Copper treatment questions

[Henryw25]

Unfortunately all the fish I bought from one of the two of my LFS's all have a parasite. Which means, here comes the copper treatment. Due to the length of time a copper treatment takes, I can not do a QT. Which means, bye bye invertebrates . I will most likely be getting trade in value for a sand sift star, a coral banded shrimp, a sebae anemone, and a few hermits, but before I do that I wanted to see if any of these guys may not be bothered by a copper treatment. It pains me to say bye to the fish and not to mention lose 2/3rds of the money I paid for them. Does anyone know if any of these guys would not be bothered by this treatment?

Thanks!

 

[SubRosa]

I've seen Hermits survive therapeutic levels of copper, but everything else you listed is toast. Btw what copper product were you planning on using?

 

[DaveK]

Do not ever treat with coper in your main display tank. Inverts or not, this is the worst possible thing you can do long term.

Like it or not, you need a quarantine tank. This really is not an option.

I know this sounds harsh, and it's sure not what you want to hear, but it's the honest facts.

 

[LSUFireGal]

Copper will be absorbed by your rock, tank, and sand and will leach out later. When it leaches out you can't control the level of copper in the water and it can kill your fish. You probably won't ever be able to house inverts safely in that tank again. You are better off qting in a Rubbermaid bin with a filter, heater and power head. Plus you may cause a cycle that will kill your fish when pods and other life in the sand and rock die off.

 

[reefguy]

Copper will be absorbed by your rock, tank, and sand and will leach out later. When it leaches out you can't control the level of copper in the water and it can kill your fish. You probably won't ever be able to house inverts safely in that tank again. You are better off qting in a Rubbermaid bin with a filter, heater and power head. Plus you may cause a cycle that will kill your fish when pods and other life in the sand and rock die off.

+1.

Also is a good idea to QT your first when you get them... Don't send them right into your DT.

Acclimation is also a huge issue in my eyes in preventing Ich.

 

[ReefApprentice]

Haveing a spare tank or a quartine that can be set up quickly is ideal

 

[Henryw25]

Thanks for the replies!

Does anyone know what hosts a parasite? The only reason I really was treating the host tank was that I was afraid the parasite would remain in the host's water. I can quarantine them in a 10 gallon, and do a few large water changes in the mean time. Does that sound right? All 4 of my fish need the treatment.

And this is the equipment I will be using for those who asked;

 

[LSUFireGal]

You will need to leave your main tank fish free for 8 weeks. If you do then the life cycle if the parasite will be interrupted bc there will be no host. So your tank should be parasite free after being fallow for 8 weeks. Your inverts can stay since they don't host the parasite.

 

[LSUFireGal]

Depends on the size and type of fish you have. They will be living in the tank for 8 weeks if you want to rid your display tank of the parasite.

Just to give you an idea. I have a 2 inch hippo tang in a 10 gallon QT right now. I bought her and put her in there and she showed signs of ich a couple of days later. I started treating her with hypo instead of copper, just my choice, copper is fine as long as you manage the level closely. Also when you do water changes you will have to match the copper level in your new water to the tank. It is a pain, but worth it.

The tank you are using to treat with copper will not be a QT tank, it will be a hospital tank. It should have no rock or sand at all. Just water, fish and some PVC pieces for hiding.


Next time you buy new fish Qt them in your 10 gallon for at least 4 weeks before adding them to your main tank.

 

[Henryw25]

Wow I didn't know it could be so bad from one parasite. That's frustrating especially jumping right into the hobby. I'm never buying fish from that pet store again lol.

I put a bit of sand in there right before I read your post. Will this be alright or will I need to start over? Also, even if the fish were from a different store, would they need to be QT'd in the 10 gallon?

Thanks!

 

[LSUFireGal]

I QT everything before putting it in my display. Was one of these fish a tang? It may have less to do with what store you chose to buy from and more to do with what kind of fish and how you acclimate them and how much stress they endure. Tangs are ich magnets and breakout very easily during stressful times.

You can use your net to remove as much sand as you can, and siphon out the rest. I think the copper will kill any bacteria living in the sand and can cause an ammonia spike. There are some sticky posts in the saltwater fish forum under the fish disease and treatment section that will explain the parasite's life cycle, and ways to treat it. It walks you through copper treatment there. I would post a link but I am on mobile. Sorry.

 

[LSUFireGal]

Following the advice here will help your fish.

My tang went from looking like this:

To this in a matter of days and no spots since!

 

[ReefApprentice]

was it pet land or petco.

 

[Henryw25]

Wow what an improvement! My fish are,
-2 ocellaris clowns
-1 purple dottyback
-1 engineer goby

All but the engineer goby are obviously infected by the parasite, I decided to treat the goby bc he could also be a host.

The reason I blame the store, is that all their fish flash and have the same symptoms mine do. Also about a quarter to half of their fish have ich.

I will rid of the sand now and look up the tread.

For ReefApprentice, it was petco. I now have a genuine LFS that's not a corporate pet store chain.

 

[Henryw25]

I know patience is the key in this hobby, but are there any shortcuts around the absence of fish in the host tank for 8 weeks?

 

[LSUFireGal]

No short cuts. Unless you don't mind ich in your system. Some people think that excellent nutrition and no stress will keep infections at bay. I prefer no to hopefully keep my system ich free and if I had an outbreak I wouldn't hesitate to spend 8 weeks fish free. Better than dealing with ich and possibly losing fish.

 

[Henryw25]

Agreed, I got my fish into the hospital tank just now. Thanks for all the help!

 

[LSUFireGal]

Good luck! We are here for you!

 

[mcurry81]

We had the same issue, we got ich from Petco. We used an all natural reef safe treatment, and it was a joke, I lost two fish a few days after that treatment started.
So I got Coppersafe, which I was told by the super knowledgeable people at the same pet store that it would only last in my tank for 4-6 weeks. I was new to salt water aquariums at the time, and we were later told our tank would never be safe for invertebrates again because it would be in our rocks forever. We did around a 20-30% water change every couple of weeks, and we eventually were able to get cleaner shrimp that have been fine for 6 months now. Snails however took awhile longer before they could survive in our tank. We brought water samples in and there was no trace of copper, but our snails kept dying, but after a few more water changes it was fine. I will never treat in my main tank again, our main tank is 110g, and we have a 60g for a hospital tank.

 

[LSUFireGal]

The rock and sand can start releaseing release any coper they absorbed