parasites in tank!!

[luv4reef]

I have a coral beauty that lost his color and seems to have lesions on him and some "whitish stuff" on his head, It doesn't look like ich it looks more like a film or worms maybe? He is also doing a shimmy thing alot but still is eating and swimming ok. Anyway we treated the tank w/copper for the past 2 1/2 weeks he got worse & the lfs said angels do not tolorate copper well at all so we are in the process of removing the copper and today I noticed very tiny white flea looking things darting around in the water!! yikes, what are they and what do I do? Obvisiously they do not react to copper at a high dose, the tank is still at .15-.20 copper reading. All the other water perimeters are good, I have a new puffer that I added a few days ago, how do I protect him from this? Any & all help needed! Thanks!

 

[beth]

Do you have LR in your tank? Corals, inverts?
Well, you now know that you should never start adding new fish, or new anything while you are having problems with your fish, and especially following a medication treatment.
More tank info needed. What are your water readings? How long have you had the tank set up?
Why were you treating with copper?

 

[luv4reef]

We were treating an ich problem a few weeks ago, the tank is f/o.
We added the puffer after the ich was gone but the angel also had a fungus that we were not aware of. After the puffer was added the angel worsened. I am using para-guard right now & it seems to be working very well, his color is all back & he is healing quick. About the tiny white things darting around I'm still not sure, the lfs said it was cope pods and that they are good but I read they were not, any advice? Also water has been checked daily and all is good. yeah!

 

[beth]

I agree that what you see darting around is nothing to be concerned about. They are likely copepods. However, I find it amazing that you could have copepods still living in a tank that has been treated with copper and now more meds.
You have to consider setting up a QT. Medicating the display is seriously risky.