Dead fish in QT

[Fishfinder]

I have a 30 gal qt, it has 25 gal of water in it (measured). I have 2 queen anthias and 2 wrasses in there. They have been in Qt for 10 days. All eating great multiple times a day and not showing any signs at all of illness. I decided to start copper treatment because of sensitivity to CP. On day 1 I added 10ml of coppersafe. Came home from work and both anthias were dead. On day 2 I got up and added 10ml of coppersafe. That evening both wrasses were dead. That was only half of the recommended dose. What is going on? I normally use CP and dont run into this problem any help? I was trying to raise the dose over 4-5 days.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

I did not use CS but I recently had in qt blue star leopard ornate and a red velvet when I started copper power at 1ml all wrasses started to act Crazy an unusual that same day I lost the blue star I have read from the great humblefish that they sometimes don’t do well in copper. My next batch I may try chloroquine phosphate or may go back to cupramine as I did have luck with it before with my wrasses.

 

[Radman73]

First, sorry for your losses. One thing I didn't know about copper my first time was that it suppresses the fish's immune system. Because of this, I treated with antibiotics this time around before starting Copper Power. Also, many people have suggested raising copper level over a week vs 3-4 days even. That being said, I just raised my level to therapeutic over 4 days on a melanarus and sleeper goby over 4 days without a major issue. The melanarus was reclusive after the 4th dose so I performed a water change, still using the full therapeutic dose in the water change water, and that seems to have helped.

By chance, did you use any ammonia reducer shortly before or during copper treatment? Any chance it was an ammonia spike? This time around I'm probably spending more on biospira then I did the fish just trying to keep the bio filter up to par.

 

[Fishfinder]

No ammonia reducers. And very unlikely it was anamkonia spike. I think I will be using cupramine next go around

 

[Radman73]

No ammonia reducers. And very unlikely it was anamkonia spike. I think I will be using cupramine next go around

I think it's a crap shoot some time with copper sensitivity. For non-sand burrowers I think I may just start going with TTM.

 

[Fishfinder]

Even with sand burrowers TTM is still an option I would think. I choose med treatment over TTM because I'm worried of delayed velvet symptoms. I'd rather treat both at once. But it failed bad this time

 

[Radman73]

Even with sand burrowers TTM is still an option I would think. I choose med treatment over TTM because I'm worried of delayed velvet symptoms. I'd rather treat both at once. But it failed bad this time

Oh, agree completely about TTM and sand burrowers, I just don't like the idea of possibly "waking" a sleeping wrasse for the transfer. I know it's been done without issue for many. I just would prefer to avoid that. But, for med sensitive wrasses, maybe it's the best bet?

Maybe some day we'll be able to develop a bullet proof QT process for all fish with prophylactic treatment processes that ensure survival for even fish that arrive sick on arrival. We can hope!

 

[lagatbezan]

I think TTM is the safest for most fish and is my own personal preferred method of qt. The downside to it besides requiring a lot of work is that it doesnt work for velvet. But I think i read somewhere here someone recommending that it can work if done every 24 hours instead of every 72. again, I'm not certain about it, but might be possible although would mean a lot of salt, water changes, cleanings and transfers.