Can copper power and metroplex be used together?

mochaclownlover · May 16, 2021

I'm on the last week of prazi for my flasher wrasse (total QT being ~3months) and next week is the final stage of my QT, that being a second 3week dose of copper power. In correlation with CP, I also wanted to add metroplex. Everything I've seen thus far says that it should be fine, but just wanted to run it by some experts here to be sure.

Jay Hemdal · May 16, 2021

Why do you want to use metroplex? There is almost complete overlap between copper and metronidazole, but copper is more effective. Metro can kill anaerobic bacteria, but I’ve never seen those infect fish, certainly not externally.
Don’t know of any direct negative affect using metro and copper, but every treatment has some stress associated with it.
Jay

mochaclownlover · May 16, 2021

My main reason is just being proactive, haven't added any fish in awhile and just want to make sure I cover all possible bases. I recently watched an interview between reefdudes and humblefish in which (from my understanding) he said metro could be used to treat brook. He was referring to using API general cure and said that it contained both metro and prazi, and that the metro would cover treatment of brook and uronema. I have zero signs of anything, but just taking preventative measures.

Jay Hemdal · May 16, 2021

Well, metro won’t treat Uronema. I had tried it decades ago for Brook, and it didn’t work for me, but maybe?
Jay

mochaclownlover · May 16, 2021

Well, that's good to know! Guess it won't really be doing much more than adding stress. I'm assuming only formalin would treat both of those? Thank you for your help!

Jay Hemdal · May 17, 2021

mochaclownlover said:
Well, that's good to know! Guess it won't really be doing much more than adding stress. I'm assuming only formalin would treat both of those? Thank you for your help!

Yes, formalin has been used to treat both issues, but moderate to severe Uronema has pretty much a zero success rate using any medication.

Jay

mochaclownlover · May 17, 2021

One last question. I know formalin is a very strong medication and the topic of whether on not it can cause long term issues for the fish is commonly discussed, but if the fish is experiencing zero symptoms of brook or uronema after being in QT for almost 3months, would you recommend still doing treatments proactively or to save it for confirmed treatment?

Jay Hemdal · May 17, 2021

mochaclownlover said:
One last question. I know formalin is a very strong medication and the topic of whether on not it can cause long term issues for the fish is commonly discussed, but if the fish is experiencing zero symptoms of brook or uronema after being in QT for almost 3months, would you recommend still doing treatments proactively or to save it for confirmed treatment?

After three months, I wouldn’t treat them. Uronema shows up in its non disease form in most aquariums anyway. I really see Brook on newly acquired fish.
Formalin can be acutely stressful, so avoid it if you can for that reason. In terms of chronic mortality, there is no evidence of that, I think jjust somebody had a string of bad luck and attributed it to formalin use. I have many more cases where it didn’t cause long term issues (grin).
Jay