Fish lost scales during copper treatment?

[JenniferMcK]

my maroon clowns have lost some scales I believe during copper treatment with copper power. They did full 14 days and I have now transfered them to another sterile qt dosed with GC. Is there any meds that I can dose to help with the scale loss and to prevent infection? I have nfg on hand and they've already been through spectrogram during copper. Should I remove the GC?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Do you have any pictures by chance? I'd say it's pretty unusual for clowns to have issues tolerating copper, I'd just want to make sure there is nothing else going on there.

 

[JenniferMcK]

I just spent 20 minutes trying to take a picture and this is the best I could get. She's very active and healthy and eating very good. It's like a rough kinda raised patch right behind the first white long on her head. I can barely see it in this picture but it's pretty noticeable in person

 

[JenniferMcK]

Do you have any pictures by chance? I'd say it's pretty unusual for clowns to have issues tolerating copper, I'd just want to make sure there is nothing else going on there.

Sorry I forget to reply directly to you.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Hm.. I can’t really see anything in the picture. I wouldn’t remove the GC just yet. Let me get a few more eyes on this #reefsquad

My initial thought would be bacterial/antibiotics..,but since they’ve already been treated with antibiotics I want to make sure I’m not missing something.

Uronema creates rough red patches, but not sure that I’ve ever seen it on a maroon clown to compare (and the maroon color of the fish wouldn’t help)

 

[Big G]

If it is Uronema, you are already dosing the QT with GC which contains Metro. But Uronema can also be working internally, so feeding the clown food + metro + Focus will treat the internals.

 

[ngoodermuth]

^ that’s what I was thinking. I think I would treat like it IS uronema, just in case. Not a risk you want to take.

The general cure dosage would be two doses 5-7 days apart (assuming you were treating for flukes) but for uronema you’ll actually need a few metroplex (without praziquantel) doses in between those. The metroplex is dosed every 48 hours after a 20-25% water change, so you can just give the second GC in place of whichever metro dose would be within 5-7 days from your first. Hopefully that makes sense lol

 

[JenniferMcK]

If it is Uronema, you are already dosing the QT with GC which contains Metro. But Uronema can also be working internally, so feeding the clown food + metro + Focus will treat the internals.

I actually fed them 10 days of GC in their food while ramping copper up and during copper treatment. I started spectrogram and ran that for 10 days as well. On another post I made about the smaller clown, you advised me to dose metro and so I did. Today was the start of GC in the water column in sterile qt. I'm not sure what they have going on but I know it's not ick, velvet, or uronema. It's definitely not brook. I was thinking maybe hlle from the copper that I think I saw humblefish post something about a while back but I'm just not sure. I took about 4-5 days to ramp up copper and held it at 1.70-1.80 give or take a little for 14 days and just transfered them today. They're both eating well and swimming about and very active so whatever it is isn't killing them but I just don't want an infection to set in.

 

[JenniferMcK]

^ that’s what I was thinking. I think I would treat like it IS uronema, just in case. Not a risk you want to take.

The general cure dosage would be two doses 5-7 days apart (assuming you were treating for flukes) but for uronema you’ll actually need a few metroplex (without praziquantel) doses in between those. The metroplex is dosed every 48 hours after a 20-25% water change, so you can just give the second GC in place of whichever metro dose would be within 5-7 days from your first. Hopefully that makes sense lol

I get what you're saying. I'll try that. If that doesn't clear it up, should I dose with nfg? I also have kanaplex and furan 2 coming in the mail in a few days...

 

[ngoodermuth]

I’m not sure it is uronema. Reading your last comment, it sounds like they should have been well covered. Just to confirm, for how long was metro dosed in the water column? The whole 14 days with copper?

What about aggression? Any quarreling between the two?

 

[JenniferMcK]

I’m not sure it is uronema. Reading your last comment, it sounds like they should have been well covered. Just to confirm, for how long was metro dosed in the water column? The whole 14 days with copper?

What about aggression? Any quarreling between the two?

I see them kinda dance and shimmy sometimes. The female nudges the male a little here and there on his side but he doesn't have this on him just her. He doesn't bite at her or anything like. I guess it's a possibility though

 

[ngoodermuth]

This is one of those tough ones... if it’s a reaction to copper or some other stressor you almost don’t want to keep dumping medications on them.

On the other hand, if it’s an infection or uronema...

@HotRocks @Humblefish @4FordFamily

Any ideas?

 

[HotRocks]

This is one of those tough ones... if it’s a reaction to copper or some other stressor you almost don’t want to keep dumping medications on them.

On the other hand, if it’s an infection or uronema...

@HotRocks @Humblefish @4FordFamily

Any ideas?

It sounds like everything has been covered treatment wise. Sometimes fish do have negative reactions to all the meds. Causing the small skin abrasions. Personally I would just go with no meds for a while and observe closely. It could be a little night time aggression as well.

I don't see much in the pic that was posted above.

You are in great hands here with @ngoodermuth and @Big G.

 

[JenniferMcK]

It sounds like everything has been covered treatment wise. Sometimes fish do have negative reactions to all the meds. Causing the small skin abrasions. Personally I would just go with no meds for a while and observe closely. It could be a little night time aggression as well.

I don't see much in the pic that was posted above.

You are in great hands here with @ngoodermuth and @Big G.

I'm going by your qt procedure and planned on running GC for 2 rounds like you had wrote. Should I stop the GC or continue for the 2 rounds?

 

[ngoodermuth]

I'm going by your qt procedure and planned on running GC for 2 rounds like you had wrote. Should I stop the GC or continue for the 2 rounds?

Continue the GC for flukes, since they have not been treated with praziquantel. You can do a water change after 24-48 hours after each dose to reduce stress, the flukes are usually all dead within 10 hours. The second dose is to account for eggs hatching.

 

[JenniferMcK]

Continue the GC for flukes, since they have not been treated with praziquantel. You can do a water change after 24-48 hours after each dose to reduce stress, the flukes are usually all dead within 10 hours. The second dose is to account for eggs hatching.

Thank you for all your help!