Not sure what to do...

Squared · Jul 23, 2016

Tiny white crescents, maybe? I didn't actually see anything fall off the fish, but I wasn't looking that closely.

He is a bit wobbly right now but still keeping upright. If I can get him to eat a bit tomorrow I'll start prazipro.

Wouldn't copper kill external parasites as well?

melypr1985 · Jul 23, 2016

Squared said:
Tiny white crescents, maybe? I didn't actually see anything fall off the fish, but I wasn't looking that closely.

He is a bit wobbly right now but still keeping upright. If I can get him to eat a bit tomorrow I'll start prazipro.

Wouldn't copper kill external parasites as well?

There has been some speculation that it could kill something like flukes, but I've had a lot of experience with this and I haven't seen anything to indicate that it kills external parasites like flukes or brook. That's why we now run Prazi through our fish only system every monday along with the copper that we keep in the system.

Did it look anything like these?

Squared · Jul 23, 2016

No, nothing like that. Might have come from the air stone I used, it has a plastic base with holes so there could have been some dead stuff in there.

I really don't think there is any other course of action at this point other than to wait. Thanks for the help, I will be keeping this thread updated.

melypr1985 · Jul 23, 2016

Squared said:
No, nothing like that. Might have come from the air stone I used, it has a plastic base with holes so there could have been some dead stuff in there.

I really don't think there is any other course of action at this point other than to wait. Thanks for the help, I will be keeping this thread updated.

Well the heavy breathing isn't normal so depending on what all you have going on for filtration, you might consider adding that air stone to the QT. It might not help, but then again, it might. It definitely doesn't hurt anything.

Squared · Jul 24, 2016

I have 2 sponge filters and an in-tank petsmart filter cascading into the QT. I think I can rule out lack of O2 as the culprit. Should I have the LFS test for nitrate? its a $1 though...

melypr1985 · Jul 24, 2016

Squared said:
I have 2 sponge filters and an in-tank petsmart filter cascading into the QT. I think I can rule out lack of O2 as the culprit. Should I have the LFS test for nitrate? its a $1 though...

Sounds like you have the O2 covered in there, but it was worth a mention in any case. How is he doing today? Still breathing heavy? Nitrate should effect a fish until it's gets astronomically high, so I wouldn't pay anyone a dollar to test it in this case.

Squared · Jul 24, 2016

Same deal this morning, looks ok but still heavy breathing.

Squared · Jul 24, 2016

Getting worse. Really sucks to have made through copper and then immediately start to deterioate

Squared · Jul 30, 2016

The fish is still alive, and still breathing really heavily. I will do a 100% water change this weekend and see if that helps.

melypr1985 · Jul 30, 2016

Squared said:
The fish is still alive, and still breathing really heavily. I will do a 100% water change this weekend and see if that helps.

He's getting worse, breathing heavily still? so I went back through this thread and it seems you had to lower the copper levels because of ammonia problems and fish that weren't eating well. Did you start the 30 day clock over from the point where the copper level was back at therapeutic range?

4FordFamily · Jul 30, 2016

melypr1985 said:
He's getting worse, breathing heavily still? so I went back through this thread and it seems you had to lower the copper levels because of ammonia problems and fish that weren't eating well. Did you start the 30 day clock over from the point where the copper level was back at therapeutic range?

X2 I was thinking the same thing