lba4590
Active Member
Hi all, first just wanted to thank you all on this wonderful forum for the advice and knowledge so far, my first attempt at quarantining is going very well even with a tank full of ich 
So I had a thought regarding ich and copper. I understand that copper is ineffective until a minimum therapeutic dose is reached. I’m using Copper Power.
I have 5 fish in QT right now - lyretail anthias, linespot flasher wrasse, longfin fairy wrasse, royal gramma, bicolor blenny. The two wrasses had ich within 24 hrs of introducing them to QT. A few days later the blenny started flashing and the anthias had a few spots. Both wrasses came from one LFS and the other 3 came from another.
After starting copper both wrasses seemed to perk up and act more lively. This was around the 0.5-1.0ppm range. After just a few days, I cannot see any spots on any of the fish and I’m still not at the therapeutic dose, mainly because I don’t trust my ability to read my API copper test and my Hanna checker will be here Friday. All fish are happy and comfortable and eating well.
I read that some LFS keep a low dose of copper in the water to mask symptoms of ich. Based on how these fish reacted and onset of ich I think that may be true. But how exactly does that work? It’s my understanding that copper doesn’t kill those attached to the fish right away. Like I said, fish had visible ich and now they do not within just about 3 days and only at about 1-1.5ppm. How exactly does a low dose of copper keep visible ich off the fish? And I assume if I were to move the fish to the DT with no copper present, ich would resurface? Very confused on how this works. Thank you in advance for any help!
So I had a thought regarding ich and copper. I understand that copper is ineffective until a minimum therapeutic dose is reached. I’m using Copper Power.
I have 5 fish in QT right now - lyretail anthias, linespot flasher wrasse, longfin fairy wrasse, royal gramma, bicolor blenny. The two wrasses had ich within 24 hrs of introducing them to QT. A few days later the blenny started flashing and the anthias had a few spots. Both wrasses came from one LFS and the other 3 came from another.
After starting copper both wrasses seemed to perk up and act more lively. This was around the 0.5-1.0ppm range. After just a few days, I cannot see any spots on any of the fish and I’m still not at the therapeutic dose, mainly because I don’t trust my ability to read my API copper test and my Hanna checker will be here Friday. All fish are happy and comfortable and eating well.
I read that some LFS keep a low dose of copper in the water to mask symptoms of ich. Based on how these fish reacted and onset of ich I think that may be true. But how exactly does that work? It’s my understanding that copper doesn’t kill those attached to the fish right away. Like I said, fish had visible ich and now they do not within just about 3 days and only at about 1-1.5ppm. How exactly does a low dose of copper keep visible ich off the fish? And I assume if I were to move the fish to the DT with no copper present, ich would resurface? Very confused on how this works. Thank you in advance for any help!
