copper base ick med and puffer?

[luv4jjt]

I was told to use a copper based med to cure the ick in my tank. I have
a dog face puffer, a volitan lion, a bicolor angel, sailfin tang, yellow tang, a maroon clown, and 2 damsels. Only other things are 1 crab, and some snails. No corals or mushrooms. And lots of live rock. Will any of these be harmed by copper based ick med?

 

[al mc]

Originally Posted by luv4jjt
http:///forum/post/3181451
I was told to use a copper based med to cure the ick in my tank. I have
a dog face puffer, a volitan lion, a bicolor angel, sailfin tang, yellow tang, a maroon clown, and 2 damsels. Only other things are 1 crab, and some snails. No corals or mushrooms. And lots of live rock. Will any of these be harmed by copper based ick med?
Most people agree that copper products and puffers do not go well together.
Copper will most likely wipe out all your snails and the crab.
I would not put copper in a DT as it will likely kill your 'live' rock and damage you beneficial nitrofying bacteria AND will be next to impossible to remove totally with water changes. Water changes may get it to undetectible levels but enough may remain to limit you to having no inverts in the future.
If I use copper it would be in a QT tank that will be only used for fish QT in the future.
Just one person's opinion.

 

[eric b 125]

+1
also, once the copper has been absorbed into your LR and sand, it's there to stay. so it wont only be your tank, but also your rock and sand that will be no good for inverts or coral should you decide to go that direction some day. do you have a qt? because even if you use a copper medication in the qt, your dt will have to remain fishless for 6 weeks for the ich to die off, so you might as well hypo the fish IMO.

 

[luv4jjt]

thank you. I will definatly not be putting the med's in the dt. I am however very concerned about my puffer and in fact will probably loose him within 24 hrs. He is very stressed and now not eating. He will definatly die if don't do something. And doing something may kill him as well. So what can i try now? Copper based ick in qt? fresh water dip? Is there any way to possably save him?

 

[deejeff442]

problem solving ich problems is.there is only a few day window of opportunity for helping.once you see the ich it has to be delt with pretty fast.if the ich drops to multiply then has the timeframe to become waterbourne again its usually over.always having a qt running is really the way to be able to keep ahead of it.once a fish stops eating its almost impossible to get them healthy.
a freshwater dip can relieve some of the ich but he would need to go right into a qt and the hypo done over the two days .if you can get him to survive the next few days he might have a chance.seeing a qt wont have the ich yet no more will get to him if the tank is under hypo and the existing ich on him drops.
even a new qt that has not cycled yet would be better than a dt with ich now multiplying.get some amquil plus for the ammonia spike ,feed just eneough for the fish to eat or put in a couple pieces of krill and take it out if he dont eat it.small water changes daily.
do you have any filter or sponges you can take out of the dt for good bacteria and put in a qt?
good luck.

 

[luv4jjt]

No sponges im affraid. He died about an hour ago.

I think my only hope for the rest of my fish though is to put them all in the qt tank and treat them all with hypo, or meds. And keep the display fish free for the life cycle of the ick.