Cupramine and copper power mixed

[icemountain]

I accidentally mixed cupramine and copper power. There was a trace amount of cupramine left, about 0.1 on the Hanna test kit, prior to me starting copper power. I did not do another test a couple of days later and assumed it was completely gone with carbon and cuprisorb. I raised copper power up to therapeutic level of about 2 over a period of 3-4 days and the remaining fish have stopped eating and are breathing heavily. Some fish are acting normal and eating but most are not. I am in the process of removing all copper with water changes, cuprisorb, and carbon. I checked a bit ago with Hanna and it was 0.66 so its on its way down.

What happens if you combine both cupramine and copper power? And are my fish suffering from copper toxicity? I thought copper power was much safer than cupramine? Any way I can fix this and save the ones that aren't eating and breathing heavily?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just checking; you didn't add Prime or Amquel or anything other ammonia detox did you?

This is the age-old problem: signs of copper toxicity mimic that of some protozoan infections. People think they have a copper reaction, then pull the copper out, when actually, the copper just hadn't enough time to work against the parasite.

That said, I have not mixed those two products, there could be some negative synergistic reaction. If the Cupramine read 0.1, then could you just subtract that from the current reading to get the current dose of Copper Power?

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

I would add carbon and give it 12 hours and test for copper. If you dont have a test kit, run a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test for you right away

 

[icemountain]

No, I did not add prime or any other ammonia detox.

I don't think subtracting one copper level from another copper level to get the therapeutic level works since they are different kinds of copper but could be wrong.

Fish were in cupramine already at therapeutic dose of 0.4 but I just decided to switch to copper power since its superior from the readings that I did on it compared to cupramine. During that process of switching is when I noticed appetite suppression and heavy breathing, some even swimming lethargically.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

No, I did not add prime or any other ammonia detox.

I don't think subtracting one copper level from another copper level to get the therapeutic level works since they are different kinds of copper but could be wrong.

Fish were in cupramine already at therapeutic dose of 0.4 but I just decided to switch to copper power since its superior from the readings that I did on it compared to cupramine. During that process of switching is when I noticed appetite suppression and heavy breathing, some even swimming lethargically.

'

Could the switching process have left the fish in sub-optimal dosing long enough that the protozoans could gain the upper hand? With ionic copper, toxicity is seen during the dosing, and once removed, the fish recover fairly rapidly. These are amine-based copper products and may behave differently...

Jay