CP Treatment for Velvet?

Glissfish21 · Jun 26, 2017

Hi,
I suspect that my Copperband Butterfly might have velvet. I was going to treat him with Cupramine, but then I read something about CP. I'm interested to know more about it, but I have no idea where to look.
If anyone has used this treatment before, I'd love it if you could share your experiences!

aykwm · Jun 26, 2017

Velvet is similar to copper in terms of treatment length and they can be both used for velvet, this is good because some fish is sensitive to a medication but nit the other. The nice thing is that cp is less harsh on fish and you dose it once and thats it, while copper you need to constantly check for level.
It should be noted that CP must remain at therapeutical range of 40-60 mg/l to work and thats hard to track since no test kits exist.

Im currently treating with it, i got it from a fellow reefer, but usually you need a vet script to get your hands on it, thats why its not that popular

You can read more about it here

Humblefish · Jun 26, 2017

I've successfully used CP on Copperbands and other butterflies many times.

More info: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chloroquine-phosphate.192309/

Christoph · Jun 27, 2017

Wrong dose noted in this thread! 40-60mg/l would likely be a fatal Overdose. 15mg/l is a standard dosage.

Best,
christoph

aykwm · Jun 27, 2017

Christoph said:
Wrong dose noted in this thread! 40-60mg/l would likely be a fatal Overdose. 15mg/l is a standard dosage.

Best,
christoph

Any citation for this?
I know people go up to 80 mg/l
Im currently dosing 60 mg/l with no issues.
Dosing at 15 might not be enough to kill parasites

Keep in mind that some fish are sensitive to CP, so if 40 killed them but 15 didn't that doesn't mean that they are cured or that 40+ is lethal. There was a recent post here by biznizface who treated his blue hippo tang (sensitive to CP) below the recommended dosage and it survived although I think he didn't have success with the treatment.

Also know from where you are getting CP, pharmaceutical grade is highly recommended, others might be contaminated with other chemicals.

Christoph · Jun 27, 2017

For example:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/2/fish

Maybe you are refering to the dose per gallon and not per litre?

I have neaver heard of anyone using more than 20ppm. CP, at least in mammals, has a small therapeutic Windows. I would be careful with overdosing.

Cheers

aykwm · Jun 27, 2017

Actually yes, the dosage is per gallon, excuse me. We don't use US measurement here so totally forgot about that, thanks for bringing it to my attention. So converting that to mg/l the maximum people tried is around 20 mg/l and currently I'm dosing around 15-16 mg/l without any side effects.

4FordFamily · Jun 27, 2017

One thing to point out- unless you can get CP in an hour or two I'd skip to copper because velvet does extensive damage very quickly and we are dealing with a very fragile fish.

Good luck! Keep us posted!

Glissfish21 · Jun 27, 2017

Turns out I really misread his symptoms and jumped to the worst case scenario. Upon much closer inspection and loads of research, I've identified that he actually has flukes.
I apologize for my error, I'm still very new to fish diseases (only have to deal with ich so far

). Thanks for all your help anyway!

melypr1985 · Jun 27, 2017

Glissfish21 said:
Turns out I really misread his symptoms and jumped to the worst case scenario. Upon much closer inspection and loads of research, I've identified that he actually has flukes.
I apologize for my error, I'm still very new to fish diseases (only have to deal with ich so far). Thanks for all your help anyway!

did you do a freshwater dip to confirm? It's easy and fast to do.

Glissfish21 · Jun 27, 2017

melypr1985 said:
did you do a freshwater dip to confirm? It's easy and fast to do.

I'd like to give him a freshwater dip, but I know that copperbands are very sensitive fish, and I've heard that they don't so well after the dip. Should I just do it anyway and keep a close eye on him?

Humblefish · Jun 27, 2017

Glissfish21 said:
I'd like to give him a freshwater dip, but I know that copperbands are very sensitive fish, and I've heard that they don't so well after the dip. Should I just do it anyway and keep a close eye on him?

Butterflies will sometimes struggle to maintain their equilibrium following a FW dip. If this happens, hold the fish upright (using latex, nitrile or rubber gloves), and gently glide him through the water (to get saltwater flowing through the gills again). It is also a good idea to place the fish in an acclimation box until he appears “normal”.

4FordFamily · Jun 27, 2017

Can you post a photo of the fish? I'd be surprised if flukes were missed in lieu of velvet. I want to make sure

Glissfish21 · Jun 28, 2017

Here's a picture of him. If you zoom in you can see a couple clear bumps on his nose, I'm assuming those are flukes. There's also a few on his body that you can see if you look really close. I've also seen them hanging off and moving along his top fin. I'm going to do a freshwater dip tomorrow and then I'll be able to tell for sure if it's flukes.

4FordFamily · Jun 28, 2017

I see what looks like ich or velvet on the tail and rear half off the fish I believe - watch closely. If you bought this fish recently there's a very high chance of each or both.