Chocolate Mimic not doing good Please help

[saltlifegal]

I purchased a Chocolate Mimic and a Coral Beauty on Sunday to put in my 180 gal tank, as always I did a slow dip to acclimate them to the quarantine tank water, put coppermine in the qt tank and the 2 fish. All was good on Monday they both ate last night, this morning when the lights went on I noticed the Chocolate Mimic acting a little strange when I put the algae sheet in for her to nibble on, she wanted nothing to do with it. I checked all the water specs (with API which always reads little something) and the ammonia was between 0.25 and 0.5 which I thought was weird because it was freshly made saltwater made with RO water and Aquaforest Reef Salt, Salinity 1.025, so I then tested with Salifert NH4 Profi Test for ammonia and it read 0. Just to be on the safe side I changed ½ the water. The chocolate still acting weird like it was gasping for air at the top of the tank and almost trying to jump out of the tank but can not as it is covered, now she has settled down a little bit and has herself jammed behind the powerhead sitting in the corner on the bottom of the tank, there are also PVC pipes she can go into to hide but hasn't. I have a blue coral light on the qt tank so the bright light doesn't freak her out. At this point I don't know what else I can do but wait it out and hope for the best. If anyone has any suggestions of what to do please pipe in I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Humblefish]

First, about the ammonia - Most liquid test kits will return false positives when copper is present in the water. I believe (but am not 100% sure) that the Seachem ammonia test kit is designed to still work even with Cupramine (another Seachem product). I myself rely upon a Seachem ammonia alert badge when treating with medications.

Now about the tang - Some fish flat out can't handle copper. Some species (ex. angels) are typically more sensitive than others, but it also comes down to an "individual" thing. My suggestion would be to lower the Cu level until the fish resumes eating and starts acting normally again. After that, slowly raise the copper level back up to therapeutic over a 4-5 day period - instead of following Seachem's 48 hr instructions. If the fish gets weird on you a second time, you will know you have encountered a "copper sensitive fish" and will need to use an alternative QT method.

 

[saltlifegal]

Thank you Humblefish, my husband and I were talking about that with the copper and I just changed the water, I took 75% of it out and put in fresh I also have put in a filter with carbon I will be keeping the fish in qt for 4 weeks so I feel I should be ok. I would rather keep the 2 in qt even longer if it means not having the chocolate die from the copper.

 

[omykiss001]

Thank you Humblefish, my husband and I were talking about that with the copper and I just changed the water, I took 75% of it out and put in fresh I also have put in a filter with carbon I will be keeping the fish in qt for 4 weeks so I feel I should be ok. I would rather keep the 2 in qt even longer if it means not having the chocolate die from the copper.

I find the instructions from seachem to be too aggressive perhaps they developed the product using damsel fish. With tangs I've found the best way is to raise the copper over several days. I do 1/8 doses and do 2 a day if the fish seem unaffected by the copper addition. generally, I'll take 4-5 days to come to full strength, thus far I've moved several different tang species (kole, pacific blue, powder brown, yellow) through cupramine with no obvious stress to the animals over what they are experiencing without copper. I think the add 1/2 the copper wait 2 days is still to harsh for many species and what I observed was the large amount of copper probably depleted the O2 and the animals struggled until the O2 levels stabilized. When titered up more slowly the O2 drop is much less and can equilibrate before the next addition. The physiology for dealing with the copper in the fish also has more time to get in gear before high levels of copper are experienced.

Just my experience with copper treatment

 

[saltlifegal]

Thank you omykiss001 yes I agree on the copper treatment, it just stinks to follow directions and then have something like this happen, so far she is still alive but I will truly be surprised if she is in the morning.

 

[4FordFamily]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. Do you have proper flow in your quarantine tank? I also install a powerhead breaking the surface for maximum oxygenation