I’ve been away for a few days. Came home and three wrasses and a zebra moray are all dying. Checked ammonia 0 nitrite 0 checked copper and it’s .8 copper power. I’m pretty sure my grandson was experimenting when my daughter wasn’t looking. The fish are gasping faded colors and can swim upright. The eel gasping and not moving. They were all moved to new tanks 0 copper. Is there any treatment I can do or are they goners?
Copper poisoning
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CMMorgan
Counting my blessings...
Odd thing for him to be playing with... make sure HE is ok. You did the right thing getting them into clean water. I imagine that your CUC is toast. So far as the fish, I don't know that there is an antidote... maybe someone more verses in chemistry can jump in... @Randy Holmes-Farley ?
Sorry to hear that. Hope they make it. I've never encountered a copper overdose nor have I ever read about any sort of antidote (humans do). I moving to clean water, as you did, is all you can do. Just hope they can clear the copper and their organs aren't too damaged....
@Jay Hemdal might know if there is anything to be done....
@Jay Hemdal might know if there is anything to be done....
Thanks
yeah, he loves the fish and likes watching me mix salt and dose my reef. He says he didn’t do anything, but I’m sure he’s scared to get into trouble. Thankfully they were all in qt and not in the display or god forbid the reef with all the corals.
No. I didn’t dose copper at all. Wrasses and eels are super sensitive to copper. There should have been 0 copper. The only reason I thought to test for it, was because I could tell they were poisoned by something and it was right next to the tank on the bench.
You can treat the tank with cuprisorb to absorb the copper that will remove most of the copper from your tank (https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/cuprisorb-copper-remover-resin-seachem.html). Copper poisoning in humans can be treated with penicillamine (https://www.cfspharmacy.pharmacy/pe...CKil2V9yatI4avH-Ri8Dv5xT64IOWxOsaAqBiEALw_wcB). I don't know if this is safe in fish, but it is used for both human and animal copper overdose. I would suggest no more than 10 mg of penicillamine per kg of fish given in the food. Here's a link to some basic information on copper sulfate toxicity and treatment (see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557456/). I realize you may not be able to obtain penicillamine in a timely manner so you could try the amino acid cysteine, which is closely related to penicillamine (one of the building blocks of penicillin). Cysteine is a common supplement sold at health food stores (here's a link to information on cysteine for treating copper poisoning, see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3298579/). Cysteine is also found in food and clams have one of the highest levels.
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