Sick fish

[crazedfooter]

so curious what you might think this is. Has been going on around 2-2.5 weeks. Still eating some but clearly something is going in. Was thinking ich or velvet but doesn’t seem to be responding to copper treatment.

He is in a hospital tank with two clowns and a damsel which are not exhibiting any symptoms. Water parameters in the dt when he developed the problem were great, zero ammonia oh was 8.4(iirc) and nitrates were 2.

Hospital tank not as great as it was new and went through a small cycle but all numbers are coming down at this point.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts
Nick

 

[RMS18]

so curious what you might think this is. Has been going on around 2-2.5 weeks. Still eating some but clearly something is going in. Was thinking ich or velvet but doesn’t seem to be responding to copper treatment.

He is in a hospital tank with two clowns and a damsel which are not exhibiting any symptoms. Water parameters in the dt when he developed the problem were great, zero ammonia oh was 8.4(iirc) and nitrates were 2.

Hospital tank not as great as it was new and went through a small cycle but all numbers are coming down at this point.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts
Nick

Hi Nick, i think part of your post was lost. I do not see any pictures, or a description of the issue.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

so curious what you might think this is. Has been going on around 2-2.5 weeks. Still eating some but clearly something is going in. Was thinking ich or velvet but doesn’t seem to be responding to copper treatment.

He is in a hospital tank with two clowns and a damsel which are not exhibiting any symptoms. Water parameters in the dt when he developed the problem were great, zero ammonia oh was 8.4(iirc) and nitrates were 2.

Hospital tank not as great as it was new and went through a small cycle but all numbers are coming down at this point.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts
Nick

Do you have any pics of the fish? Preferably one where you can see the issues. Have you done a FW dip to check for flukes? What copper are you using? What is your copper level? How are you testing your copper levels,

 

[crazedfooter]

Well crap. New to this forum, guess I can’t copy and paste it into here. What’s the best way to get a pic up for people to view

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Either one will work and welcome to R2R!

 

[crazedfooter]

Working on a pic. I have both Seachem and api copper test kit. (They are both awful in my opinion). Using Seachem product if I recall(at work right now). Copper levels appear to be somewhere in the .5 neighborhood based on multiple tests with both

Do you have any pics of the fish? Preferably one where you can see the issues. Have you done a FW dip to check for flukes? What copper are you using? What is your copper level? How are you testing your copper levels,

 

[crazedfooter]

Either one will work and welcome to R2R!

Thx

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Thx

Working on a pic. I have both Seachem and api copper test kit. (They are both awful in my opinion). Using Seachem product if I recall(at work right now). Copper levels appear to be somewhere in the .5 neighborhood based on multiple tests with both

Being in the neighborhood with cuperamine isn’t good, it has a very small therapeutic window, couple that with the API test and you’re doomed to fail. I would recommend copper power and a Hanna high range copper tester for the future. .5 is the bottom of the therapeutic range and if you drop below you are restarting the clock on the parasite. Does the fish appear to have a dusting over it? Or more spots than you could count?

 

[crazedfooter]

Being in the neighborhood with cuperamine isn’t good, it has a very small therapeutic window, couple that with the API test and you’re doomed to fail. I would recommend copper power and a Hanna high range copper tester for the future. .5 is the bottom of the therapeutic range and if you drop below you are restarting the clock on the parasite. Does the fish appear to have a dusting over it? Or more spots than you could count?

Looks more dusty than pinpoint spots you could count.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Looks more dusty than pinpoint spots you could count.

If it looks dusty then you’re probably dealing with velvet. I’m going to guess you’ve been dancing above and below therapeutic range so the treatment hasn’t been effective. Let’s get some more eyes on this @4FordFamily @HotRocks

 

[4FordFamily]

It's tough to tell from the photos but I will say that you are describing velvet.

We need to know which product you're using, seachem's product is cupramine. If cupramine, you're in the "sweet spot" regarding range. I highly recommend tossing the copper test kits with color charts the error in testing method, observation, etc is high. I highly recommend the Hanna Copper Checker. Cuprion is another ionic copper product, if I recall.

However, if you're using Copper Power, Coppersafe, or chelated copper, .5PPM is not enough to fight off ich or velvet. The therapeutic range for Chelated Copper (safer IMO) is 1.5-2.0 with 1.75PPM being a good target.

 

[crazedfooter]

Cupramine.

Guess I’m just trying to verify it’s velvet. That’s what I assumed. So this 75 dollar electric thing (hannah) will solve all my problems? Feel bad for this guy his is clearly losing weight. Not looking great. I know he is supposed to be eating great stuff, he doesn’t seem to eat dried seaweed, you guys have any other favorites I should try?

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Cupramine.

Guess I’m just trying to verify it’s velvet. That’s what I assumed. So this 75 dollar electric thing (hannah) will solve all my problems? Feel bad for this guy his is clearly losing weight. Not looking great. I know he is supposed to be eating great stuff, he doesn’t seem to eat dried seaweed, you guys have any other favorites I should try?

The Hanna will make copper 1000 times easier, just make sure to order 2 extra boxes of reagents (25 per box) because it only comes with 6. Are you mixing either metro or General Cure +focus into their food to treat for possible internal parasites?

 

[HotRocks]

The pictures don't resemble velvet from what I can see, even though your description sounds like velvet.

Possibly flukes or ich.

A five min FW dip will help confirm if flukes are present.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

 

[JasonK84]

Copper really seams to suppress the apatite. I’ve noticed it more so with cupramine than the copper power I use now. Most of the fish I have QT’d seam to go pretty good for frozen mysis. If not you can try adding some garlic to the food. My PBT eats just as much meaty food as it does seaweed. Just keep trying different foods until you find something it will eat. Generally try not feeding seaweed in QT cuz it tends to make a mess and foul the water.

+1 for the Hanna copper checker. I was using cupramine and the seachem copper test kit and it was so difficult and I couldn’t tell exactly what level it was at. Switched to copper power and bought the Hanna checker and it has been a breeze. Like it so much that I ordered the ULR phosphate checker today.