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My Tank Thread
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The therapeutic range for cupramine is .4-.5ppm I would treat at .5ppm to be sure you erradicate the velvet.@Humblefish ; @4FordFamily
Thank you for this great thread. I am currently treating my QT with copper. The residents include a 5" goldflake angel, a 3" regal angel, a 2" scribbled angel, and a velvet fairy wrasse. I use Seachem cupramine and the tank is a 40G breeder with a 20 long sump and a reef octopus 150 space saver skimmer.
I first noticed fine dust on the black tail and dorsal fin of the goldflake and since I have encountered marine velvet in the past, I didn't wait a second. I first dipped the goldflake in formalin solution for 30 minutes, then in methylene blue for 45 minutes, then fresh water for 5 minutes. I then put the fish back into the QT and dosed 20 drops of cupramine and after an hour I tested the water with Hanna H702 and got a reading of 0.22 ppm. The weird thing is I did not notice any rapid breathing or scratching. All fish have been in the QT for four days now and besides the regal everyone else seems to be eating just fine. The regal is a finicky eater anyway and even him picks at the oyster I put in the tank from time to time.
My question is: based on my research a range of 0.5 -0.6 ppm is required to eradicate velvet. Is this correct? I have another two juvenile regale angels (approximately 1.5") incoming and will arrive tomorrow. Can I add these two small regal angels into the QT and raise the copper level to 0.4 ppm? Or should I wait for a day before raise the level?
The therapeutic range for cupramine is .4-.5ppm I would treat at .5ppm to be sure you erradicate the velvet.
I do acclimate fish directly into half strength copper using chelated copper all the time. So you should be fine to add the fish and then start increasing the Cu level.
The spots are entrance wounds from parasites. The spots take a few days to heal just like us scraping ourselves.After 5 minutes freshwater dip the white spots remains on the fish. Does this mean it’s more likely ich than velvet? None of the fish breathes rapidly. Thanks
The lights just went off. I will try to take photos tomorrow. But it's going to be hard since the spots are pretty small. If it doesn't get better tomorrow night I will use Safety Stop to do the formalin and methylene blue dip.The spots are entrance wounds from parasites. The spots take a few days to heal just like us scraping ourselves.
Parasites head for the gills. Can you upload pics?
Therapeutic level for ionic copper, such as Cupramine, is 0.4 - 0.5. You're certainly in that ballpark! If you wanted to raise it a tad ... say, above 0.45, that would likely be OK, but wouldn't want to go above 0.5.
~Bruce, who uses chelated copper
Got my fingers crossed for you today . . .
~Bruce
Thank you for your reply!Sorry to hear that about the regal ... they're one of my favorite angels.
~Bruce