Dosing Cupramine

[john.m.cole3]

I had 3 fish in QT for 2 weeks and did TTM x 4 with 2 rounds of prazipro on 2nd and 4th transfer. My foxface was in a separate tank and died quickly, so I thought it might be velvet. Considering that I decided I would treat the 3 smaller fish (clown fish, firefish, and engineer goby) with cupramine. Followed the instructions (20 drops/10.5 gallons) and put 17 drops in my 10 gal tank that is not quite full. I tested the water 20 minutes later to confirm a reading of .5 (used seachem test kit and did it twice). 6 hours later i noticed the firefish started breathing slowly, wouldn't eat, and began tipping over and twitching every 30 seconds or so. I did a 50% WC and ended up losing him that night.

Did I bring up the copper level too high too fast? I've heard smaller fish are sensitive to copper. How would you treat for velvet if that's the case? I just want to learn so I know the dos and don'ts for the future.

 

[Humblefish]

Did I bring up the copper level too high too fast? I've heard smaller fish are sensitive to copper. How would you treat for velvet if that's the case? I just want to learn so I know the dos and don'ts for the future.

Normally, it's best to take 4-5 days to bring the Cu level up to full therapeutic as some fish just can't handle "instant copper" and need to be acclimated slowly to it. However, with velvet you don't have much of a choice but to get the Cu level up to therapeutic within 24 hrs due to the severity of that disease. It's the lesser of two evils. This is one reason why Chloroquine phosphate is the drug of choice for treating velvet, as most fish seem unfazed by that medication.

It is also worth nothing that copper (or even Chloroquine) is not always the "silver bullet" when dealing with velvet. A FW dip and chemical bath is sometimes required (for immediate relief) before the fish is treated with copper or CP. Read here for more info (post #2 contains the actual treatment protocol): https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/defeating-marine-velvet-disease.217570/