Help! Cowfish has ick, not eating for 4 days, just quarantined w/copper

[HBColleen]

Hi,
I have a medium sized cowfish in a 150 gallon tank with other tankmates. Got him about 2 months ago and he has been doing fine and eating really well. I just noticed about a week ago that he has ick. His eyes are cloudy. he stopped eating two days ago....not that he was not interested...he did come up to the top like normal and "try" to eat, but its almost as if he could not see the food, even though I held it right in front of his mouth. (he sometimes eats right out of my hands - very friendly!)
I got a 5 gallon tank and added water from the big tank into the small 5 gallon one and put him in. There is nothing else except the heater, thermometer, and the hanging filtration on the back. I removed the carbon so the filter is just cotton. I added 1/2 of a dose of Cupramine yesterday. I came out today and noticed he has brown blotches on him. He is still not eating, and this makes day #4.
I have tried all of his favorites..frozen brine shrimp cubes, a small frozen krill, a small piece of seaweed, and pellets...nothing. they all float to the bottom. I am thinking i should scoop out the food from the bottom because he is not eating it. I saw that someone mentioned a clam in a clamshell. I can try that....I am just worried that he is stressed and is not eating and dont know what else to do...any suggestions? Thanks so much!
p.s....other tankmates seem to be doing well except one...I got the cowfish, and a lionfish and a blue tang to start...then added a foxface and a small clown trigger. They were all fine for a couple of weeks. I saw a bit of ick on the blue tang but it went away. One morning I woke up about a week or so ago and saw the clown trigger was dead on the bottom..don't know why. Now the cow gets ick and is really not doing well, but the others are still fine and eating well. All chemicals are in alignment in both tanks, including ph, salinity, nitrates, nitrites, etc. I am hoping someone can help - thanks again! Trying to save my cute cowfish.

 

[Josh Kraft]

That test kit is not valid for cupramine. See below. Also, if your fish had ich, they all have it. You have a decision to make at this point. Do you want to try to manage it, or eliminate it? Eliminating it requires your tank to be fishless for 76 days, and all fish treated with copper. I've attached a thread about eradication vs management as well.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-treatment.193343/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-eradication-vs-ich-management.188775/

 

[HBColleen]

Thanks for the reply. I will check out your thread and get the proper test kit for cupramine. In the meantime, I actually got this tank in the summer and lost 10 fish to ich. The tank sat for over 2 months with nothing in it except to live rock, the live gravel, and the water which circulated through filtration systems in my 150 gallon tank. During that time I did two 30% water changes. I had an aquarium service monitoring it and when they said everything looked good I started slowly adding the fish back in again. What I'm perplexed about is how did the ich come back again? Or did one of the new fish have ich? They all seem to be doing fine until now. thanks for your assistance. I never had so much trouble with a saltwater aquarium before. I had one in 1995 to 2002 and it was a 100 gallon aquarium and there were no issues at all. I don't want to lose this batch of fish as well. Could there be something in the rocks or the sand? Even though they did a thorough cleaning twice and it's sat with no fish in it for over 2 months?

 

[Humblefish]

I would stop raising your Cu level, and perform a 5 min FW dip to check for flukes: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

There's a video at the bottom which will show you what flukes look like, if he has them.

 

[4FordFamily]

I would stop raising your Cu level, and perform a 5 min FW dip to check for flukes: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

There's a video at the bottom which will show you what flukes look like, if he has them.

+1

 

[HotRocks]

Thanks for the reply. I will check out your thread and get the proper test kit for cupramine. In the meantime, I actually got this tank in the summer and lost 10 fish to ich. The tank sat for over 2 months with nothing in it except to live rock, the live gravel, and the water which circulated through filtration systems in my 150 gallon tank. During that time I did two 30% water changes. I had an aquarium service monitoring it and when they said everything looked good I started slowly adding the fish back in again. What I'm perplexed about is how did the ich come back again? Or did one of the new fish have ich? They all seem to be doing fine until now. thanks for your assistance. I never had so much trouble with a saltwater aquarium before. I had one in 1995 to 2002 and it was a 100 gallon aquarium and there were no issues at all. I don't want to lose this batch of fish as well. Could there be something in the rocks or the sand? Even though they did a thorough cleaning twice and it's sat with no fish in it for over 2 months?

Keep in mind, parasites and disease are much more common these days in the hobby. Not surprised by your success in the late 90s. Today, most of us just assume a new fish we acquire has some strain of ich or velvet and treat it to maintain a disease free display tank. This may seem costly, but one fish nuking an entire tank of "clean" fish is something I'm not willing to take a chance on.