QuICK Cure(Formalin & Malachite Green) or Coppersafe?

[RozZy]

Hi there.

I have recently bought two new fish which both had Ich.

The Yellow tang (2 inch) was in the display tank for 4 days, when my new lights arrived I noticed her having white spots all over her (ICH)
And my clownfish (1.5 inch) had been in a battle with a Dragon Wrasse which we returned, and I also noticed his wounds.

I bought a Porcupine puffer, which has not been in the display tank yet, its a 2 inch fish which I bought from the LFS in the hope to save her from her ICH.

All these three fish are in my 10 gallon hospital tank right now, I'm treating them with Coppersafe and yes I have a copper test kit.
The copper is around 1.5 PPM right now. The Tang and the clownfish are nice and happy, they eat like crazy. The tang was treated with Formalin prior to the copper alone for 3 days before I decided to buy the 10 gallon and the clownfish seem to be happy too.

But the porcupine puffer was already in bad shape from the LFS, she's in the bottom of the tank most of the day and breathing heavily.

Is the copper making it worse for her? Should I switch the treatment to Formalin again? (Of course I would run carbon for 48 hours and do a 50% water change).

I don't want the puffer to die.

I have a Saddle puffer and a chromis in the display tank, I've been watching them with a close eye and none of them have any spots or any signs of disease, its the opposite, they're eating happily when I feed them. I'm feeding them with food soaked in Garlic as a precaution.

 

[HumbleFish]

Puffers don't always handle copper well; especially chelated copper (Coppersafe). I would get the puffer out of there ASAP, and treat with either tank transfer (click here) or hyposalinity (here). Treating a puffer for Ich is probably one of the only times you'll ever see me recommending hypo. Formalin is useless against Ich; it's only used to treat Brooklynella.

BTW, every fish in your DT is probably now infected with Ich and will need to be treated. The DT itself must be left fallow (fishless) for 10+ weeks to starve out the remaining parasites.

 

[sandwi54]

Neither. Cupramine is the proper choice

 

[RozZy]

The puffer is doing much better now, He's eating again! But this puffer is not being social at all, and I have to wiggle the food for him to be interested... I think I've gotten an antisocial puffer lol

 

[Dmorty217]

There is no quick cure, the fish you got should be treated and in a QT for a very minimum of 8 weeks. Then your challenge is making sure it isn't in your DT, just because fish aren't showing signs of ich doesn't mean It isn't. In the water or substrate. If you got the fish with ich don't ever buy from where you got them from again. In the future if you buy from a quality source such as LA or SF you can do the tank transfer method followed by other meds to ensure a healthy, disease free fish