What is this?

[TK_KW]

Ok, so three weeks into having these fish and here we are again. Visible spots on two of the ten fish have about five spots each. I think adding substrate was bad idea? Only reason was I got a royal pencil trio and put it in for them. After having flukes within first week from lfs. I scramble to get praziopro to address. Fish are currently on round two of praziopro.

What is my course of action-

-Remove substrate from QT, that I had put in for royal pencil?

-Has my praziopro been ineffective because I added substrate?

-copper this tank directly after praziopro is done ( I have total of seven wrasses in current QT tank)?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Definitely ich spots, praziquantel doesn’t treat ich... only flukes/worms.

You’ll need to ramp up copper slowly. Especially slowly with the pencil wrasses there, they can be sensitive. Ich isn’t as fatal as velvet, so you should be ok to take your time getting it up there.

Ich CAN come in with live sand, but it won’t make a big difference to leave it now that it’s there... besides absorbing a bit of the copper you add initially. Just be diligent with your testing, should be ok.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I would do a FW dip on a couple of them to see if flukes are still present. Start ramping up copper (cheleted) over the next 4-5 days to 1.75ppm of Copper Power. During that time you can dose Prazi if needed. I would run the tank bare bottom during QT and if you must use sand I would use a small dish of it, I don’t personally use sand even for wrasses (they’ll survive). For the copper seeing you have wrasses I strongly recommend the Hanna Copper Checker so you can keep your levels consistent. If you are not in a medical necessity to raise copper quickly definitely take 4-5 days to ramp it up because wrasses can be sensitive.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

^^ @ngoodermuth is a quick typist and I agree with her.

 

[4FordFamily]

I think I see velvet dusting.. treats same as ich though.

 

[ccombs]

I was about to say it looks like ich but @ngoodermuth and @Frtdrmrose7 should come over to confirm... looks like they beat me to it!

 

[TK_KW]

I would do a FW dip on a couple of them to see if flukes are still present. Start ramping up copper (cheleted) over the next 4-5 days to 1.75ppm of Copper Power. During that time you can dose Prazi if needed. I would run the tank bare bottom during QT and if you must use sand I would use a small dish of it, I don’t personally use sand even for wrasses (they’ll survive). For the copper seeing you have wrasses I strongly recommend the Hanna Copper Checker so you can keep your levels consistent. If you are not in a medical necessity to raise copper quickly definitely take 4-5 days to ramp it up because wrasses can be sensitive.

i only have current access to Cupermine. Which i have a couple bottles on hand right now. I have all Hanna checkers, EXCEPT copper and nitrate, one because my lfs told me there junk, so i bought a Sailfert copper test kit. Im going to assume its not nearly as accurate? Should i just order a hanna copper?

Im coming to realize my lfs livestock is loaded with problems, or this is very common......

 

[ccombs]

i only have current access to Cupermine. Which i have a couple bottles on hand right now. I have all Hanna checkers, EXCEPT copper and nitrate, one because my lfs told me there junk, so i bought a Sailfert copper test kit. Im going to assume its not nearly as accurate? Should i just order a hanna copper?

Im coming to realize my lfs livestock is loaded with problems, or this is very common......

Salifert is a well respected test kit. You should be able to rely on that tests accuracy.

Without getting into a debate on chelated vs ionic copper, you should be able to use Cupramine with plenty of success, especially since that is what you have on hand. Note that the therapeutic level is .5 for that specific copper.

There are debates on what type/brand of copper is best, I advocate using what is on hand and getting treatment going ASAP. That being said, if the others disagree with me, go with them, they are the experts.

 

[ngoodermuth]

I use cupramine too (old habits) just be extremely careful ramping it up and watch for signs of stress. I’ve not lost a single wrasse to cupramine directly, but I have lost one to a bacterial infection that came secondary to parasites... since copper is an immunosuppressant, it’s not uncommon for infections to “pop-up” after the start of treatment.

That said, not a bad idea to source a few antibiotics to keep on hand just in case (kanaplex, metroplex, furan-2 are all safe to use together and with copper)