Problem during Quarantine...

[TangReefer]

Hi Guys,

I had an ich outbreak in my DT while fighting cyano issues and decided to take the hard approach. I got all of the fish out to quarantine everybody, even bought an additional tank and am currently running 2 QTs (or hospital tanks if you prefer) to accommodate all of the fish properly.

Because of my work, it is quite common for me to be away for 2-4 days. I got home yesterday and found that my blue tang is not looking well at all, still a lot of ich but now also some open sores on the body:

The Naso Vlamingii also is displaying an open sore, although not as bad:

All fish that survived the outbreak are eating well and behaving normally, including these 2 tangs. They have been under cupramine treatment for 14 days now. My questions would be:

1. Shouldn't the ich spots have disappeared from the blue tang by now, or be at least looking much better than initially?

2. What could be the cause of the open sores?

3. Should I stop cupramine and treat the sores or continue with cupramine and deal with the sores later?

Thanks for help, cheers.

 

[Dmorty217]

Looks to be a bacterial infection probably caused by the cupramine. What are you testing the cupramine levels with? Seachem makes a test kit that is by far the best to use with cupramine. I would test the cupramine levels and go from there. If you're not to what the bottle suggest then I would remove the cupramine and treat the bacterial infection and go a different route like hypo or tank transfer method. Chloroquine Phosphate is another option but hippo tangs don't seem to take to it very well for the most part

 

[TangReefer]

Looks to be a bacterial infection probably caused by the cupramine. What are you testing the cupramine levels with? Seachem makes a test kit that is by far the best to use with cupramine. I would test the cupramine levels and go from there. If you're not to what the bottle suggest then I would remove the cupramine and treat the bacterial infection and go a different route like hypo or tank transfer method. Chloroquine Phosphate is another option but hippo tangs don't seem to take to it very well for the most part

I'm using the seachem test kit itself, levels at 0.5 as required. I didn't know cupramine would cause bacterial lesions?

 

[JustinM]

+1 to no CP with hippo tangs.

Cupramine itself won't cause bacterial infections. Some fish are irritated by copper and they could have been scratching because of the copper or ich. Cupramine is an immune suppressant too. For the most part, fish have the ability to fight off simple infections. Every once in a while, when their immune system is weakened(because of copper here) infections may be harder to fight off. Chelated copper(copper safe)is another option if you choose to use copper. A lot of fish seem to handle it better than ionic copper.

I agree with Dmorty here. If the fish doesn't improve, I would pull them out of copper and treat with an antibiotic like kanaplex or furan 2 and try a different approach for the treatment of ich.

 

[Jdub968]

Somethings not right 14 days in copper and ick still on fish. Do a reference test with the bottle seachem includes and compare it to a tank sample test make sure your at .5ppm I'm think while your away the cu has dropped and then when you get home you add more is this correct? Because the cu levels have to stay thereputic for 30 days otherwise your wasting your time. Also the hippo has probably been scratching to the point he has caused a bacterial infection. Bacterial infections can be more worry some I would fw dip him or Acriflavin dip and get him on some Kanaplex. Cu is a immune suppressant and bacterial infections can take hold

 

[TangReefer]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies.

I have not added any cupramine since the second round as per instructions. I did test even using the reference and it shows as 0.5. The tank is bare, that should be not reason for the levels to get low.

Anyway, I'll isolate these 2 tangs in one QT and start Kanaplex. Any issues doing Kanaplex with hyposalinity at the same time or should I do one then the other?

Cheers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jdub968]

Cupramine in a qt can still come out of solution in the water without rock or gravel present. I always end up dosing at least .5-.6 mls more cu than the formula says I need due to the cu not in solution and this is based on my daily testing. Imo bacterial infection has a higher priority. I would do the Kanaplex with hypo or ttm

 

[JustinM]

A lot of meds use up oxygen in the water lowering the pH. I would not feel comfortable adding a medication to hypo personally. On the contrary, I have used antibiotics with copper. The only real downfall is a possible bacterial bloom.