Can Copper cause skin irritation to my fish?

[OceanL0ver]

I've had my regal tang in quarantine for 60 days. My display tank is fallow. During this 60 days I have treated with Prazi pro twice prophylactically. I then after a 90% water change and running carbon to get prazi out I started slowly dosing up copper safe. I battled some bacterial infections which resolved with furan and metroplex. Now that the infections have resolved my regal thing keeps getting this white dusting all over it. My copper safe is at 1.5 for two weeks now. The fish is eating well but has visible little white specs all over it. I have no answer. My only thought could be some kind of irritation to the skin. The fish is flashing but not breathing heavily and looks healthy otherwise. I have done multiple freshwater dips and I have not seen anything fall off of the fish.

 

[melypr1985]

Oh boy. I've been battling something like this as well with my hippo tang. He's been in QT for over three months!! I still haven't quite figured out what mine had, but ended up buying CP and running him through that. I'm not done with it, so I can't give the results right now, but in about two weeks I should know more.

Quick question.... are you sure you never cross contaminated with the display or any other tanks you may have around? Is the QT at least 10 feet away from the display? Are you testing your copper often?

 

[OceanL0ver]

Oh boy. I've been battling something like this as well with my hippo tang. He's been in QT for over three months!! I still haven't quite figured out what mine had, but ended up buying CP and running him through that. I'm not done with it, so I can't give the results right now, but in about two weeks I should know more.

Quick question.... are you sure you never cross contaminated with the display or any other tanks you may have around? Is the QT at least 10 feet away from the display? Are you testing your copper often?

No cross contamination. QT in another room 20 feet away. I test copper twice daily as I was bringing it up and now daily that I'm therapeutic. Also, I have a PBT that is just as much of an ich magnet at it looks pristine.

 

[OceanL0ver]

Can it be a resistant strain of ich or velvet? Should I bring my coppersafe up to 2?

 

[melypr1985]

Can it be a resistant strain of ich or velvet? Should I bring my coppersafe up to 2?

Originally I had an Achilles tang with my hippo. It looked pristine as well until about 5 weeks into the QT. Bring your copper up to 2ppm to allow for some wiggle room with the levels. The skin irritation went away when copper was present but would come right back after 30 days. I treated with kanaplex, metroplex and furan2 twice, did acriflavin dips, freshwater dips - the works. I treated for flukes despite never seeing any come off in the FW dips. After a while of this both fish ended up flopping on the bottom of the tank and breathing very heavily. Both fish ate very well up until two days before the flopping event. I moved them both into a non medicated tank with all new equipment (basically a tank transfer). The next day the Achilles had died. He showed the skin irritation the second time around with copper. this is all a bit disjointed and will be covered in full detail when I finish the whole thing with this darn hippo and CP.

Basically, Hippos can show irritation when exposed to copper, but in my case I'm not sure if that's what it was. Since he is still showing some light colored patches it could be... but again I wont know for sure until the end of the treatment and experiment.

 

[4FordFamily]

This is becoming increasingly more prevalent. If the fish isn't showing any other symptoms of ich (other than flashing and scratching due to the obvious irritation), I would just observe when you remove copper after the full 30 day period and see if ich/velvet returns. Do the spots go away?

I wouldn't add to the DT without at least a 30 day observation period.

I've never experienced what you describe but you have to be the fifth person that posted about it, exclusive seemingly to hippo tangs.

Two of which I am pretty sure all ended fine the fish had an irritation to copper. Not sure on the rest. Frustrating and confusing for sure!

Edit:

You did have this on an Achilles, @melyphr

What's going on? Lol. These things seem to happen in bouts! I'm wondering if the fish are exposed to a new chemical in the distribution system that makes their skin sensitive or significantly weakens their immune system that wasn't used before.

I don't recall ever seeing this until 3 or 4 months ago, ever.

 

[melypr1985]

You did have this on an Achilles, @melyphr

What's going on? Lol. These things seem to happen in bouts! I'm wondering if the fish are exposed to a new chemical in the distribution system that makes their skin sensitive or significantly weakens their immune system that wasn't used before.

I don't recall ever seeing this until 3 or 4 months ago, ever.

Yes, it didn't show symptoms of it until after the second round with copper. There was a third round using a cupramine instead of my usual coppersafe.... anyway.... In the short of things, this could have been a copper resistant strain of velvet (worst case) OR it could be a skin irritation.

 

[4FordFamily]

Yes, it didn't show symptoms of it until after the second round with copper. There was a third round using a cupramine instead of my usual coppersafe.... anyway.... In the short of things, this could have been a copper resistant strain of velvet (worst case) OR it could be a skin irritation.

Boy do I hope it's not the latter -- although it's a matter of time. Be that thousands of years or days-- who knows.

 

[melypr1985]

Boy do I hope it's not the latter -- although it's a matter of time. Be that thousands of years or days-- who knows.

Me too, but that's why I ended up going with CP even though hippos never make it in that. My thought was, what do I have to lose at this point? Ya know? I'll write it all up with pictures and videos ect when it's done. One more week, then a week with a black molly before I'll give too many details. Pray I haven't jinxed it just by talking about it!!!

 

[4FordFamily]

Me too, but that's why I ended up going with CP even though hippos never make it in that. My thought was, what do I have to lose at this point? Ya know? I'll write it all up with pictures and videos ect when it's done. One more week, then a week with a black molly before I'll give too many details. Pray I haven't jinxed it just by talking about it!!!

I heard nothing!

 

[juicemanatx]

I'd switch to a different form of copper, or do a Formalin dip?

My hippo did have reactions when my coppersafe was overdosed.

 

[Humblefish]

Me too, but that's why I ended up going with CP even though hippos never make it in that. My thought was, what do I have to lose at this point? Ya know? I'll write it all up with pictures and videos ect when it's done. One more week, then a week with a black molly before I'll give too many details. Pray I haven't jinxed it just by talking about it!!!

Your Hippo is still eating/acting normally after 2 weeks in CP? That's gotta be a record.

 

[melypr1985]

Your Hippo is still eating/acting normally after 2 weeks in CP? That's gotta be a record.

shhhhhh!!!! No jinxing!!!

 

[OceanL0ver]

After increasing coppersafe to 2 for the past few days I'm convinced it's some kind of copper induced rash. I'm stopping copper on hopes it clears up.

 

[Dierks]

@melypr1985 Did you ever have a chance to write anything up on this?

Looks like we might have another case of Copper Irritation but not 100% sure. Any way you could take a look at this tread and help this gentleman out?

Sick Blue Hippo!

Maybe @Humblefish could chime in on this one too.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Losthawk69]

some blue tangs do get skin irritation after from copper after about two weeks i noticed, what i do is remove them to another qt with out copper then treat them with melafix. sometimes they even start losing blue color and do recover after removing them from copper. feed with nori and vitamins like selcon always keep an eye open when treating with copper. with any fish really.not all fish are the same just like people allergic reactions to what ever.