Should you prophylactically treat a tang?

[Shilpan Patel]

Hey guys
I’m quarantining my first tang at the moment, a Sailfin Tang. I’m just observing.
I recently went though a tank fallow for 102 days, and I’m desperate not to get ich in the DT again. I have 2 clown fish and a Chromis in the DT. They went through 6 weeks of observational ONLY quarantine. They’ve been in the DT for 6 months now and no signs of disease.

For this Sailfin Tang I’m watching for visible disease and signs of scratching, flashing or staying in the flow near powerheads.

1. But now this tang, I’ve read stories online that because they’re so susceptible, observation isn’t enough. Is this true? Would it be wise to treat it with cupramine instead? (Yup I know about TTM but unfortunately this is not for me for this fish due to cost of water salt and a new large enough tank, maybe a future fish). My concern is observation maybe sufficient and I’m simply exposing the tang to unnecessary risk of copper.

2. Secondly, any tips for using cupramine on a tang?

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

I personally do treat ALL tangs no matter if they show signs or not. I used chloroquine phosphate but for copper i would advise you. Let fish settle in qt for few days. Let it start eating well. Meanwhile do a prizipro etc.
Then week or so later start the copper treatment and break the total dose over 3 yo 4 days rather than 1 day like bottle says.

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Ok thanks I’ll try that. It’s started eating nori. Now to get it eating pellet and chorella flakes too.

I’ll be honest I’m really scared of killing it from the stories I’ve read online where people started copper and woke up the next day to find a dead tang.
But I hope using regular ammonia testing, and 1mL syringes to accurately dose cupramine, I’ll be able to keep my tang safe. It looks so happy and healthy for the past few days I don’t feel like treating it.

But I think I will. And I’ll try dose cupramine over a week to get it acclimated.

 

[Ron Reefman]

In 15 years I've never treated a tang and I've never had ich. I even quite doing quarantine of fish after about 5 years. And I add a number of inverts including anemones, sea stars, emerald crabs, porcelain crabs, shrimp and sea cucumbers that I collect in the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Keys. I used to quarantine all of them. I never saw any issues and quite doing quarantine on them about 8 or 9 years ago. I had 4 tanks and never had anything but some aiptasia and some harmless flat worms. Both from additions to my tank from a friends tank. I even kept very young tangs in my 25g frag tank 2'x2'x10".

 

[mfinn]

Hey guys
I’m quarantining my first tang at the moment, a Sailfin Tang. I’m just observing.
I recently went though a tank fallow for 102 days, and I’m desperate not to get ich in the DT again. I have 2 clown fish and a Chromis in the DT. They went through 6 weeks of observational ONLY quarantine. They’ve been in the DT for 6 months now and no signs of disease.

For this Sailfin Tang I’m watching for visible disease and signs of scratching, flashing or staying in the flow near powerheads.

1. But now this tang, I’ve read stories online that because they’re so susceptible, observation isn’t enough. Is this true? Would it be wise to treat it with cupramine instead? (Yup I know about TTM but unfortunately this is not for me for this fish due to cost of water salt and a new large enough tank, maybe a future fish). My concern is observation maybe sufficient and I’m simply exposing the tang to unnecessary risk of copper.

2. Secondly, any tips for using cupramine on a tang?

You've already been bit once by disease, so why consider any other way but treating a fish before adding it to the display tank.
If you go copper, be sure to checkout the copper threads.
I use to use Copper Safe, but issues with quality has come up. I've switched to Copper Power.
Once the fish is eating in quarantine, then bring the copper up to therapeutic strength over a 4-5 day period. Never all at once.
Chloroquine Phosphate is another option.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-and-treatment-guidelines-with-chart.283450/

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Thank you kindly, I just read those notes they’re very useful. I also saw the treatment sensitivity chart. On the * section I saw a note which said some Zebramosa species are quite intolerant of cupramine. So I will have to be cautious. If it starts behaving badly I’ll put the cuprasorb in and take the copper out.

I see Zebramosa is listed as a 3 for copper sensitivity. And also the note says some can be quite intolerant getting red blotches, stopping eating etc...
if that happens can I use cuprisorb to neutralize the copper? I don’t have another quarantine tank that I can immediately transfer it to.

 

[mfinn]

Thank you kindly, I just read those notes they’re very useful. I also saw the treatment sensitivity chart. On the * section I saw a note which said some Zebramosa species are quite intolerant of cupramine. So I will have to be cautious. If it starts behaving badly I’ll put the cuprasorb in and take the copper out.

I see Zebramosa is listed as a 3 for copper sensitivity. And also the note says some can be quite intolerant getting red blotches, stopping eating etc...
if that happens can I use cuprisorb to neutralize the copper? I don’t have another quarantine tank that I can immediately transfer it to.

Since it's only a "1" on the sensitivity chart, why not use chelated copper?

 

[Shilpan Patel]

I would definitely do that! But I can only get a hold of cupramine here in NZ unfortunately.
(I’ve checked online too but no one ships here)

We’re a bit slow with our marine range, we just started getting LED lights a couple years ago, and we don’t have Triton or anything like that.

 

[mfinn]

I would definitely do that! But I can only get a hold of cupramine here in NZ unfortunately.
(I’ve checked online too but no one ships here)

We’re a bit slow with our marine range, we just started getting LED lights a couple years ago, and we don’t have Triton or anything like that.

Sometimes I forget that some don't have the same products I come to expect.

Well, start very slow.
Maybe work up to full strength over 7-8 days.

 

[Shilpan Patel]

That sounds good I’ll do that, thank you for your assistance I really appreciate it

 

[steveaus10]

Have never quarantined any of my fish did have ICH once treated with prazipro was impressed with the product no issues in 4 years sailfin and yellow are fat and happy feed formula two pellets brine shrimp nori and krill sparingly

 

[Velcro]

Have never quarantined any of my fish did have ICH once treated with prazipro was impressed with the product no issues in 4 years sailfin and yellow are fat and happy feed formula two pellets brine shrimp nori and krill sparingly

Prazi don't touch ich.

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Maybe your fish had flukes?

 

[cmcoker]

Ig you can get hannah checkers there, I would look into a high range copper checker. This will help you be sure you are at therapeutic level, without overshooting. It's much easier than trying to decipher a color chart

 

[Shilpan Patel]

Hello
Yes I can get those here. They’re obv a little more expensive than the test kit, but I might go out and get one now then.

I’m planning on starting the cupramine later today for me. I’ll raising the concentration by 0.07 each day, and hitting 0.5 by the end of the week. Nice and easy 1mL dose a day and I have a 1mL syringe.

Since my QT was fully cycled, do I need to do water change so if I don’t see any ammonia or nitrites? Last QT with the clownfish I never did a WC because the ammonia never spiked. I just siphoned some debris every week and that’s all. Strained the debris out and put the water back in.