Cupramine (Do not use with this fish WARNING)

[homegrowncichlid]

Hi all,
I've been using cupramine for a couple of years, no problems, but wanted to add a fish to the do not use with cupramine list
Had a black/white chromis in bare bottom/sponge filter QT for about 3 weeks, then added the first dose of cupramine to the tank (1 mL per 10 gallons), he died the next day, so he's too sensitive for cupramine.

Chromis dimidiata

 

[marrone]

Most fish don't react well to copper but before you add this fish to the list, for being too sensitive to copper, you need to look at a couple of things. First you need to measure the level of copper you placed in the tank. Just because you followed the directions doesn't mean you put in the correct amount, it's very possible you over dosed. Second the conditions in the tank could have been bad, high ammonia, especially since you were running it for 3 weeks with just a sponge filter. The copper could have killed off some of the biological bacteria in the sponge filter, causing an increase in ammonia which could be deadly.

Most Chromis and Damsels are usually very tough fish and can take copper dosage without a problem, so you need to check other things. Also if the fish was in QT for 3 weeks, and the fish was fine and wasn't showing any type of diseases, there shouldn't be a reason to start to treat with copper at that point.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Ammonia spike is possible but I also keep a growing culture of caulerpa in there to suck up nutrients. I start with a few stalks and it usually grows about 5 to 10 fold by the time the fish leaves QT. However the death happened overnight when the light were off... (just did a total water change just to be safe)

The dose I gave would've only raised the copper to about 2 PPM, well below the target levels of 5 PPM
I have another fish in there which looked like it was developing ich, which is why I added the cuperamine. Turns out it wasn't ich. The other fish, a mandarin goby survived the cuperamine.

I've used cuperamine on all my fish before adding them to the tank. This was the first time a healthy fish just died overnight. I was very surprised.

Perhaps cuperamine has a shelf life? I've had the bottle for almost 2 years now.

 

[Bob 1000]

Caulerpa and copper,,, Don't mix and won't grow in copper.....

 

[homegrowncichlid]

ah ha! I removed all the calerupa right when I added the cuperamine! (And since the other fish was starting to get a bacterial infection. An indication of poor water quality) lead to an ammonia spike when I fed them that night. I should've done a water change when I removed the calerupa, to reset the water conditions back to good and reset my calender to day one of quarantine with cuperamine.
Thanks guys.

 

[Boomer]

You did not, I hope, add an ammonia remover like Amquel did you

 

[FocusReefing]

As per seachem's website, cuperamine has an indefinite shelf life.

 

[AquarianSaltwater]

Another factor in the death of your fish may have been the capture of the fish. If Cyanide was used the fish can be swimming along just find and suddenly keel over dead. It's something to watch with fish you buy. I've seen a lot of the fish from the Phillipines have this issue.

Although in this case it seems the ammonia was the issue.