Need help with Copperband

NTCook · Jan 1, 2019

So I picked this guy up at a local shop that was having a massive sale and moved TONS of livestock that day (we had to wait around 50 minutes in line just to get in). It was so busy that I didn't have time to inspect things as closely as I normally would, but that's my mistake. After we got him home I noticed that he seemed to have ich on his fins. This isn't really an issue for me because I QT before display and I have copper power on hand at all times...

Well, as of today he has been in copper for 10 days, but what I initially thought was run-of-the-mill ich has started to change. All of the white spots are beginning to grow in size significantly. The largest is about 3/16 of an inch long and almost 1/8 of an inch wide. Some of the spots have turned a very dark brown/black. I thought this may be black ich, but I have zero experience with that. All of the parasites/disease seem limited to the fins. Although it took a few days to find what he would eat he is eating well and doesn't seem to be in too much discomfort other than scraping his right fin against one of the pipes periodically. As you can see from the photos, he's only eating black worms just to make my life that much more of a pain in the rear.

Sorry for picture quality. I really tried but this is the best I can get. He's afraid of the phone and won't stay out in the open long when I get close.

miyags · Jan 1, 2019

That looks like lympho or lymphocystis.A viral disease

miyags · Jan 1, 2019

The black spots might be a secondary bacterial infection.

miyags · Jan 1, 2019

I'd finish the copper treatment.Keep him well feed.Keep an eye on ammonia. Look into a bacterial treatment you could use with copper power.Keep him stress free,yeah right.Hard to do in QT.Other than that he looks pretty good.

norfolkgarden · Jan 1, 2019

The lympho (white growths on fins) should eventually resolve on its own.
Ours didn't have it but most of them do when they come into the LFS and no one seems very concerned about it.

Feeding him black worms to start is perfect.
Feeding him tiny pieces of chopped up clams would be great.
ours eats mostly clams, black worms and Rods reef frozen food.
Ours has eaten regularly for the past year. Lol, except for the first few weeks. That was scary.

We lost access to black worms over the summer for 3 months and ours became noticeably skinnier.
That was when I finally started feeding finely chopped up clams on a regular basis and he has plumped up like a tick.
Thd other fish love the clams too.

The black areas may possibly be internal damage. Other than excellent nutrition that is very difficult to treat.
Just keep power feeding it Black worms and clams and make sure there is no ammonia.

Do you have an ammonia badge in your QT?
Did you do a 5 minute aerated fresh water bath to remove/check for flukes?

tripdad · Jan 1, 2019

I have had good luck with three different CB's with Hikari mysis, the smaller size. They all would only eat whole mysis, never pieces or parts.

NTCook · Jan 1, 2019

norfolkgarden said:
The lympho (white growths on fins) should eventually resolve on its own.
Ours didn't have it but most of them do when they come into the LFS and no one seems very concerned about it.

Feeding him black worms to start is perfect.
Feeding him tiny pieces of chopped up clams would be great.
ours eats mostly clams, black worms and Rods reef frozen food.
Ours has eaten regularly for the past year. Lol, except for the first few weeks. That was scary.

We lost access to black worms over the summer for 3 months and ours became noticeably skinnier.
That was when I finally started feeding finely chopped up clams on a regular basis and he has plumped up like a tick.
Thd other fish love the clams too.

The black areas may possibly be internal damage. Other than excellent nutrition that is very difficult to treat.
Just keep power feeding it Black worms and clams and make sure there is no ammonia.

Do you have an ammonia badge in your QT?
Did you do a 5 minute aerated fresh water bath to remove/check for flukes?

Yes on the FW dip/bath.

I have tried EVERY other food I can get my hands on, only the black worms have been taken. I'm hopeful he will take more foods once in the DT and more comfortable. I have a bristletooth that didn't move for its entire time in QT then became a normal fish once he hit the display and had 180G of live rock to swim around. If you're up for it, Google how to raise your own black worms. All you need is a tiny tank and some brown paper. My $4 of worms is already taking off fast enough to provide plenty of food for this guy for the time being. (It's kinda gross though)

No QT badge, my QT is treated like a secondary tank. It's kept cycled at all times and I do not remove fish from it, even after treatment, until I have the next fish on hand. Very unlikely I have an ammonia problem as 11 fish have made it through with no issues, but I will grab one soon just to be on the safe side.

Thanks for replies.

NTCook · Jan 1, 2019

tripdad said:
I have had good luck with three different CB's with Hikari mysis, the smaller size. They all would only eat whole mysis, never pieces or parts.

I have some on hand along with larger PE mysis, won't take either at the moment.

theMeat · Jan 1, 2019

Personally would feed real well, as others have said, and keep it in a low stress situation. If in qt is your best low stress environment, then lowering salt level can lower stress. If lympho, as it appears to be, copper is only adding to stress

miyags · Jan 1, 2019

I keep my QT running to,with well seeded filters.I think after the first time I raised Cupramine to 0.5,I hand some ammonia.After that I think the copper tolerant bacteria starts to take over the filter and I never get ammonia spikes any more. Mine loves tiny pieces of raw table shrimp.