Prophylactic treatment with cupramine: yes or no

[lagatbezan]

I have a adult Emperator angel fish in qt now for about 2 1/2 weeks. The first few days i made sure its eating and observed and then I treated with prazipro for 5 days. did a water change and started the first dose of cupramine treatment. the next day the fish was not doing great and was breathing really rapidly so i threw some carbon in there and did a water change and he was back to normal. so my question is if i didnt notice any spots of the fish, should i try to treat with cupramine again with a lesser dose or if there is ich present it will eventually present itself while in qt?

 

[Dmorty217]

I do half the dose recommended by seachem to lessen the effects of what you just mentioned. If your not going to treat again I would QT for a extra week or two for sure to further observe the fish to make sure he is clear of disease

 

[lagatbezan]

I do half the dose recommended by seachem to lessen the effects of what you just mentioned. If your not going to treat again I would QT for a extra week or two for sure to further observe the fish to make sure he is clear of disease

Is that 1/2 the whole treatment or just the start?

 

[wooden_reefer]

All new fish of mine go thru at least 10 weeks of active treatment in QT.

As far as ich for newly collected fish is concerned, there is no observation during QT.

Eradication of ich is a matter of rigorous procedure, not observation. A large percentage of collected fish have ich, and ich cannot be introduced into the DT.

 

[sleepydoc]

I agree observation is not a reliable method of determining whether ich is present or not and would advocate treatment.

Did you test copper levels after you dosed cupramine, and how did you dose it? I have found the dosing on the bottle to be to aggressive, especially for sensitive fish. I am currently treating 2 fish in a 29 gallon QT and have built the cupramine dose up over 3-4 days to 2/3~3/4 of the recommended dose on the bottle (total 4.5 ml), but my copper levels are reading 0.55~0.6 per seachem's test. Fish seem to be doing OK, but I may back it down a bit to be sure.

Many people report angels to be more sensitive to copper, so if you are concerned about them not tolerating copper you could consider Tank Transfer, Hypo or Cholorquine as alternative treatments.

 

[wooden_reefer]

I agree observation is not a reliable method of determining whether ich is present or not and would advocate treatment.

Did you test copper levels after you dosed cupramine, and how did you dose it? I have found the dosing on the bottle to be to aggressive, especially for sensitive fish. I am currently treating 2 fish in a 29 gallon QT and have built the cupramine dose up over 3-4 days to 2/3~3/4 of the recommended dose on the bottle (total 4.5 ml), but my copper levels are reading 0.55~0.6 per seachem's test. Fish seem to be doing OK, but I may back it down a bit to be sure.

Many people report angels to be more sensitive to copper, so if you are concerned about them not tolerating copper you could consider Tank Transfer, Hypo or Cholorquine as alternative treatments.

Angels likely are more sensitive to copper than many other fish, but I have not have problem with straight copper at about 0.35 ppm metallic copper.

 

[lagatbezan]

thanks for the advice everyone. so basically even though the fish shows no symptoms in the qt for more then 4 weeks its still possible for it to have ich? i would imagine the small space of the qt with no substrate/live rock/ect would be enough to cause a full blown outbreak.

 

[HumbleFish]

thanks for the advice everyone. so basically even though the fish shows no symptoms in the qt for more then 4 weeks its still possible for it to have ich? i would imagine the small space of the qt with no substrate/live rock/ect would be enough to cause a full blown outbreak.

Sometimes, but not always. And even then the symptoms can be very subtle. For example, if Ich is just in the gills but not under the skin, the only symptoms you'll see is head twitching or the occasional rubbing. Which can be missed if you don't constantly monitor your QT. So, for those with busy schedules, or for those of us who just aren't always the most observant (like me, according to my wife ), prophylactic treatment in QT is best IMHO.

 

[sleepydoc]

thanks for the advice everyone. so basically even though the fish shows no symptoms in the qt for more then 4 weeks its still possible for it to have ich? i would imagine the small space of the qt with no substrate/live rock/ect would be enough to cause a full blown outbreak.

The theory that I've read is that the 'stress' of moving and quarantining a fish will be enough to cause the ich to appear if present. Unfortunately, there are plenty of stories of fish who have been asymptomatic for weeks or months suddenly developing ich, which is why I said observation is not a reliable method of quarantining for ich.