Another Blind Trigger

[lion king]

This actually happens more than you think; a seemingly healthy fish starts to decrease in eating, starts to swim by food and just grab a morsel here or there, starts to hide behind the rocks more, if you pay real close attention you can see him bump into other fish and maybe even rocks and such, if he's been in the tank a while he still maneuvers around ok unless you really look close. Eventually he goes behind the rocks and dies.

Some may remember my post "Blind Pinktail Trigger", I was actually able to stick feed him for a 1.5 years, his travel mate a harlequin tusk also went blind, I lost him pretty quickly. This is the third trigger I've had that went blind, and I know of 2 others. So far the niger will not accept food from a stick, I'll continue trying and may have to make a tough decision, I am not going to just watch him starve to death.

A little over a year ago my niger went through 2 rounds of copper for velvet, all of his other tankmates died. While I was doing the 2nd round I was concerned. I said to a friend "he'll probably be blind in a year's time". I was right, all of the blind fish I mentioned in this post have at least one thing in common, copper treatment.

 

[4FordFamily]

This actually happens more than you think; a seemingly healthy fish starts to decrease in eating, starts to swim by food and just grab a morsel here or there, starts to hide behind the rocks more, if you pay real close attention you can see him bump into other fish and maybe even rocks and such, if he's been in the tank a while he still maneuvers around ok unless you really look close. Eventually he goes behind the rocks and dies.

Some may remember my post "Blind Pinktail Trigger", I was actually able to stick feed him for a 1.5 years, his travel mate a harlequin tusk also went blind, I lost him pretty quickly. This is the third trigger I've had that went blind, and I know of 2 others. So far the niger will not accept food from a stick, I'll continue trying and may have to make a tough decision, I am not going to just watch him starve to death.

A little over a year ago my niger went through 2 rounds of copper for velvet, all of his other tankmates died. While I was doing the 2nd round I was concerned. I said to a friend "he'll probably be blind in a year's time". I was right, all of the blind fish I mentioned in this post have at least one thing in common, copper treatment.

Velvet will often attack the eyes and cause infections and blindness. I've treated a couple hundred fish in copper now, copper hasn't caused blindness in any of my fish. Velvet, flukes, or infections have, on probably 6 or 7.

 

[lion king]

Velvet will often attack the eyes and cause infections and blindness. I've treated a couple hundred fish in copper now, copper hasn't caused blindness in any of my fish. Velvet, flukes, or infections have, on probably 6 or 7.

None of the things you mentioned were present in all of the cases I mentioned, velvet was only present in the case of the niger, copper treatment is the only commonality. Absolutely not one sign of any type of infection or flukes, eyes look completely healthy in every case, what ever caused the blindness was internal. I guess trying to talk about copper treatment in fish is like trying to talk about vaccines in humans. Copper causes premature death at best with many species, time and time again I see fish drop dead a year or so after copper treatment.

 

[4FordFamily]

None of the things you mentioned were present in all of the cases I mentioned, velvet was only present in the case of the niger, copper treatment is the only commonality. Absolutely not one sign of any type of infection or flukes, eyes look completely healthy in every case, what ever caused the blindness was internal. I guess trying to talk about copper treatment in fish is like trying to talk about vaccines in humans. Copper causes premature death at best with many species, time and time again I see fish drop dead a year or so after copper treatment.

I cannot speak to your experience, only mine. I can tell you that prior to the Hanna Copper Checker over the past year (the first 100 or so fish treated in copper) were where the eye problems happened. I was shooting for 2.25-2.5PPM. I was measuring with the old test kits so it could have been anywhere from 1.5-4.0 PPM. With Coppersafe's potency issues, who the heck knows.

I think the issue with copper is overexposure both in term and in potency.

As I think back on my experience, when I was very aggressive with copper, as I said I did have more trouble. Copper is an immune-suppressant (as are most "medications") -- so bacterial infections can much more easily take hold. However, the fact that our displays are ich, velvet, brook, fluke, and uronema-free (not solely due to copper) makes it all worth the risk. I wouldn't even consider skipping copper treatment. That's just me, however.