Fish QT - Treat with Copper?

[tnc112105]

Hi Guys,

Some of you might remember the thread I posted about a month ago regarding the Swissguard Basslet in QT that hadn’t eaten in almost two weeks.

Well, I’m happy to say that the little guy is eating like a vacuum cleaner now and appears very healthy. He shares the QT with an adorably grumpy chinstrap jaw fish. I treated the tank 1x with Prazi, but due to other distractions, never followed up with the second dose.

In an effort to get him to eat, I tried just about everything including adding substrate to the QT tank (he was obsessed with his reflection) and putting in two hermit crabs to clean up the mess from attempting to feed multiple times per day.

Due to the presence of the substrate and the hermit crabs, I’ve procrastinated about treating with copper. It’s been over a month and I haven’t added copper, however neither of the fish are showing outward signs of disease. I keep the salinity slightly low, around 1.020. If I did treat with copper, I might have a hard time maintaining therapeutic levels due to the substrate, and the hermit crabs would die.

I don’t want to cause unnecessary stress by removing the substrate and I have no idea what to do with the hermits - I won’t copper the tank and let them die.

My questions are:

1) Does everyone prophylactically treat with copper?

2) For those of you who do not, how long must a fish be non-symptomatic in order to reasonably assume it is disease free (obviously no guarantees with this method)

3) If I do treat with copper how difficult is it going to be to maintain therapeutic levels with the presence of substrate?

4) If I do treat with copper are the hermits safe to return to the reef?

I don’t have the means to do TTM. I’m lucky to have room for one QT tank, much less two. LOL. Suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

 

[ca1ore]

I don't use any meds prophylactically. I much prefer to treat as needed (though I favor CP over copper). Folks wil tell you different things about the length of observation. One month minimum; two better.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

You can not observe ich in the gills. well, you could, but it woyld kill the fish. Fish typically contract ich in the gills because they are pumping water (and potentially ich spores) across the nice tender gill flesh.

I keep tang, expensive ones, so I treat everything with copper and prazi.

now, on to the question of copper. It will get absorbed by the substrate but it happens very slowly. I would add copper and as regular maintenance, vacuum out the sentiment a little at a time.

 

[KMench]

I QT, but don’t treat with copper. I QT for a minimum of six weeks and only treat with two rounds of prazi pro. I don’t really want to put fish through copper unless it’s actually necessary. I haven’t had any problems with ich or velvet using this easy QT method. I make sure to observe them while they’re in QT for a bit of time each day to ensure I don’t see any signs of symptoms of illness. I would also say my QT time isn’t exactly stress free, so if they have something it would likely manifest while they’re in there

Currently have two wrasses and a blenny in QT. No signs or symptoms and went through two rounds of prazi. Just wait and observe now

 

[saltyhog]

I treat with CP in QT unless it's a species sensitive to it. Then I treat with either TTM or Copper. Your best bet since they are doing so swimmingly would be a prolonged observation period (say 3 months or more total). Even then you must be willing to take the small chance that your fish carry disease that's not evident.

Once these fish are through with QT I would highly recommend removing substrate and rock from QT so that you're not so limited going forward.