quarantine a sick blue tang

[xeanliao]

5 weeks ago, I picked up a sick little junior blue tang from LFS. He was really in bad shape. Ever since then, he has been in my 10-gallon hospital tank alone in the following order in time:

1. First week in the hospital tank, no treatment, just clean water from my display tank. I wanted to see if he would eat before I started treatment. Eventually, he started come out and eat flakes and nori
2. started cupramine treatment. (i.e, day 1)
3. started to be free of white spots on his body after about 10 days of treatment. (i.e., day 10)
4. By following the cupramine instruction, another 2-week continue treatment. (i.e., day 11-24), but I saw him rubbing pvc pipe on time, (i.e., day 18)
5. Today is the 34th day since the treatment.

Now, I am not sure if I should move him to display tank today because I am concerned about the rubbing behavior I saw 7 days ago although he has been white spot free for 2 weeks.

I also concern about how much longer he can stay in cupramine treatment after already been 34 days. He is consider eating ok, but somehow I feel he ate more last week than this week.

Any advice?

 

[Humblefish]

Treating for flukes (via Prazipro) would be next on my list.

But first, did you test the copper level often whilst treating with Cupramine? If so, what was your Cu reading?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

The rubbing may have been just an itch, I would keep it in QT a bit longer, just to be safe.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Can you move him to another non-medicated tank for observation? That would be my advice, on top of praziquantel like humble suggested. You can dose the first prazi now, and then move the fish after 24-48 hours to the new tank. Maybe watch him another 2-3 weeks without copper to be safe.

 

[Xclusive Reef]

Can you move him to another non-medicated tank for observation? That would be my advice, on top of praziquantel like humble suggested. You can dose the first prazi now, and then move the fish after 24-48 hours to the new tank. Maybe watch him another 2-3 weeks without copper to be safe.

can he at this point add the fish to a bucket, clean out the tank and add new clean water for 1-2 weeks or start prazi 2-3 days later so the fish is not so stressed? or would that stress out the fish a lot?

 

[ngoodermuth]

can he at this point add the fish to a bucket, clean out the tank and add new clean water for 1-2 weeks or start prazi 2-3 days later so the fish is not so stressed? or would that stress out the fish a lot?

He'd have to leave the current set-up to dry out completely, so if he's comfortable keeping the fish in the bucket or another container for a day or two that could work.

 

[Brew12]

can he at this point add the fish to a bucket, clean out the tank and add new clean water for 1-2 weeks or start prazi 2-3 days later so the fish is not so stressed? or would that stress out the fish a lot?

This has become my preference, although I do it with a separate HT tank.

He'd have to leave the current set-up to dry out completely, so if he's comfortable keeping the fish in the bucket or another container for a day or two that could work.

Agreed with this. I've found I can completely dry my HT in a few hours if I use a hair dryer. I like to nuke my 10g QT with a 1/2 cup of bleach and let it run through the filter for an hour or so. Then I'll drain it, wipe it out with paper towels, toss the filter sponge from my HOB filter, take a hair dryer to the heater and HOB filter unit and then let it sit for 2 or 3 hours.

 

[xeanliao]

Treating for flukes (via Prazipro) would be next on my list.

But first, did you test the copper level often whilst treating with Cupramine? If so, what was your Cu reading?

I am guilty not constantly testing the copper level. I pre-made 20-gallon clean treatment water to start with and change the 30% water every week hoping to maintain the constant dosage and maintain water quality at the same time.

 

[xeanliao]

He'd have to leave the current set-up to dry out completely, so if he's comfortable keeping the fish in the bucket or another container for a day or two that could work.

I can be patient and I like the idea of observing the fish for 2-3 weeks without treatment in the hospital tank. Thanks for suggestion and I am going to do that.

Question, he is in the cupramine for that long already, can I just replace the water with clean water in the same hospital tank without moving the little guy around in order to clean and hair-dryer the only hospital tank? I do have a lot 5-gallon and 20-gallon buckets to temporarily keep him. Just wanted to see if I don't need to introduce any stress if not possible, and without worry about amonia/nitrate etc after complete restart my hosptial tank?

 

[ngoodermuth]

The benefit to removing to a clean QT (or breaking down/cleaning/drying current QT) is that it gives you a clean slate. Ich usually completes its lifecycle within 30 days, which is the suggested copper treatment window, but some strains - including the infamous 72-day strain- take longer. By removing from copper directly into a sterile parasite-free QT you are reducing the risk of re-infection after copper is removed.

 

[cracker]

All good bits of info Thanks !

 

[4FordFamily]

I always keep fish in a full 30 days of fully therapeutic copper levels because I don't have another sterile QT and I know how much human error is possible here.