My First Quarantine

HotRocks · Dec 19, 2017

Seeking advice...
I started my first QT tank with much help of @4FordFamily a while back. Anyway after reaching fully therapeutic copper levels, all my tangs (Achilles, Purple, chocolate, Blue hippo, desjardini, and a yellow) are great. I also started with 2 leopard wrasse, 2 Bluestar leopards, 1 ornate leopard, 1 clown fairy, and a carpenter flasher. All the leopard wrasse fell before copper reached an therapeutic level. The clown fairy and carpenter are alive and feeding well. I am using coppersafe and maintaining a level of 2.0 or a bit above. I increased very slowly over 7-10 day period. Interested to see if anyone has tips or tricks for wrasse and copper. I also have a flame hawk, firefish, and a pair of pajama cardinals that are just fine in same QT.
Interested in your suggestions @Humblefish if you have time!
Thanks and happy Reefing!

BigJohnny · Dec 19, 2017

Did you make sure they had all been eating for a week first?

HotRocks · Dec 19, 2017

BigJohnny said:
Did you make sure they had all been eating for a week first?

Yes, they actually we're eating well for about 10 days prior to first dose of copper. Continued to eat as copper increased. Then they just started dropping like flys...

BigJohnny · Dec 19, 2017

HotRockTarBaby said:
Yes, they actually we're eating well for about 10 days prior to first dose of copper. Continued to eat as copper increased. Then they just started dropping like flys...

How did they die? Symptoms or just boom dead

4FordFamily · Dec 19, 2017

BigJohnny said:
How did they die? Symptoms or just boom dead

Lethargic one day, toast the next.

HotRocks · Dec 19, 2017

4FordFamily said:
Lethargic one day, toast the next.

Yes, only symptom was ate well at night feeding, lethargic at next morning feed. Dead upon my return from work. Never more than a single fish in a single day. Deaths in order...
Bluestar, leopard, leopard, Bluestar, ornate.

BigJohnny · Dec 19, 2017

4FordFamily said:
Lethargic one day, toast the next.

Hm, no heavy breathing or gasping at surface?

USMC 4 LIFE · Dec 19, 2017

I’ve treated leopard wrasses and what I did was let them settle in for a week with sand and subsequently started dosing coppersafe. I dosed very slowly over 10 days until I reached 1.5. I learned from trial and error and this has been my best method to treating sensitive fish.

HotRocks · Dec 19, 2017

BigJohnny said:
Hm, no heavy breathing or gasping at surface?

None observed. Only heavy breathing when they lethargic the day they died. I work a lot of hours. So I get about 20 minutes a day combined of observation. That's it. My 2 wrasse that are still alive spend a fair amount of time near top, but not gasping.

HotRocks · Dec 19, 2017

USMC 4 LIFE said:
I’ve treated leopard wrasses and what I did was let them settle in for a week with sand and subsequently started dosing coppersafe. I dosed very slowly over 10 days until I reached 1.5. I learned from trial and error and this has been my best method to treating sensitive fish.

Very similar to what I was trying to achieve. Just without the sand. The ones that I'm speaking of that died, went well before a level of 1.5

BigJohnny · Dec 19, 2017

HotRockTarBaby said:
None observed. Only heavy breathing when they lethargic the day they died. I work a lot of hours. So I get about 20 minutes a day combined of observation. That's it. My 2 wrasse that are still alive spend a fair amount of time near top, but not gasping.

Def sounds like it was the copper. I would try treating at a lower level or use ttm.

BigJohnny · Dec 19, 2017

BigJohnny said:
Def sounds like it was the copper. I would try treating at a lower level or use ttm.

Oh I just read that they died below 1.5. I know some people have had success lowering copper if the fish show symptoms during the ramp until they recover, then bring it back up. Leopards are just very sensitive in general. You could look into cp but I think it's a no for wrasse.

Greenstreet.1 · Dec 19, 2017

Sorry to hear about your wrasse I’m a wrasse lover also I have in qt right now
Ornate, bluestar, velvet and purple tang I had three bluestar leopard but the purple tang killed the two big ones. I’m now doing the second round of prazi I was guided by humblefish and others to use copper power when I start to dose as it is more gently on sensitive fish as wrasse.

Was also told not to try cp on leopards. You should take a look at his disease treatment post.