quarantine treatment?

[George771177]

I have a quarintine set up and am treating the water with copper. I was just interested in other reefers opinions on what people use on their fishs' in thier quarintine tanks

[prow]

depends on what wrong with the fish.

[cracker]

Are you treating any fish at this time? If so ,what type? I understand copper is pretty hard core stuff & used only if necessary. It's good for killing the nasties but hard on the fish as well. However my favorite lfs uses a light copper treatment on some new fish but not on other more delicate arrivals. I wonder if this is a common practice when handling a lot of fish from different sources.

[Melanie]

What fish are in there and what else is in there (LR, LS, etc.) What are you treating for?

[burning2nd]

copper will kill inverts of any.... so be careful.

[AQTCJAK]

Copper is not the best treatment there is it can actully cause issue that you are unaware of.

[George771177]

Right now iam running the tank with three yellow tangs (two small and one medium). It has no substraight and no carbon filter. I add some prime lock once in awhile to help relieve the fish of any stress that the copper solution may bring to them pus it helps cut down on nitrates since iam only running a sponge filter in my bio-wheel instead of a carbon filter. The fish have been in their about four weeks and look fine. I believe that they are ridding themselves from the parasites that may be on them due to the fact that i have seen irratations disappear. I believe the copper treatment that iam using is the way to go. I have done water changes and added copper accordingly, and seem to have no problems with the system so far. I am at the library at school and dont have the name brand copper treatment that iam using but i will get back at you guys if you want to know exactly what treatment iam using. I am still interested in other people's opinions on what they use to treat thier fish with. It sounds to me that alot of people just use thier quarintine as an observation tank holding the fish to check visually for parastites. My rationalization is that iam just going to treat all the fish that i get before i add them to my display tank because more often than not you wont be able to see the parasite ion the fish until it becomes a serious problem. Ich has been in my tank before and i dont plan on it happening again.

[blue_eyes53813]

Im just curious, On the right way to add the fish to the main tank without adding any of the copper treated water? Is a dip in fresh saltwater needed or will a little copper water not hurt the main tank?

[BigAl07]

Good question blue I've often wondered the same thing. I would do a FW dip just to be sure and give one last "Boot" to anything possible hanging on. Maybe?


Allen

[prow]

i QT all new fish in hyposalinity. to man issue can pop up with copper for me, like anemia.

[leebca]

The acclimation procedure, from acquisition to introduction into the display is a life-long effort on my part. Over the past few decades, I've settled on the following:

1. Acclimation of bagged fish to QT water;
2. FW (bath) w/methylene blue for 30 minutes;
3. Into Qt

a. If fish is Anemonefish, then perform Formalin baths for brooklynellosis
b. If Tang is of the Genus Acanthurus, perform copper treatment with Cupramine

4. Hold in QT for 6 weeks to verify fish is healthy. If it required treatment, hold at least 4 more weeks after the treatment was finished.

Details and reasons for the above are here:
Fish Acclimation Procedure
A Quarantine Procedure
Fresh Water Fish Dip
Copper Medications - Good, Bad, and Ugly

In short, the initial long FW bath rids the fish of any superficial parasites. The two kinds of fish are so often infected that the prophylactic treatments are almost necessary to avoid problems later. After that, the QT process becomes a matter of further acclimation, used to train the fish to eat prepared foods, etc. I don't recommend anyone just 'treat' the fish for the sake of 'being sure.' Copper is unnecessarily stressful, along with the fact that no healthy fish should have to go through a treatment.

There should be 'no copper' in the water after treatment with copper, since the copper is removed and the fish still remain in QT 4 more weeks to verify the copper treatment was effective.

[Melanie]

I primarily use my QT for observation, and to acclimate him by himself to the salinity, temp, and feeding schedule I use in the DT. I have kept my first for 2 weeks in there if they appear healthy. So far, I have only had one fish that appeared to have ich 2 days after he entered the QT. I am treating with 50 percent water changes daily while running a UV sterilizer for 2 weeks then 4 more weeks of weekly water changes and UV. This treatment JUST started so I can't comment on it's efficacy.

Since I will only have 5 fish total in my 72+gal. DT, it is pretty easy to not use copper as a preventative. Perhaps if I was adding hundreds of fish I would use something like methalyne blue, formalin, or copper because you are bound to have a sick one in all of those.

[cracker]

Iundestand freshwater dips are effective.30 mins seems a long time! Is this straight freshwater?

[leebca]

If you read the reference, it specifies exactly, step by step, how to do it. It is RO/DI or distilled water that has been pH adjusted and methylene blue added.

The effectiveness of the FW dip is only for those pathogens that it comes in contact with. Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) that buries itself into the flesh is not gotten rid of by this treatment, although some die depedning on where they are located. The value in the treatment is removing many of the parasites that are 'shared' amongst fishes that are transported and kept together as they find their way into our care.