Trouble with QT'ing a Yellow Tang

[jbow50]

Hi all,
Let me start by explaining my situation. I have what I believe to be marine velvet in my display when I was too naive to QT incoming fish. Well I've had my tank fallow for a month and a half now. I have two tangs, one orange spot goby, and two clowns separated into two tanks. The sailfin and goby have been treated for ick and velvet and show no signs or symptoms of stress or ick/velvet. However, I've treated the yellow tang and two clowns at the same time, but all three we're doing fine up until a couple of weeks ago when they started breathing hard and had white blotches on their skin and fins. My yellow tang gets worse. Im trying copper power but i feel its too harsh and he gets really red streaks on his face and fins. He sometimes wont eat for days. I do big water changes when i see this occur for 2 days and it seems to help. I'm also adding some paragard because i was under the impression that helped cure ick and flukes. Im just tired of dealing with this and scared because i might lose him. I already lost one tang in quarantine and it was heartbreaking. I added some pics to help. He swims around more frequently now. When it first started happening he would just hide. I checked the water no ammonia or nitrites. I do a weekly water change with fresh hyposalinity saltwater.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Brew12]

Hi all,
Let me start by explaining my situation. I have what I believe to be marine velvet in my display when I was too naive to QT incoming fish. Well I've had my tank fallow for a month and a half now. I have two tangs, one orange spot goby, and two clowns separated into two tanks. The sailfin and goby have been treated for ick and velvet and show no signs or symptoms of stress or ick/velvet. However, I've treated the yellow tang and two clowns at the same time, but all three we're doing fine up until a couple of weeks ago when they started breathing hard and had white blotches on their skin and fins. My yellow tang gets worse. Im trying copper power but i feel its too harsh and he gets really red streaks on his face and fins. He sometimes wont eat for days. I do big water changes when i see this occur for 2 days and it seems to help. I'm also adding some paragard because i was under the impression that helped cure ick and flukes. Im just tired of dealing with this and scared because i might lose him. I already lost one tang in quarantine and it was heartbreaking. I added some pics to help. He swims around more frequently now. When it first started happening he would just hide. I checked the water no ammonia or nitrites. I do a weekly water change with fresh hyposalinity saltwater.

Thanks for your help!

How long have you been treating him with copper and what level of copper are you maintaining?

 

[jbow50]

How long have you been treating him with copper and what level of copper are you maintaining?

I just started it 3 days ago but this has been reoccurring for a couple of weeks after what appeared all 3 being cured. The treatment is 2ppm of copper power. My other two fish look perfect from the first treatment which was 2 weeks long at the beginning of QT.

 

[Brew12]

I just started it 3 days ago but this has been reoccurring for a couple of weeks after what appeared all 3 being cured. The treatment is 2ppm of copper power. My other two fish look perfect from the first treatment which was 2 weeks long at the beginning of QT.

Are you saying that all 3 appeared to be cured before you started using copper or that you used copper and they seemed cured but it came back so you started dosing again?

 

[jbow50]

Are you saying that all 3 appeared to be cured before you started using copper or that you used copper and they seemed cured but it came back so you started dosing again?

Treated for 2 weeks. Seemed cured for 3 weeks. Came back after and so I started a second treatment.

 

[Brew12]

Treated for 2 weeks. Seemed cured for 3 weeks. Came back after and so I started a second treatment.

A 2 week treatment can work if you move them to a clean tank immediately afterward. Otherwise, a 2 week treatment isn't long enough to make sure you clear the disease. Copper only affects the parasite once it hatches. It can stay encysted for over 14 days so some may have hatched after you removed the copper. You probably knocked it back and it has just taken this long for the parasite population to recover.
Copper treatments are pretty hard on fish and some individual fish are less tolerant of copper than others. I'm going to defer to @Humblefish or @melypr1985 . This one is above my pay grade.

 

[Irishman]

I would just maintain a healthy regular food diet, not medicated if you are.

 

[melypr1985]

Treated for 2 weeks. Seemed cured for 3 weeks. Came back after and so I started a second treatment.

I'm a little confused by the whole timeline here. Seems like you treated the yellow tang and company for two weeks (as brew stated) correct? If so, then he's correct that it takes 30 consecutive days at therapeutic levels to beat velvet/ick. You'll want to be sure both QT's are getting the full therapeutic level of copper for the full 30 days straight. Your tank needs 76 days fallow so you have time to do it again

 

[4FordFamily]

You need a full week of 1.5-2.0 ppm without any fluctuation below that range for an effective treatment. Increase meds very slowly. Some zebrasoma are sensitive to copper as you describe but slow increases are often well received. If the fish stops eating don't increase again until it resumes. Test daily.

 

[jbow50]

Could this cause stress and red streaking to occur in the tang then? He looks bad off but he gets much better after 2 consecutive days of water changes. I dont remember him doing this right from the beginning.

 

[Humblefish]

2 weeks of copper treatment may be enough to beat velvet; but unlikely to eradicate ich. Unless the fish is transferred into a different QT at least 10 feet away from the original treatment tank.

 

[Irishman]

2 weeks of copper treatment may be enough to beat velvet; but unlikely to eradicate ich. Unless the fish is transferred into a different QT at least 10 feet away from the original treatment tank.

Why does it say on the manufacture bottle for two weeks then?

 

[melypr1985]

Why does it say on the manufacture bottle for two weeks then?

A lot of the medication's directions are more geared toward freshwater fish. It may very well work just fine in freshwater as a two week treatment, but in saltwater with (crypto) ick it takes 30 consecutive days.

 

[Humblefish]

A lot of the medication's directions are more geared toward freshwater fish. It may very well work just fine in freshwater as a two week treatment, but in saltwater with (crypto) ick it takes 30 consecutive days.

+1

 

[jbow50]

Ok thanks everyone for clearing this up! I will be sure to post updates. What about paragard? Should i trust it to beat ick and add it to treatment?

 

[Brew12]

Ok thanks everyone for clearing this up! I will be sure to post updates. What about paragard? Should i trust it to beat ick and add it to treatment?

Are you asking about stopping the copper treatment and switching to ParaGuard?

 

[melypr1985]

Ok thanks everyone for clearing this up! I will be sure to post updates. What about paragard? Should i trust it to beat ick and add it to treatment?

I wouldn't trust paraguard with ick. Keep going with Copper- it's working.

 

[Irishman]

A lot of the medication's directions are more geared toward freshwater fish. It may very well work just fine in freshwater as a two week treatment, but in saltwater with (crypto) ick it takes 30 consecutive days.

The only thing my treat meant says is for freshwater just do half of the dose, nothing about it needing to be longer.

 

[melypr1985]

The only thing my treat meant says is for freshwater just do half of the dose, nothing about it needing to be longer.

Sorry hun. I don't know what to tell you except the facts. Wish I could explain what goes one behind closed doors when they are deciding what directions to put on these bottles.

 

[Brew12]

The only thing my treat meant says is for freshwater just do half of the dose, nothing about it needing to be longer.

It is common for these products to offer incomplete directions. For instance, Coppersafe has a recommended dosage that puts you around 0.3ppm copper. To treat ich effectively, it needs to be at 1.5 to 2.0ppm. They don't tell you this, but their recommended dosage is for continuous treatment in a tank, not for treating a diseased fish.