fish death question

[flanders]

What happened

So I had a hippo tang in my QT tank on day 7 of copper treatment from ick, the spots had disappeared he was eating and looking good, as my qt tank is uncycled I was controlling ammonia with water changes. This sat I did a healthy water change maybe 70% over 2 hours. I changed the water with water from my main tank.

I tested ammonia it was at .25
Tested copper added a full dose tested again at .04
nitrate at 20 ppm
Tested ph and buffered up to 8.3 using the kent kh buffer
(all these were the same steps I had taken setting up the tank)
the sg is at 1.012 as I am using hyposalinity with the copper

The next day it was like he had been hit by a train. He had lost all color and was barley moving. His skin looked like it was rotting off and his fins were in terrible shape

Any ideas as to what I should look at to keep this from happening again

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah....don't use the copper. . If you are QTing.. hyposalinity is the way to go. Reduce your salinity to .014, and just keep it at that level. Crypo can't reproduce in the lower salinity levels, and so it dies off in about 28 days.

All the best,
~wings~

 

[scottfarcuz]

the sg is at 1.012 as I am using hyposalinity with the copper

Just to eliminate any possible confusion for Flanders(or a newbie coming along) I am pretty sure when Wings said

Reduce your salinity to .014, and just keep it at that level.

He meant 1.014 but just shortened it up. You probably know this but I would hate to see you litterally go to .014.

Just my observation I have no experience using Hypo or copper I just didn't want to see a newbie come along and make a mistake.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm still thinking it was the copper... and now, possibly the water change. 1.012 is kinda drastic too... did you aclimate correctly? and if you did the water change from your main tank, did you keep the salinity the same?
eh.. just my opinion.

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

the sg is at 1.012 as I am using hyposalinity with the copper

Just to eliminate any possible confusion for Flanders(or a newbie coming along) I am pretty sure when Wings said

Reduce your salinity to .014, and just keep it at that level.

He meant 1.014 but just shortened it up. You probably know this but I would hate to see you litterally go to .014.

Just my observation I have no experience using Hypo or copper I just didn't want to see a newbie come along and make a mistake.

Yup, you're right... sorry.

~wings~

 

[flanders]

i stepped down the salinity pretty quickly on the qt tank... but that was last week. the salinity between the qt tank and the current tank were both 1.012 (or higher) i did not aclamate the fish during the water change....

as for the salinity being to harsh that is possible ... i have heard conflicting views on hoypsalinity and decided to err on the lower side to beat the ick for good as this is the 2nd time i have seen an outbreak...


this is the first time i have heard that copper is not a good idea and that hyposalinity should be the only treatment.

 

[RobertoVespucci]

To double n00b that, pure water has a specific gravity of 1.000. .014 would represent something as bouyant as, say styrofoam. Folks get sloppy and refer to sg as salinity, which is measured in parts per (usually) thousand, ppt.
HTH.

 

[SpecialK]

Many Tangs react poorly to copper, if copper is used on a Tang it should be dosed at very low levels. I would say it was the copper.

Kaye

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not saying that hypo is the only method. I'm saying that hypo is the safest. Do some research on Cryptocaryon. You will understand how cryptocaryon breeds. Then Hypo will make more sense.

FWIW, many wholesale holding companies keep their salinity slightly lower ... ~1.015-8, for a number of reasons. One is cryptocaryon. It also is easier on the fish being moved around as well. NOTE: this is only for fish not for inverts.

~wings~

 

[flanders]

thanks for help

i had looked into the ick lifecycle previously and i think i will be erring on the side of hyposalinity only in the future..

im willing to blame the copper and be much more careful in its application in the future

thanks again

 

[Anonymous]

I only had ick one time a while back, and I used "kick-ich". It really worked awesome with no ill effects. I even have orange linkia, brittlestars, strawberry crabs etc, and nothing seemed troubled by it.
I have also read posts on other boards about kick ich and i haven't seen any negative feedback.
I did the 14 day cycle version of it.