Ich

[Nick z]

My new redsea sailfin tang has ich 5 days after bringing him home. Lost 3 fish in qt tank due to ich. Copper level in qt is 0.06ppm any ideas??

 

[blaxsun]

#fishmedic

 

[Sharkbait19]

Copper needs to run at 2.5 ppm if copper power or coppersafe.
At this level, it’s not enough to stop ich.
Do you have pics? May not be ich, or it’s progressed so far it acted before the copper did.

 

[bnord]

My new redsea sailfin tang has ich 5 days after bringing him home. Lost 3 fish in qt tank due to ich. Copper level in qt is 0.06ppm any ideas??

Sorry for the losses
not sure what copper you are using, but need to know and need to follow recommended doses and do not believe 0.06 is any one of those -

 

[Jay Hemdal]

My new redsea sailfin tang has ich 5 days after bringing him home. Lost 3 fish in qt tank due to ich. Copper level in qt is 0.06ppm any ideas??

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Did you perhaps drop a decimal on your copper reading? If not, Are you using ionic copper/citric acid? I think you must be with that low of a copper reading. What are you testing with?
Ionic copper needs to be at least 0.18
Cupramine needs to be at least 0.50
Coppersafe needs to be at 2.5

Jay

 

[Nick z]

Hey jay using cupramine with formaldehyde. Followed my trusted source on the dosing and tested with hanna checkers copper meter. He said i should have been at a 1.6 with the dosing but im only at 0.06. I dont wanna lose this tang either.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Mixing meds with copper is dangerous, that could also be an issue.

 

[Nick z]

It was mixed at a reef store for me i didnt mix it myself.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It was mixed at a reef store for me i didnt mix it myself.

Do you have the low or high range Hanna probe? According to Hanna, the low range probe hasn't been approved for use in seawater.

I've never dosed formalin and copper at the same time, but that's because of the risk involved. Both drugs are stressful and used together, at full dose, would just be doubly stressful. At lower doses, it would be less stressful, but then also less effective in treating protozoans.

Cupramine is not supposed to be used with reducing agents like dechlor or ammonia remover. Formalin is a reducing agent. That makes me really nervous.

Not knowing the formalin dose, but knowing it is less effective against protozoans, I would say stop using it and go with just Cupramine at a full dose of 0.50. That will take up to 3 days for it to work though.

Jay

p.s. - I'll be travelling this weekend and may not be able to respond easily.....

 

[LilsReefTank]

My new redsea sailfin tang has ich 5 days after bringing him home. Lost 3 fish in qt tank due to ich. Copper level in qt is 0.06ppm any ideas??

I'm so sorry to hear that. I have a baby blue hippo tang that introduced ich in my tank and infected all my fish. It is a heart breakkk.

You need to start treating right away. I am using Copper Power at 2.0 (or a tinge higher but never greater then 2.5) and doing tank transfer method just in case. It is very inconvenient but it is working at least for me. When I caught my outbreak, it was bad I thought I was gonna lose all of them. One of my clowns had white webbings across his mouth and couldn't eat, the hippo tang was COVERED in ich and suffering I thought she wasn't going to make it, and the rest of the fish had the typical white spots all over them.

Its been about a week - all of my fish (including a wrasse) are doing so much better. They are cleared up and eating well, and gaining healthy weight and swimming more. I plan on continuing to do this for 30 days. There has been no death yet.

You need to treat ASAP tho, and use some type of intervention method or the ich is going to continue to spread rapidly.

Best of luckkkkkkk and hoping your other fish make it.