Ich that isn't ich!?!

immafishguy · Jun 26, 2017

How's it going guys, so it's been about a month and the fish have still been in the same QT with copper after removing the live rock... however I'm a little annoyed to report that the spots have returned... the copper levels is still between 2-4ppm(closer to 4 I think) on the card and not really sure what to do anymore... any suggestions? The Achilles is still the only one that shows any signs... any chance it could be something else? I will note that there are substantial less spots but for the past 2 weeks 2-3 spots have repeatedly appeared on the same fish... and refuse to go away I have upped the copper dosage and still no results. The spots come and go and appear in different places every day too..

Humblefish · Jun 26, 2017

immafishguy said:
How's it going guys, so it's been about a month and the fish have still been in the same QT with copper after removing the live rock... however I'm a little annoyed to report that the spots have returned... the copper levels is still between 2-4ppm(closer to 4 I think) on the card and not really sure what to do anymore... any suggestions? The Achilles is still the only one that shows any signs... any chance it could be something else? I will note that there are substantial less spots but for the past 2 weeks 2-3 spots have repeatedly appeared on the same fish... and refuse to go away I have upped the copper dosage and still no results. The spots come and go and appear in different places every day too..

Can you post pics of the Achilles showing the spots?

Have you double checked your copper reading against another test kit? Friend or LFS maybe?

Maritimer · Jun 27, 2017

immafishguy said:
The spots come and go and appear in different places every day too..

How long does an individual spot remain in one location?

~Bruce

zed102 · Jun 27, 2017

I can't believe I have missed this for the past few weeks as I believe I am battling something similar. I have so far tested cupramine, coppersafe, formalin, Furan-2, Metroplex, and Kanaplex with limited result. I started this journey with a hippo tang and a clownfish that have now been moved out of their original medicated QT into a clean tank where I have been performing TT. Prior to the move I did a MB bath that seemed to clear the spots and they have not returned through the TT. I am on my last move now prior to observation. In order to further test this on more sensitive fish I added some of the original QT water to another QT where I have a moorish idol in coppersafe at 2ml/g which is over 2ppm on the API test kit. After only a few days the spots showed up and have not left after 10 days of copper treatment. Yesterday I started CP at 60mg/g, which I did not want to do on the hippo, and have not yet seen any change, but will continue to monitor its effectiveness. The good news is that even the moorish idol has remained an aggressive eater so it doesn't appear to be degrading his health significantly. Additionally, I have not seen any rapid breathing.

zed102 · Jun 27, 2017

In an effort torepeat the experiment with MB I decided to put the MI through a 1 hr bath with MB at 1ml/g. After the fish was returned to the QT I was suprised to see that the MI looked "clean." I am not sure what to do with this yet as I would expect the fish to be reinfected back in the QT unless the CP works to cure this. I would be interested if you could replicate these results on one of your fish.

immafishguy · Jun 27, 2017

Humblefish said:
Can you post pics of the Achilles showing the spots?

Have you double checked your copper reading against another test kit? Friend or LFS maybe?

I'll take some photos when I get home tonight

immafishguy · Jun 27, 2017

Maritimer said:
How long does an individual spot remain in one location?

~Bruce

Spots remain for a day then disappear and reappear elsewhere

immafishguy · Jun 27, 2017

zed102 said:
In an effort torepeat the experiment with MB I decided to put the MI through a 1 hr bath with MB at 1ml/g. After the fish was returned to the QT I was suprised to see that the MI looked "clean." I am not sure what to do with this yet as I would expect the fish to be reinfected back in the QT unless the CP works to cure this. I would be interested if you could replicate these results on one of your fish.

Interesting, I'll give it a try and see what happens, I'm kinda out of options; a few fish already have lateral line so I'm trying to get them out asap