Copper for 45 days, why not?!

[TastesLikeChicken]

I have read a lot regarding quarantine protocol. It seems the current recommendation is copper for 30 days, change water, treat with antiparasitic and antibacterial, watch for two more weeks and your good to go.

My question is why not treat with copper for 45 days and skip the two week observation period. That way one can make sure the little rascals (parasites) are nuked to oblivion. I’m using copper power as recommended and my fish seem to be handling it well.

Thanks in advance!

 

[thresher]

One of my local LFS always has a low dose of copper running in the fish only system. He tells you of this to make sure don't add the bag water to your reef. All fish I have purchased from them have been parasite free.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have read a lot regarding quarantine protocol. It seems the current recommendation is copper for 30 days, change water, treat with antiparasitic and antibacterial, watch for two more weeks and your good to go.

My question is why not treat with copper for 45 days and skip the two week observation period. That way one can make sure the little rascals (parasites) are nuked to oblivion. I’m using copper power as recommended and my fish seem to be handling it well.

Thanks in advance!

I do that all the time with coppersafe. Copper power is also fine from what I hear. Cupramine might be a problem and copper sulfate/citric acid is certainly an issue for that long.
The main reason to pull copper is to then run praziquantel. People treat both at the same time, but I try to avoid that.
Jay

 

[Phlynamjax]

I have read a lot regarding quarantine protocol. It seems the current recommendation is copper for 30 days, change water, treat with antiparasitic and antibacterial, watch for two more weeks and your good to go.

My question is why not treat with copper for 45 days and skip the two week observation period. That way one can make sure the little rascals (parasites) are nuked to oblivion. I’m using copper power as recommended and my fish seem to be handling it well.

Thanks in advance!

It is because you want to keep your fish in copper-free setting to verify that no parasite survived the copper. You can keep fish in copper for long time. I have personally kept fish in cupramine for 90 + days without any issue. I also know a store that maintains therapeutic level of cupramine in their fish holding system. Some of their fish spend their entire life there (Not getting sold).

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Perfect. 45 days it is!

Several more questions please:

1. Can I use general cure from API instead of just Praziquantel? Is there a benefit to doing so?
2. Once 45 days is done and I replaced the water, can I keep the fish in the same QT or do I have to worry about left over parasites?
3. So if I do 45 days of copper, can I skip the two week observation afterwards?

 

[Phlynamjax]

Perfect. 45 days it is!

Several more questions please:

1. Can I use general cure from API instead of just Praziquantel? Is there a benefit to doing so?
2. Once 45 days is done and I replaced the water, can I keep the fish in the same QT or do I have to worry about left over parasites?
3. So if I do 45 days of copper, can I skip the two week observation afterwards?

1. I prefer PraziPro. I am still not 100% convince that Praziquantel in powder is effective because it is not water soluble.
2. I think you a re ok, but still recommend observation period to confirm 100%
3. It is depends on the risk you are willing to take. You will be most likely to be ok after even 30 days of copper. But observation period is still recommended to make sure no parasite returns in copper-free environment.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Perfect. 45 days it is!

Several more questions please:

1. Can I use general cure from API instead of just Praziquantel? Is there a benefit to doing so?
2. Once 45 days is done and I replaced the water, can I keep the fish in the same QT or do I have to worry about left over parasites?
3. So if I do 45 days of copper, can I skip the two week observation afterwards?

API GC has the same amount of praziquantel in it as prazipro has - just make sure it mixes well.

There shouldn't be any leftover parasites in the QT. At least, there are none that the fish don't still have themselves.

The two week observation is a safety net, to give any latent disease a chance to crop up. Keeping the fish in copper inhibits the disease, but if there is a problem with how you are dosing copper, the disease could pop back up after you remove it - hence the safety factor.

Jay

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Ok one more question:

If I use Prazi or general cure, will the medication being in the water kill external and internal parasites or do I have to mix it with food and feed it to the fish to kill internal parasites.

Thank you. You guys are rock stars!

 

[Phlynamjax]

Ok one more question:

If I use Prazi or general cure, will the medication being in the water kill external and internal parasites or do I have to mix it with food and feed it to the fish to kill internal parasites.

Thank you. You guys are rock stars!

From my experience, it only works for fluke (For hobbyist use) by dosing directly to your aquarium. I never had luck with mixing general cure to the food to treat internal parasite. First, I believe diagnostic of internal parasite is very difficult to do. And feeding proper amount of medication is almost impossible to do as hobbyist. I mostly use QT to treat for external parasites, flukes, and any bacterial or fungal infection. Reality is anything outside of external parasites, flukes, and minor bacterial infection is very difficult to treat at hobbyist level.

 

[Flame2hawk]

From my experience, it only works for fluke (For hobbyist use) by dosing directly to your aquarium. I never had luck with mixing general cure to the food to treat internal parasite. First, I believe diagnostic of internal parasite is very difficult to do. And feeding proper amount of medication is almost impossible to do as hobbyist. I mostly use QT to treat for external parasites, flukes, and any bacterial or fungal infection. Reality is anything outside of external parasites, flukes, and minor bacterial infection is very difficult to treat at hobbyist level.

I’ve had relatively good success treating for internal parasites by dosing pellet food’s(highly absorbent) with fenbendazole /General Cure( metro and prazi powder mix)/focus. In my experience, In order to affectively eradicate stubborn internal parasites/worms, medication has to get in the gut.

 

[Paul B]

When this hobby started we kept copper in the tanks in the form of copper pennies forever. There were no inverts then and we didn't have any idea what we were doing but thought fish were supposed to all have spots.

Now, some of us know better as copper is a poison. Besides that, they don't make pennies out of it any longer. Now they make pennies out of old I Pods