appreciate your time.

 

[allabarton]

so i purchased a leopard wrasse that will get here tomorrow. i have a qt tank that has been setup for about 2 years and is stable as could be. I know wrasses need sand to dig in and can damage their mouths in the absence of of it, but there is no way he will go straight to my dt. My qt is bare bottom so i was planning the Tupperware filled with sand trick but thought of something else. Do you think its possible to line the bottom of my 20g qt with enough filter floss to cushion any attempts by the wrasse diving into the glass and hurting its mouth. I plan on using cupramine incase of disease and would rather leave the sand out of the picture.

Hi Lucid,

I wonder how is your Leopad Wrasse doning?

Thank you.

Alla

 

[triggreef]

NO COPPER!!!! I had a leopard wrasse in QT for two weeks of observation with one other fish. Other fish got ich so I treated with cupramine. Wrasse died two days later, that's when I found out they don't tolerate copper.

I know about the one fish per QT rule, but I needed to at the time. Search for leopard wrasse primer, big thread about it.

I lost mine at the .2 level. Really the first dose did it in. I even had rock in there for hiding that I figured would soak up some copper.

Two weeks seems to be the mark for leopards that are not treated with prazi right off the bat from what I read in the primer thread, so this means nothing. Had you used prazi first and been able to rule out the death from internal parasites, then it could be more alerting to the use of copper causing the death.

Iamwrasseman noted a lot of deaths from them even after being dosed with prazi (and I'm only in the 30's in that thread so far), so I don't think you could know if the copper causes any sensativity at all. Until you see one that has lived for several months just fine in an aquarium, dose it with copper, and it dies... You really can't out right blame the copper.

Why not keep the fish in QT for observation and only medicate if symptoms appear that warrant it? I don't quite get the school of thought that medicates automatically in QT. I've put all my fish in quarantine and in only one instance did it become necessary to use copper. The rest of the time they spent their eight weeks in the quarantine tank and then right into the display and I have never had one sign of disease in my DT.

There are many many more parasites out there than ich and internal worms. I've said a ton of times recent, I had the fortune to hear a marine biologist that studies parasites speak at a conference. She said out of random harvested ornamental SW fish in one study, they counted an average of 37 different kinds of parasites per fish collected. That's why.

Hi Lucid,

I wonder how is your Leopad Wrasse doning?

Thank you.

Alla

Me too. But it probably died since he never posted again. But I would suspect it died because it didn't get dosed with prazi right off the get go. Most likely nothing to do with cupramine. But this would end up another, "yup they cant take copper" thread.

 

[MrTuskfish]

FWIW: Just because a fish dies in a QT with copper, doesn't mean the copper killed it. But, for some reason, most folks seem to assume that to be the case.