Treating with coppersafe

[greg1786]

Hey guys. I got a new pair of snowflake clowns three weeks ago. They have been in QT since and are eating well and up until yesterday were very healthy in appearance. The female is about 2" and the male is 1 1/4". Yesterday I noticed they are showing signs of ich. I have coppersafe from an ich outbreak about two years ago. I want to start treatment ASAP but had a question first. Would you recommend adding the full strength dose right away or is it best to start with a half strength dose and increase it over a day or two? I know that without the full strength its useless and ultimately I will get it to the necessary strength, however I didnt know if it would be safer for the fish to bring it up to that strength slowly. Thanks for the help.

 

[Deinonych]

I don't use CopperSafe, but when I dose Cupramine I ramp it up slowly over 5 days to give the fish time to acclimate to it. I would assume CopperSafe would be the same.

Given the medication is 2 years old, check the expiration on your CopperSafe to make sure it is still effective.

 

[HumbleFish]

I don't use CopperSafe, but when I dose Cupramine I ramp it up slowly over 5 days to give the fish time to acclimate to it. I would assume CopperSafe would be the same.

Given the medication is 2 years old, check the expiration on your CopperSafe to make sure it is still effective.

+1 For Coppersafe you'll want to measure using a total copper test kit such as API. Effective range is 1.5 ppm - 2.0 ppm.

 

[greg1786]

I have the api test kit to test for it. Ive been at work all day so I have yet to start the treatment and ive been kicking around the idea of hypo, which route would you take humblefish?

 

[HumbleFish]

I have the api test kit to test for it. Ive been at work all day so I have yet to start the treatment and ive been kicking around the idea of hypo, which route would you take humblefish?

IMO; With hypo there are too many variables, so too big a margin of error exists. If the SG creeps up even slightly past 1.009, the parasite can survive. Also, there has been at least one study confirming that hypo resistant strains of Crypto exist.

Clownfish are tough and excellent candidates for copper treatment. So, I would go the Coppersafe route with them. Just ramp it up slowly over 3-4 days.

 

[greg1786]

Ok cool thanks for the help ill keep you apprised on how they are doing

 

[greg1786]

I added 12ml of coppersafe tonight. I have a 20L for the quarentine. According to the coppersafe directions, i need to add 5ml per 4 gallons. That would equate to 25 ml. I added half of that tonight, waited ten minutes and tested, but it came out to only .25ppm. Should I have waited longer to test or is there something i did wrong?

 

[HumbleFish]

I added 12ml of coppersafe tonight. I have a 20L for the quarentine. According to the coppersafe directions, i need to add 5ml per 4 gallons. That would equate to 25 ml. I added half of that tonight, waited ten minutes and tested, but it came out to only .25ppm. Should I have waited longer to test or is there something i did wrong?

Is there anything present which might be removing or absorbing the copper? Carbon, rock, sand? Btw, this is Coppersafe you are using, correct? Not a similar product named Cupramine?

I would also check the expiration dates - both the Coppersafe and API test kit. In times past I've used older bottles of Coppersafe and had to dose far more than the directions indicated.

 

[greg1786]

No carbon, rock, or substrate. It is coppersafe by mardel. I just tested again and it is now reading 1ppm. I guess it was because I hadnt given it enough time to mix in to the water

 

[HumbleFish]

No carbon, rock, or substrate. It is coppersafe by mardel. I just tested again and it is now reading 1ppm. I guess it was because I hadnt given it enough time to mix in to the water

1.5 ppm is the minimum effective dosage; so the 30 day clock starts once you hit that

2.0 ppm is the max; so getting it just shy of that will give you some leeway in case it drops

As long as the clowns keep eating, even just a little, then you are :thumbsup:

 

[greg1786]

Do I need to add coppersafe to my topoff water? Or is it similar to salt in that it wont evaporate?

 

[HumbleFish]

Do I need to add coppersafe to my topoff water? Or is it similar to salt in that it wont evaporate?

It doesn't evaporate.

Btw, you did rule out this being Brooklynella, right? It just hit me that we are talking about clownfish here, and they are much more likely to display symptoms of Brook than Ich.

 

[greg1786]

I didnt even think of that however today the spots have decreased by a large margin. That leads me to believe its ich because of the life cycle of ich. Ive never had brook before with my old clowns so im not sure how the life cycle works. I did have ich a long time ago and this seems pretty identical. What should I look for to rule out brooklynella?

 

[HumbleFish]

I didnt even think of that however today the spots have decreased by a large margin. That leads me to believe its ich because of the life cycle of ich. Ive never had brook before with my old clowns so im not sure how the life cycle works. I did have ich a long time ago and this seems pretty identical. What should I look for to rule out brooklynella?

The fish would look something like this; although initial symptoms wouldn't look so severe. Basically, the fish is covered in a white haze, and it's skin looks like it's peeling or sloughing off.

 

[greg1786]

The fish would look something like this; although initial symptoms wouldn't look so severe. Basically, the fish is covered in a white haze, and it's skin looks like it's peeling or sloughing off.

Gotcha. After seeing those pics i can safely rule out brook. Thanks for bringing it up though because ive never dealt with it before so now im at least armed with a little knowledge on it

 

[greg1786]

So I got the copper up to 2ppm last night. As of last night there was no visible ich on the clowns so I assume it is in the tomont stage at the moment. Im hoping that now that I have the copper at the proper level, the ich will die as soon as it moves to the free swimming stage. What length of time do I need to keep the copper level at 2ppm to ensure all the ich is dead?

 

[HumbleFish]

What length of time do I need to keep the copper level at 2ppm to ensure all the ich is dead?

1 month to be on the safe side.