Prazipro+ Scribbled Angel nose dive

Fowler freak · Dec 13, 2019

I’ve had a show size male scribbled angel for over 4 weeks now and was doing AWESOME!
He went thru 2 weeks of copper power at 2.0 without any problems at all always gorging on seaweed extreme soaked with selcon/vitachem, “growth”probiotics, and Kent’s “Zoe”. Placed him in a sterile tank after the two weeks of copper power and waited a day before running Prazipro. Dosed a full strength dose into his 20 gallon and he was fine for 2 days. The 3rd day (morning) he was not eating at all and breathing heavy, was just off in general. I quickly did a 25 percent WC and put a polypad in the HO filter to get the prazi out. Later that evening I did a 3 gallon WC without disturbing much at all. Today (day 4) HotRocks advised me to add a powerhead pointed at the top to help aerate the water also added an air stone in addition to the air powered sponge filter that has always been in there. I’m at a loss and this is day 2 of him not eating and breathing heavy (140-130 breaths a min) while having a slight “cough” once every 10-15 breaths. The more I use Prazipro that’s supposed to be “easy” on fish the more I am reluctant to use it and switch to General cure. In the meantime I don’t know what to do other than a daily 25 percent WC and praying. Please any advice here I am all ears and would love people to chime in here. Thanks for reading and hope to hear something that will help me make sense of this.

Qasimja · Dec 13, 2019

when i dosed prazipro on my fish in QT they stopped eating after the 2nd or 3rd day had to do water changes and run carbon to get it all out then they started to eat again everything i read about prazipro i didn't know it suppressed appetite i thought only copper did that

Fowler freak · Dec 13, 2019

Thank you for your reply. Same exact thing huh? Was your fish stressed out and breath heavy/acting off too?

Thomashtom · Dec 13, 2019

Remove prazipro with water changes and double check your dosage. Also prazi does reduce oxygen in water so the powerhead and air stone are good ideas.

Qasimja · Dec 14, 2019

Fowler freak said:
Thank you for your reply. Same exact thing huh? Was your fish stressed out and breath heavy/acting off too?

No they weren't breathing heavy they just stopped eating

Fowler freak · Dec 14, 2019

Not getting any better and this is day three of not eating and rapid/heavy breathing. I’m starting to think that maybe it’s a nasty bacterial infection that I just can’t see. I feel like if I keep waiting for him to turn the corner it’ll be too late to act. Was thinking of dosing NFP now that the Prazipro is completely out of the tank but am worried about stressing him out even more. Your thought PLEASE

GoldeneyeRet · Dec 14, 2019

How did you measure your copper and how often? How sure are you that it stayed above therapeutic level the entire time? Are you sure that there was no cross contamination or anything else that could have caused copper to fail?

How and how often are you testing ammonia? What's the biofilter situation in your new sterile tank? It really sounds like ammonia.

If it is an infection NFG is a great choice and it's usually pretty easy on fish. Its also useful if the fish has some ammonia burn...

Thats not really an answer I know, just kind of thinking it out. Good luck to you and the fish!

Fowler freak · Dec 14, 2019

Thank you for your reply Goldeneye I need some guidance here for it’s imperative I make the right decision this min or pretty sure he’s on his way out. Hanna copper checked daily at 1.95-2.0 always.
daily water changes and my ammonia badge was always bright yellow.
when I moved him into a sterile tank I soaked some matrix in bacteria(for HO filter) overnight and poured and entire bottle of biosphra into the tank on top of a seeded sponge filter that was inside my sump for months. No ammonia for sure and the copper power was flawless with my Hanna checker. As far as cross contamination absolutely nothing I was so strict with the protocol more so than ever before.
I remember last year, before MT went fallow for 4 months, I had a blue face that was a beast eating everything and went thru both copper and Prazipro without any issues. I put him in my MT and he was dazed and breathing funny the entire first day. I took him back out in the evening because he was looking like hell and put him back into his QT. Had no idea what it was but Humblefish said it could’ve been a nasty bacterial infection that killed him 1-2 days later.i dosed furan-2, kanaplex, and metroplex right when I put him back in qt but it was too late. Never in my life have I seen a fish do so well for well over a month even after copper power and Prazipro just to die 1 day later. He was acting simliar to the scribble just worse. Anyways dosed the NFG after taking the polypads out a few hours ago Don’t know if I made the right choice here but if I didn’t act dosing this he would’ve been a goner just a matter of Time. Speechless.........Wish Humblefish was still around for I would love to hear his two sense on this scenario

So nervous look at that beauty