Quarantine for Watchman Goby

[ws6driver]

Hi. Newbie in this forum although I've searched this forum for questions for years now. After learning my lesson, ALL fish go into a quarantine tank regardless of symptoms and treated with cupramine. I've had excellent results until now. A diamond watchman goby I just bought didn't handle it so well. I started by only adding a fourth of the recommended day one dosage (5 drops). This brought it to a level of what looked like under .1 mg/l according to my copper test and not so great eyes. This is in the ballpark of what it should've been according to cupramine's dosage guidelines. The goby FREAKED OUT. He was thrashing around on and off, but seemed to calm down after a while. Well, this was yesterday. I came home today to find him on the floor. How he was able to jump out and squeeze out of that tiny tiny gap is beyond me. It looked smaller than his girth. I walked over and scooped him up and threw him in the tank. He was still alive! I quickly did a 50% water change and I think he's a bit more calm. Should I give up on trying to copper treat gobies? If so, I will never put them in my tank. I've had horrible ich issues before through stores that will remain nameless. Is there anyone who's successfully treated a sensitive fish? I've been thinking about using paraguard.

 

[rkpetersen]

Hi. First, welcome to R2R! :)

If you're using cupramine, that level seems very high. Should be 0.5. But some test kits aren't accurate enough either. Current best practice for doing copper qt is to use a chelated agent like CopperPower and the Hanna high range copper checker (for fish that tolerate copper, of course.) Check it out here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-treatment.193343/ Gobies in general should tolerate copper ok, but if you want to explore an alternative, consider chloroquine phosphate. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chloroquine-phosphate.192309/

 

[ws6driver]

Hi. First, welcome to R2R! :)

If you're using cupramine, that level seems very high. Should be 0.5. But some test kits aren't accurate enough either. Current best practice for doing copper qt is to use a chelated agent like CopperPower and the Hanna high range copper checker (for fish that tolerate copper, of course.) Check it out here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-treatment.193343/ Gobies in general should tolerate copper ok, but if you want to explore an alternative, consider chloroquine phosphate. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chloroquine-phosphate.192309/

My bad. I meant to say .1. Sorry about that. Yeah. I might check out copperPower if it kills parasites and is gentler on fish.

 

[ws6driver]

Hi. First, welcome to R2R! :)

If you're using cupramine, that level seems very high. Should be 0.5. But some test kits aren't accurate enough either. Current best practice for doing copper qt is to use a chelated agent like CopperPower and the Hanna high range copper checker (for fish that tolerate copper, of course.) Check it out here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-treatment.193343/ Gobies in general should tolerate copper ok, but if you want to explore an alternative, consider chloroquine phosphate. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chloroquine-phosphate.192309/

Awesome threads you sent me. I learned quite a bit. The more you know the less you know in this hobby. I saw that gobies are quite tolerant of copper. I have no idea why my guy freaked out.

 

[Big G]

Welcome to R2R! Have had much better luck with Copper Power than Cupramine on gobies. Granted while dosing Copper Power I've been using the much, much more accurate Hanna HL Copper Checker; when using Cupramine I used Seachem's Copper Test Kit. Hanna is way more accurate for dosing and the therapeutic range for Copper Power is wider at 1.5 -2.0 ppm.

 

[ws6driver]

Welcome to R2R! Have had much better luck with Copper Power than Cupramine on gobies. Granted while dosing Copper Power I've been using the much, much more accurate Hanna HL Copper Checker; when using Cupramine I used Seachem's Copper Test Kit. Hanna is way more accurate for dosing and the therapeutic range for Copper Power is wider at 1.5 -2.0 ppm.

Yes. I got quite a few ideas from the threads that were sent to me. I ordered the copper power and the hanna copper checker. I'm going to do a 25% water change tomorrow as well and run cuprisorb until the hanna checker arrives. I will make sure all of the cupramine is gone before starting my copper power. I will follow the same protocol that most people on this forum follow. Ramp up over a week to 1.75 dosing twice a day. Thanks for everyone's help.

 

[ws6driver]

Welcome to R2R! Have had much better luck with Copper Power than Cupramine on gobies. Granted while dosing Copper Power I've been using the much, much more accurate Hanna HL Copper Checker; when using Cupramine I used Seachem's Copper Test Kit. Hanna is way more accurate for dosing and the therapeutic range for Copper Power is wider at 1.5 -2.0 ppm.

Since I'm preemptively treating my fish for ich, should I combine any other medications for fluke or bacterial infections? And should I run these at the same time with the copper safe?

 

[Big G]

Coppersafe or any other chelated/ionic coppers are poison after all. They suppress the immune system of the fish while killing the parasites. Running any other meds at the same time comes with increased risk to the fish. That being said, because of the current conditions in the industry with velvet, ich and a really nasty bacterial infection running rampant, some are choosing to take the risk to ultimately save the fish by dosing copper and antibiotics at the same time: Copper Power dosed in the water at 1.0 ppm immediately upon introduction of new fish to a QT + Spectrogram (it's a mix of Furan2 and Kanaplex) and then ramping up the copper to therapeutic levels of 1.5-2.o ppm (1.75 ppm is the sweet spot) as soon as possible depending on the fish's condition and disease/parasite level.
After treating for Ich/velvet and possible bacterial infections, then treating with General Cure would take care of flukes, internal parasites (worms) and Brook.

 

[ws6driver]

It really seems that there are nasty parasites/diseases these days. I could not keep clownfish alive. I assumed it was water parameters even though everything cycled and tested fine. I saw white spots thinking it was ich, but it was not that much at all. Fish looked healthy, active, but wouldn't eat and would just suddenly get lethargic one day and die. I have no idea how the pet store could keep them alive. After buying two new clownfish and preemptively treating with cupramine and letting the tank go fallow, they have stayed alive for almost two years now. I doubt this was a coincidence. This hobby is getting more and more complex.

 

[Cruz Mc5]

Don’t forget about the tank transfer method for eliminating ich. It won’t help with the other things going around, but is a medication free way to treat ich.

 

[ws6driver]

Don’t forget about the tank transfer method for eliminating ich. It won’t help with the other things going around, but is a medication free way to treat ich.

From my research it seems that it's only successful for ich. I would assume you need 2 tanks at least.

 

[Cruz Mc5]

Correct. It only gets rid of ich. And you need 2 tanks/set-ups. Here’s a link to a guide on it https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-transfer-method.192655/.