Bacterial Infection or other on Powder Blue Tang?

[mandarin_toto]

Powder Blue has been doing great for over a month but unsurprisingly came down with ich, so he was moved to quarantine. He has now developed numerous dark splotches all over him, but they seem mostly on his fins. Is this a bacterial infection? They are splotches, not dark pinpoint specks like black ich.

He is currently being treated with copper power (ramping up on the dosage currently). Ich has improved immensely but these spots are getting worse.

Please help?

 

[sc50964]

Could be black ich but I think it infects more on the body than fins. He also seems to be skinny. Is that just a camera angle issue?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

That looks more like localized reactions to the ich trophonts. There is no need to ramp up copper power slowly (that is outdated advice, based on ionic copper) - it doesn't really start to work until you reach 2 ppm. Don't go past 2.5 ppm though.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Powder Blue has been doing great for over a month but unsurprisingly came down with ich, so he was moved to quarantine. He has now developed numerous dark splotches all over him, but they seem mostly on his fins. Is this a bacterial infection? They are splotches, not dark pinpoint specks like black ich.

He is currently being treated with copper power (ramping up on the dosage currently). Ich has improved immensely but these spots are getting worse.

Please help?

Agree on ich trophants. As jay stated. . . Ramping up is not recommended. Increasing copper level slowly can allow the disease to gain resistance making it harder to treat given disease. Add partial doses and get to the full treatment level as soon as possible. Copper doesn't do much until you get above 2 ppm, and then, it can take 3 days to slow or stop the infection. Bring Coppersafe or Copper Power to therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 For a FULL 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) monitored by a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand.
Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.

 

[mandarin_toto]

Agree on ich trophants. As jay stated. . . Ramping up is not recommended. Increasing copper level slowly can allow the disease to gain resistance making it harder to treat given disease. Add partial doses and get to the full treatment level as soon as possible. Copper doesn't do much until you get above 2 ppm, and then, it can take 3 days to slow or stop the infection. Bring Coppersafe or Copper Power to therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 For a FULL 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) monitored by a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand.
Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.

Thank you to you and Jay both! Relieved it's not something else to deal with. I have a copper hanna checker, so I will up the dose to the therapeutic levels today and hopefully all will be good in the coming weeks.