hyposalimity or cupramine

[joe kirner]

i started a thrad last night help save my tang and got alot of great info about the parasite and what to do. thank you all for the replys. i do have a hospital tank but its only 30 gallons my tang is in a 150 he is about 4-5 inches long and would have to be in ther with all my fish four others none over 2-3 inch in size. i realize they all have to be moved cause if the stress of being in a 30 gallon tank dont kill him the ich certainly will. i plan on moving them tonight after work all accept my coral beauty who needs to be gone anyways as he has been eating my coral dont know exactly what to do with him but take him to the lfs and give it to them but im sure if my tang has ich i can assume he does to just havent seen it yet and is that really responsible. i guess my question is shoud i do hyposalinity or cupraminelast time i tried cupramine my powder brown tang died but this could just be because he was to far gone in the first place as it seemed to have little effect on other fish in same tank. i dont care about the work involved i will go by a refractometer tonight if i have to . it sounds like cupramine would be easier what gives powder blue greatest chace of survival

 

[user 26995]

Put some PVC elbows in the qt, big enough for the tang to hide in. It might help it be less stressed.
You will want to treat all fish including the coral beauty. Some fish can be immune to ich, but it will still carry it. So even if it doesnt show signs and you put it in another tank, it may infect that tank and the other fish.
I've tried cupramine on a powder brown and it didnt work either. Him and my Blue Hippo Tang both showed signs of ich. Treated everyone for like 10 weeks. They looked good so after a while I put them back in the DT and a week later the powder came down with it again and in a few days was gone. No sign of ich in the tank since then. Then maybe it did work, and he was just too stressed in the DT. I've heard that the powders are easily stressed and come down with ich easily.
I would probably try the hyposalinity treatment.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Copper is an advanced technique, requires regular specific testing.
Have seen many more fish die in Cu treatment than Hypo.
Hypo requires less tech and I recommend it to any intermediate or beginning reef keeper.

 

[mcoomer]

If the fish are strong and still eating I'd go with hyposalinity. If there acute cases then I'd be more likely to use Cupramine but you'll have to buy a test kit as well. No shortcuts with either treatment. Follow the instructions for the copper med and treat for at least 8 weeks, whichever method you decide on.

Mike

 

[joe kirner]

thank you for your replys do i need a refractometer to test salinity or can i just use my hydrometer i read an artical that said you needed a refractometer to get an acurate enough salinity reading

 

[user 26995]

A refractometer is recommended. They are worth having.

 

[eartaker]

I have used Cupramine to treat all of my fish, clowns, triggers, tangs, blennys, hawkfish, Basslet's and have never had an issue, BUT Make sure you use the seachem copper test kit and not any other brand. Also if you test for ammonia while using cupramine it may read high due to the cupramine so its kind of a balancing act. You want to get a concentration of 0.3-0.5. After this is obtained do not add any more cupramine unless you do a water change. also test every time before adding. Make sure whatever tank you put this in that you do not reuse it or any of the equipment in it for anything other than a QT later on.

Here is some more info
Seachem. Cupramine FAQ

 

[NC2WA]

Joe,

I would suggest reading the following stickys:


http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/hyposalinity-treatment-process-27155/

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/copper-treatment-use-problems-27005/

 

[phasezero]

I know my option is not very popular, but if your tang is fat and eating, i would just stick to feeding like crazy and keeping stable parameters to keep stress as low as possible. I tried cupramine like you and also lost my blue tang due to treatment. I realized you have to be super careful with your dosing and measurements as i went only slightly over. It gets tricky because the IMO the seachem color comparison is not very clear. My tank then went fishless for 8 weeks before i purchased another tang. Not surprisingly he also showed some signs of ich, I chose to just feed him as much as possible and he's gone symptom free for the last 5 months.

I've read a bunch of threads where people have tried hypo along with keeping their DT fishless for 8-12 weeks, and it seems like it's always been hit or miss.