Need advice / encouragement for 2nd QT attempt

[kartrsu]

I’m a bit defeated today cause my QT process seems to have failed.

My yellow tang, blue hippo tang, and fairy wrasse just finished 8 days at full 2ppm copper power (Hanna checker) to prophylactically treat for velvet and ich. I thought I was good when I transferred them to a new holding container, but I made a rookie mistake and put a decoration from the QT (that I rinsed in freshwater) into the holding container for like 30 seconds before realizing not to reuse it.

After sterilizing the tank and equipment with bleach, I set everything back up to observe. Noticed my blue hippo was flashing, acting skittish, and had some white spots. Now my yellow tang has a white spot on his fin and numerous faint small bumps on his body (looking for side).

I ended up doing a freshwater dip today and my tangs look traumatized. I raised the copper to ~1ppm and will bring it up to 2.5 this time around for 8 days (hopefully the wrasse can take it!). I’m getting some HLLE on the tan I’m trying to minimize copper exposure while feeding vitachem boosted nori, PE mysis, and chlorella from Dr Bassler.

Prior to all this they were fine, all eating like pigs the whole time. I attached photos of my blue tang who was flashing in 2ppm copper and in observation.

1) is there velvet resistant to 2ppm copper?
2) will the HLLE disappear with TLC?
3) can a fairy wrasse handle 2.5ppm copper power?

Thanks for the advice or sympathy if any. Tryna QT so many things at once that it’s taking up so much mental bandwidth. Probably should have done corals etc first and then these fish.

 

[kartrsu]

Also, my yellow tang is just laying on his side after the FW dip. Just tried to move him through the water and have an air stone running. He’s breathing heavily.

 

[Tanggy]

Hi. Sorry for your trouble so far. But if you look at all the qt threads I believe they all recommend at least 14-15 days at therapeutic copper level before you transfer them to a clean tank. 8 days might not be long enough. Even if you didn’t add the decoration the parasite might still come back.

 

[kartrsu]

Hi. Sorry for your trouble so far. But if you look at all the qt threads I believe they all recommend at least 14-15 days at therapeutic copper level before you transfer them to a clean tank. 8 days might not be long enough. Even if you didn’t add the decoration the parasite might still come back.

Thanks for the response. I’m going to try the full 14 days this time. My yellow tang didn’t make it from FW dip. Upon doing more research, I learned the flashing behavior and the white growth on my blue tang is a common side effect of dosing copper. Seems to be a viral or bacterial infection. He has no light sensitivity, nor does he swim in powerheads, and eats like mad. I must have misread this as velvet. Anyway, I’ll continue to run the copper treatment to rule out ich / velvet and feed a good diet soaked with vitamins. The issue seems to resolve with those measures from what I’ve read.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just some general observations: copper is incidental to the HLLE. Copper toxicity is much rarer than it used to be with the organically chelated copper products nowadays. The trouble is that the symptoms of copper toxicity closely mimic that of the diseases it cures, so you just never know if it is copper or disease. I generally run 2 to 4 weeks of copper, depending on the product I'm using. The YT shouldn't have died from a proper FW dip unless there was something else going on with it. Did you happen to search the dip water for shed flukes? I wonder - instead of going to 2.5 on the CP, why not just extend the length of the treatment? I worry about the fairy wrasse.

Jay

 

[kartrsu]

Thanks Jay. I’m thinking in the same vein that copper treatment needs to be extended. I was hoping to relieve them from copper sooner than later and based on reading about velvet/ ich life cycle, it seems if the fish got infected literally right before reaching therapeutic copper, it would feed at most for 7 days (hence why I did 8 days). I guess 2-4 weeks is a safer measure in case there are undocumented strains that feed for longer.

Yellow tang was only dipped for 5 mins, but by minute 3 he wasn’t looking too good. I should have took him out, but thought it was the tang playing dead ordeal. Seems like he never recovered from it. No flukes at all in the container. I suspect going for FW dip back into 1ppm copper power must have been too stressful.

I worried about 2.5ppm copper as well, so I’m running at 2 again to accommodate the fairy wrasse.

I test ammonia everyday and no signs of at all.

 

[kartrsu]

Just did a ruby reef rally dip for 90 mins for all my fish in QT ex wrasse. Wrasse is acting 100% normal, eating like a pig. Blue tang still flashing like a mad man, but I hope it will provide some relief. I really hope 2ppm copper is sufficient to treat over 14 days! Die velvet!

 

[kartrsu]

Here are some photos of the blue tang with better quality.