Clownfish and Cardinal Quarantining

chaserdogg01 · Jul 10, 2025

Hello everyone,

I unfortunately had a velvet outbreak in my newly established 75g tank (clowns swimming straight into power heads, spots and film forming over clowns). Had a few casualties, but was able to save three lives ( two black clownfish and 1 bangaii cardinal).

I just wrapped up 30 days of copper power treatment above 2.0 PPM and added Cuprisorb to remove the copper. Surprisingly, one of the clowns was flashing/rubbing against one of the PVC pipes in the QT tank. I’ve seen some mentions that this may just be irritation now that copper is leaving the water or something worse but wanted to get some expertise on the matter.

I still have 45+ days left before the fallow tank is parasite free and was planning on dosing Prazipro once the copper is out of the system. Is there a different medication I should be using to remedy the flashing? Metroplex?

Hoping to get all the fish 100% healthy before the fallow period is over and definitely learned my lesson with not quarantining fish.

Thanks everyone!

vetteguy53081 · Jul 10, 2025

chaserdogg01 said:
Hello everyone,

I unfortunately had a velvet outbreak in my newly established 75g tank (clowns swimming straight into power heads, spots and film forming over clowns). Had a few casualties, but was able to save three lives ( two black clownfish and 1 bangaii cardinal).

I just wrapped up 30 days of copper power treatment above 2.0 PPM and added Cuprisorb to remove the copper. Surprisingly, one of the clowns was flashing/rubbing against one of the PVC pipes in the QT tank. I’ve seen some mentions that this may just be irritation now that copper is leaving the water or something worse but wanted to get some expertise on the matter.

I still have 45+ days left before the fallow tank is parasite free and was planning on dosing Prazipro once the copper is out of the system. Is there a different medication I should be using to remedy the flashing? Metroplex?

Hoping to get all the fish 100% healthy before the fallow period is over and definitely learned my lesson with not quarantining fish.

Thanks everyone!

Do a water change and yes do prazi pro treatment and to be safe , dose at 85% of recommended and apply initial dosage known as an interval lasting for 8 days, do a water change and do one more 8 day dose interval
Use airstone with prazi as it does reduce both oxygen and appetite

Jay Hemdal · Jul 11, 2025

chaserdogg01 said:
Hello everyone,

I unfortunately had a velvet outbreak in my newly established 75g tank (clowns swimming straight into power heads, spots and film forming over clowns). Had a few casualties, but was able to save three lives ( two black clownfish and 1 bangaii cardinal).

I just wrapped up 30 days of copper power treatment above 2.0 PPM and added Cuprisorb to remove the copper. Surprisingly, one of the clowns was flashing/rubbing against one of the PVC pipes in the QT tank. I’ve seen some mentions that this may just be irritation now that copper is leaving the water or something worse but wanted to get some expertise on the matter.

I still have 45+ days left before the fallow tank is parasite free and was planning on dosing Prazipro once the copper is out of the system. Is there a different medication I should be using to remedy the flashing? Metroplex?

Hoping to get all the fish 100% healthy before the fallow period is over and definitely learned my lesson with not quarantining fish.

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Yes, I’d run a course of praziquantel. Here is a post I made on how best to use it:

Dosing Praziquantel (PZQ)

Using Praziquantel (PZQ) to treat flukes Overview In the early 1990’s, a researcher at the New York Aquarium published a paper on using Praziquantel (PZQ) to help control flukes, a parasitic flatworm. Also known as monogenean trematodes, these fish parasites can cause significant mortality in...

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