Sailfin Tang WAS flashing

Shilpan Patel · Jul 15, 2018

Hey guys, just needed some advice here. I have a sailfin Tang in the QT atm. It is still eating and I have started cupramine treatment. I have dosed up to 0.07mg/L yesterday, and then today up to 0.14mg/L. I’m going up slowly each day to hit 0.50mg/L by the end of the week. SeaChem ammonia alert is registering 0 at the moment.

I dosed copper to get to 0.14mg/L, 10hrs ago at 11am in the morning. Then, Dad came into the garage at 10pm and moved the car. He said oh your fish is swimming very fast after I turned on the light and woke him up by accident. I came to look and he was occasionally flashing every 5-10s but mostly swimming super super fast and trying to swim against his reflection and also peck at the bottom reflection of the tank. Then I turned off the lights and watched him for a while. He flashed two or three times over 5mins of observation and settled down and swam back and forth a few times. Then he settled completely and was just swimming slowly back and forth. He flashed once more. Then I watched for 10 more mins and no more flashing.

I’m going to sleep but I’ll check him again tomorrow morning. My question is,

1) is flashing a recognized sign of cupramine intolerance? I’ve seen fish fight their reflection but I’ve never seen them glad when doing it.
2) if he’s still flashing tomorrow I’ll remove the cupramine. Even if he’s eating but still flashes occasionally I’ll remove it.

Is that sensible? Or is this a sign of ich and I should continue the treatment?? I’m not sure when it’s too unsafe to continue. I don’t want to wait till he’s lying on the floor breathing shallowly obviously.

Thank you for your help

HotRocks · Jul 15, 2018

Shilpan Patel said:
Hey guys, just needed some advice here. I have a sailfin Tang in the QT atm. It is still eating and I have started cupramine treatment. I have dosed up to 0.07mg/L yesterday, and then today up to 0.14mg/L. I’m going up slowly each day to hit 0.50mg/L by the end of the week. SeaChem ammonia alert is registering 0 at the moment.

I dosed copper to get to 0.14mg/L, 10hrs ago at 11am in the morning. Then, Dad came into the garage at 10pm and moved the car. He said oh your fish is swimming very fast after I turned on the light and woke him up by accident. I came to look and he was occasionally flashing every 5-10s but mostly swimming super super fast and trying to swim against his reflection and also peck at the bottom reflection of the tank. Then I turned off the lights and watched him for a while. He flashed two or three times over 5mins of observation and settled down and swam back and forth a few times. Then he settled completely and was just swimming slowly back and forth. He flashed once more. Then I watched for 10 more mins and no more flashing.

I’m going to sleep but I’ll check him again tomorrow morning. My question is,

1) is flashing a recognized sign of cupramine intolerance? I’ve seen fish fight their reflection but I’ve never seen them glad when doing it.
2) if he’s still flashing tomorrow I’ll remove the cupramine. Even if he’s eating but still flashes occasionally I’ll remove it.

Is that sensible? Or is this a sign of ich and I should continue the treatment?? I’m not sure when it’s too unsafe to continue. I don’t want to wait till he’s lying on the floor breathing shallowly obviously.

Thank you for your help

I would lean more towards parasite affliction as low as the Cu level is and the fact you just began.

Fish will dart when instantly exposed to bright light as you described.

I would proceed with treatment at this point.

How are you testing copper? I'm guessing Hanna checker with readings you provided?

falconut · Jul 15, 2018

I'm currently finishing cupramine treatment of a sailfin & butterfly in my qt. My sailfin gets skittish sometimes & races around quickly when scared. Mine didn't do it, but flashing is usually a sign of a parasite. Not eating is a sign of copper that I've read, so keep an eye of for that. My sailfin looked a little crappy shortly after treatment, then got better & now looks great. Good luck.

Shilpan Patel · Jul 15, 2018

Thank you kindly for the advice, I checked the tang this morning, observed for 15mins and he was fine. I fed him/her and they are eating well. I will continue the treatment.

Yes I’m testing via Hanna.

Quick question guys, do you do many water changes whilst doing cupramine? If so, how often? I found with my past clowns, I never water changed, just siphoned out debris once a week and put the water only back in.

falconut · Jul 17, 2018

I have a cycled qt, so I don't really do changes during treatment. I'll do them after to help lower the cu. If I do wind up doing them, i make sure to match the cu level.