Tangs and Cupramine

[Pete Horwath]

Folks, My new Mimic Tang died last night in my QT. I had picked him out about 3 weeks ago and he had seemed perfectly healthy cruising around my QT and eating like a pig until i started dozing Cupramine. Fish went from perfectly health appearance to breathing heavy within minutes of dozing Cupramine. Coral Beauty and Neon Goby in the QT were not affected at all. I immediately did a 50% water change and added Carbon to tank but woke up this morning to a dead fish. any ideas? I've seen a lot of posts with people claiming a bad reaction to Cupramine with some tangs but Seachem says it can't be. I'm wondering if maybe there's some kind of parasite the fish was living with in its gills that dies in copper and causes this reaction? Fish was very healthy looking before i added the copper. Thoughts? oh I had just done a 50% water change preceding the cupramine. Ammonium was in check.

 

[Pete Horwath]

Folks, My new Mimic Tang died last night in my QT. I had picked him out about 3 weeks ago and he had seemed perfectly healthy cruising around my QT and eating like a pig until i started dozing Cupramine. Fish went from perfectly health appearance to breathing heavy within minutes of dozing Cupramine. Coral Beauty and Neon Goby in the QT were not affected at all. I immediately did a 50% water change and added Carbon to tank but woke up this morning to a dead fish. any ideas? I've seen a lot of posts with people claiming a bad reaction to Cupramine with some tangs but Seachem says it can't be. I'm wondering if maybe there's some kind of parasite the fish was living with in its gills that dies in copper and causes this reaction? Fish was very healthy looking before i added the copper. Thoughts? oh I had just done a 50% water change preceding the cupramine. Ammonium was in check.

oh I only added a 50% doze of Cupramine per instructions

 

[HotRocks]

Did you dose the 50% all at once? This could have caused the negative reaction.

Cupramine IME is much more harsh than chelated copper i.e. copper power.

 

[Pete Horwath]

Yes i did per instructions but right away did a 50% water change when i notice the fish was sick. Other two fish could have cared less

 

[Big G]

When dosing Cupramine, consider several smaller equal doses to get to the therapeutic level instead of two large doses over 48 hours. Dosing smaller amounts over 4-5 days allows the fish to adjust easier and gives you time to watch out for a copper sensitive fish before it's harmed. Copper is a poison after all.