Copperband butterfly fish has ich

[randy4083]

I just bought the fish and right now I'm treating it with prazipro because I read that I should treat a butterfly fish with it at the beginning and it's in a quarantine tank and it says on the bottle not to mix medicine with it so I don't know what to do and I have cupramine copper but should I mix the 2 medicines or should I do a waterchange before dosing the cupramine copper?? It's on it fins and tail

 

[melypr1985]

You can combine prazi and copper, just be careful and watch for a bacterial bloom (cloudy water). Adding extra oxygen to the water with an air stone or small powerhead is a good idea.

 

[randy4083]

I have a bublestrip in the tank adding oxygen

 

[randy4083]

How much cupramine copper should I add the whole .25 or what because aren't some butterfly fish sensitive to copper also

 

[Maritimer]

You want to bring the copper level up gradually over a few days for treating ich.

There's another disease out there called velvet. It can look somewhat similar to ich, but the spots will be smaller and more numerous - when you can see them at all! Velvet can be a real bear, and can wipe out a tank in short order. If your butterfly has velvet, you don't have a few days - you'd want to bring copper levels up over just 24 hours. Is the butterfly swimming into the flow of a powerhead, or hiding from light more than usual?

A clear photo would help in confirming diagnosis.

~Bruce

 

[randy4083]

No it's acting like it has since I got it and it's eating and I'm at work right now but tomorrow I'll take a picture of it

 

[randy4083]

It's only a little bit on it's fins and tail

 

[Maritimer]

That does sound like the way ich works.

~Bruce

 

[Areseebee]

Are you positive it isn't lympho?

 

[randy4083]

I don't know but I'll take a picture in the morning when I get off from working

 

[randy4083]

 

[randy4083]

Somehow it loaded another picture of my daughter and my nephew and I don't know how I did that but the picture is the first one bit it's not that great

 

[Maritimer]

The puffy white growths on the edges of his fins look a lot like lymphocystis. It's a virus, and there's no treatment for it - but it's not especially dangerous unless the growths begin to interfere with the fish's feeding or breathing.

Good water quality, high-quality food, and some supplementation like Selcon, and your butterfly should be doing better in no time.

Your bear, though ... looks like he's come down with a case of paw-kids! ;Doctor No worries. They're cute, and mostly harmless.

~Bruce

 

[randy4083]

This is the best that I can get of the fish

 

[randy4083]

Yeah they loved it

 

[jd371]

Yeah, that looks like lymphocystis. Mine had it too when it was in the QT, but they disappeared after a couple of weeks in the DT. Keep an eye on them and if they get bigger then it's definitely lymphos.

 

[randy4083]

Ok so I should hold off in the way of adding copper then and just feed it because it eats mysis shrimp and black worms and a bunch of different frozen cubes of stuff all the time so is this enough in the way of the food because there's nothing that you can dose for this right

 

[ngoodermuth]

Treating copper prophylactically is not a bad idea. Especially if the fish came from TFP (I recognize that bear [emoji4])

They have velvet in all three systems, suppressed with low levels of copper. I'm there weekly, I've seen it :/

Keep a keen eye for bacterial infection as well.

 

[randy4083]

Yeah it did I just bought it from there this weekend and I got 2 other fish also and there fine but the copperband has whatever it has and right now I have prazipro treatment in there because I read that you should treat a butterfly fish with it and I do have cupramine copper here so how much should I dose

 

[randy4083]

What would a bacterial infection look like because I live in Maryland and I go up there every once in awhile and I saw that a bunch of fish didn't look to good and now I hear this so that's crazy