Is this Flukes? Blue Tang

[Elliott ll]

Ah, I’ve seen that picture before (am dealing with too many threads). That isn’t mucus plugs, more like ich. I think you just need to let the copper ride. Tell me again: copper type, testing level and testing method?
Jay

Copper Power @ 2.5ppm with Hanna Copper Checker

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Copper Power @ 2.5ppm with Hanna Copper Checker

Yeah - then my opinion would be to just let it ride then….
Jay

 

[Elliott ll]

Yeah - then my opinion would be to just let it ride then….
Jay

Okay that works for me! Less work hah. Is there a maximum number of days to safely expose them to that level of copper?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Okay that works for me! Less work hah. Is there a maximum number of days to safely expose them to that level of copper?

I’ve kept fish in amine based copper for over six months with no discernible issues. Copper power is pretty mild (but also slow to work!)
Jay

 

[Elliott ll]

I’ve kept fish in amine based copper for over six months with no discernible issues. Copper power is pretty mild (but also slow to work!)
Jay

Perfect! Thanks again Jay for all the help you give to the community and myself!

 

[Elliott ll]

I’ve kept fish in amine based copper for over six months with no discernible issues. Copper power is pretty mild (but also slow to work!)
Jay

@Jay Hemdal Let's say I got tired of watching the blue tang suffer. Right now she's pretty stressed from the Ich. It definitely looks like she still has Ich. Salt grains... So... I may try TTM... tank size for doing this.... What's the minimum size tank I could get away doing this with... 10 gallon? Keeping in mind she's 4 inches and will only be in each tank for max of 72 hours.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@Jay Hemdal Let's say I got tired of watching the blue tang suffer. Right now she's pretty stressed from the Ich. It definitely looks like she still has Ich. Salt grains... So... I may try TTM... tank size for doing this.... What's the minimum size tank I could get away doing this with... 10 gallon? Keeping in mind she's 4 inches and will only be in each tank for max of 72 hours.

That’s a judgement call - no hard and fast rule. Ammonia can build up faster than people often think though, I wouldn’t go less than ten gallons and monitor ammonia to keep it below 0.25 ppm
Kay

 

[Elliott ll]

So far I am at 16 days of uninterrupted levels of 2.5ppm Copper Power. I have also now dosed 4! rounds of prazipro. At this point I am extremely confident any flukes would be dead. My blue tang AND purple tang are now still scratching. Blue tang is show signs of being bleached out (very white from stress). I am getting pretty defeated by my attempts to rid this strain of Marine Ich. I am certain it is Ich and have yet to be able to begin the 30 day countdown. At this point I am willing to give Copper another 14 days before giving up and going to TTM... If TTM doesn't work then I will try Hypo. If hypo doesnt work... I'll probably end up euthanizing the blue tang or trying to sell to the fish store. I can't risk marine ich re-entering my main system.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So far I am at 16 days of uninterrupted levels of 2.5ppm Copper Power. I have also now dosed 4! rounds of prazipro. At this point I am extremely confident any flukes would be dead. My blue tang AND purple tang are now still scratching. Blue tang is show signs of being bleached out (very white from stress). I am getting pretty defeated by my attempts to rid this strain of Marine Ich. I am certain it is Ich and have yet to be able to begin the 30 day countdown. At this point I am willing to give Copper another 14 days before giving up and going to TTM... If TTM doesn't work then I will try Hypo. If hypo doesnt work... I'll probably end up euthanizing the blue tang or trying to sell to the fish store. I can't risk marine ich re-entering my main system.

I'm not sure I understand the timeline here. You've dosed prazi four times? Was that in conjunction with the copper? Over what time frame did you dose the prazi and what form are you using?

I would opt for hyposalinity over TTM if you give up on copper.

Jay

 

[Elliott ll]

I'm not sure I understand the timeline here. You've dosed prazi four times? Was that in conjunction with the copper? Over what time frame did you dose the prazi and what form are you using?

I would opt for hyposalinity over TTM if you give up on copper.

Jay

I thought my blue tang was dying so I went for dosing Prazipro in conjunction with copper power @ 2.5ppm. I didn't face any major blooms and didn't have any ill effects from doing this when adding extra aeration. I will likely always do them in conjunction going forward.

11/16 was the day I began Copper Power at 1.75ppm (by 11/20 was at 2.5ppm) AND 11/16 was also the day I ended up doing Prazipro dose #1. I then did 25% water change and Prazipro dose #2 on 11/21. I did 5 days under this dosage before doing a 25% water change, and then waiting 4 days before doing Prazipro dose #3, which was conducted on 11/30.

On 12/5 I did a 25% water change and then did Prazipro dosage #4. I plan on doing a 50% water change on 12/10 completing any usage of Prazipro.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I thought my blue tang was dying so I went for dosing Prazipro in conjunction with copper power @ 2.5ppm. I didn't face any major blooms and didn't have any ill effects from doing this when adding extra aeration. I will likely always do them in conjunction going forward.

11/16 was the day I began Copper Power at 1.75ppm (by 11/20 was at 2.5ppm) AND 11/16 was also the day I ended up doing Prazipro dose #1. I then did 25% water change and Prazipro dose #2 on 11/21. I did 5 days under this dosage before doing a 25% water change, and then waiting 4 days before doing Prazipro dose #3, which was conducted on 11/30.

On 12/5 I did a 25% water change and then did Prazipro dosage #4. I plan on doing a 50% water change on 12/10 completing any usage of Prazipro.

Well, dosing prazipro and copper at the same is pretty stressful. As I said, I would opt for hyposalinity over TTM unless you have a completely clean, disease free tank to move the fish into after the TTM.

Jay

 

[Elliott ll]

Well, dosing prazipro and copper at the same is pretty stressful. As I said, I would opt for hyposalinity over TTM unless you have a completely clean, disease free tank to move the fish into after the TTM.

Jay

Okay that makes more sense because I'd be returning the fish back to the same QT after TTM so I guess it would end up pointless. Hyposalinity is the direction I will go if I don't see dramatic improvement on scratching and white spots we saw in above pictures. I'll be out of town over the holidays so I am just going to keep in Copper until I get back on Dec 27th. I'll begin hyposalinity then. Is there a certain amount of time I have to wait between eliminating the copper from QT and starting hypo?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Okay that makes more sense because I'd be returning the fish back to the same QT after TTM so I guess it would end up pointless. Hyposalinity is the direction I will go if I don't see dramatic improvement on scratching and white spots we saw in above pictures. I'll be out of town over the holidays so I am just going to keep in Copper until I get back on Dec 27th. I'll begin hyposalinity then. Is there a certain amount of time I have to wait between eliminating the copper from QT and starting hypo?

O.K., but please remember that my advice is based on how things seem to be at the present time, if symptoms worsen or change, you need to be reactive to that.

No real need to remove copper prior to running hypo, indeed, you can use the water additions that will take your tank salinity down, as the diluting for the copper. You'll want to take 3 to 4 days to get down to a specific gravity of 1.009 for ich.

One other caveat - hypo works for flukes and ich, it does NOT work for Uronema or Amyloodinium (velvet).

Jay