Treated with cupramine and fish are very stressed

[Arringar]

Roughly 24 hours ago I began treating my QT tank with cupramine. The fish had been in the tank already for about 24 hours and were well adjusted. This morning, roughly 12 hours after dosing, one Pygmy Angel was dead and the others looked VERY stressed. They are still super stressed now.

I tested the copper level and it was about 0.25mg/L, probably a little less.

There is no other medication in the tank. The only other chemical I have added is aquavitro eight.four.

Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are all 0. The pH is a little low at around 7.8 which is why I was buffering it up in the first place.

I'm not sure what's going on. Thoughts?

 

[Deinonych]

If I read your post correctly, are you stating that you acquired the fish approximately 48 hours ago and are treating them with Cupramine? If so, that's a pretty rapid adjustment for the fish to make. I would remove the copper with carbon, Cuprasorb or Poly-Filter and give the fish some more time to adjust. Get them eating well, then try again. It's also wise to ramp up the dosage slowly - say, over 5 days.

Also, angelfish in general do not do well with copper treatments. What other fish are in the QT, and how large is the tank?

 

[Arringar]

These are not new fish, they're sick fish with ich that I've had for a while now. I caught it early and started treatment promptly. They were eating really well and doing fine.

Unfortunately 4 out of the 5 fish are angels. I already put in some carbon and I will let them recover and begin treatment with CP later this week.

 

[ThRoewer]

I really can't understand why everybody still uses copper - a serious poison and immune suppressant - to cure ich.
Copper is not the right treatment for ich, especially if the sick fish are angels.
TTM is better for the fish and delivers faster results (only 12 days instead of about 30).
To reduce stress for the fish even more you can lower the salinity (doesn't have to be all the way down to hyposalinity treatment levels).

 

[Deinonych]

+1 on TTM

 

[Arringar]

They're doing better after removing the copper. Fingers crossed that they make it.