potential ich treatment? (need some second opinions)

leejoohoonie · Jan 13, 2021

Hello Reef2reef community! I wanted to start a thread pertaining to a research paper that I found online about C.irritans and a potential treatment option.

Here is a link to the document -> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6344632/pdf/AEM.01982-18.pdf

In their abstract, they discussed placing a "sheet of copper metal" that effectively eliminated a majority of ich. In their own words..

"To test whether a copper alloy surface prevents the outbreak of parasitosis in the aquaculture of Larimichthys crocea, we covered the bottom of the aquaculture tank with sheets of copper alloy containing 74% to 78% copper, and we cultured L. crocea juveniles that had been artificially infected with the protozoan parasite Cryptocaryon irritans. Our results showed that these copper alloy sheets effectively blocked the infectious cycle of C. irritans within a 1-week period and significantly reduced the number of C. irritans trophonts and tomonts, thereby decreasing the mortality rate of L. crocea. In in vitro assays, the cytoplasmic membranes of protomonts disintegrated and the cytoplasm overflowed after just 5 minutes of contact with copper alloy surfaces."

Has anyone perhaps tried this method out in the past and have any anecdotal advice on whether this method works? The research document came out last year and seems promising for safe treatment of ich without having the stress of adding chelated copper such as cupramine. Thanks guys for reading this thread and hope you have a wonderful day! Stay safe everybody and happy reefing <3

Jay Hemdal · Jan 13, 2021

This brought back memories of a “ich filter” that was sold for a short time in the 1970’s. It was an airlift filter with some sort of cartridge. Somebody got curious and cut one open....only to find it contained a wadded up copper pot cleaning pad! There also used to be a “copper penny” treatment.
I have no doubt that this method would work, but they are completely incorrect when they said the copper plates don’t raise the ionic copper level, that is nonsense...
Jay

threebuoys · Feb 8, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
This brought back memories of a “ich filter” that was sold for a short time in the 1970’s. It was an airlift filter with some sort of cartridge. Somebody got curious and cut one open....only to find it contained a wadded up copper pot cleaning pad! There also used to be a “copper penny” treatment.
I have no doubt that this method would work, but they are completely incorrect when they said the copper plates don’t raise the ionic copper level, that is nonsense...
Jay

Jay,

I also stumbled upon this article recently. I was most interested in the revelation that the copper plates were quickly effective in the protomont and tomont stages. Do you have any info/sources that document how quickly copper ions move from a copper object such as a copper sheet into saltwater (assume no electrolysis is in play), and therefore how quickly levels toxic to fish occur?

I found myself wondering if a quarantine method that utilizes a copper sheet lining the inside of a 20 gallon aquarium coupled with a high power UV system might be just as effective as the copper dosing method but with less stress on the fish being quarantined? Also, if the ionic copper in the water is not significant, could the prazi treatment occur at the same time? Perhaps use cuprisorb to remove copper from the water as it is released from the copper sheet?

I'm probably making this a lot more complicated than it needs to be, but maybe there's an opportunity to further reduce the risk and shorten the length of the quarantine .