Regal Angel and copper

shy07guy · #1 03/02/2005, 11:05 PM

I have had my baby regal for about 2 weeks now in my QT and recently his head has been twitching and I have noticed him scratching at least a few times a day. I am worried he has a small case of ich. There are no visable signs yet just behavior. I have always QTed my fish for 5 weeks but never had one get ich or anything else for that matter so the QT is untreated. Has anyone had any problems QTing a regal and dosing copper? Also I was going to start the process tonight but it says to redose after 48 hours only problem is I wont be back until Sunday night can I wait to redose then? Any experience would be great
Thanks
Derek

nickiwit · #2 03/03/2005, 01:39 AM

Becareful Angels are sensitive to copper. I wouldn't put the whole amount if calls for. If it is a small case of ich I would try feeding with garlic and small water changes before I would add copper to a tank with an angel. Ich can clear up on its own. If it is velvet you will have to treat.

shy07guy · #3 03/03/2005, 04:03 AM

I put in about 4/5 of the first dose and I will probably not add the second part that it says to add 48 hours later. I have always fed with food that was soaked in garlic so it was not doing the trick and I guess it could be velvet since I can not see any visable signs. I have a Liniatus wrasse in the QT as well and she seems to be doing fine no signs of disease or anything. I will continue to feed the garlic and hopefully the small amount of copper will take of the problem. If it does not do you recomend something else besides copper then? It is such a beautiful fish and it was doing so well for 2 weeks. I have no idea where it picked up the disease unless it just took that long to take hold on the fish. Thanks
Derek

LargeAngels · #4 03/03/2005, 08:17 AM

If it is just ich another way is to lower the salinity to 1.010. I'm doing that right now with my small pacific regal angel. If you do that make sure you use something like this

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...ode=Hydrometer

and not the standard float type.

shy07guy · #5 03/03/2005, 02:44 PM

I got one of those if I do go with the low S.G. then I should remove the copper though right?

SAT · #6 03/03/2005, 02:49 PM

Copper is substantially more toxic in freshwater, so to be safe you shouldn't mix the treatments.

Some reading:
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...marineich.html
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...osalinity.html

shy07guy · #7 03/08/2005, 12:13 AM

I have read the article before but went over it again I still cant see any visible signs on the angel but now the angel no longer comes to the front of the tank and today it was not interested in food. I have done a small water change and placed carbon in the tank to remove whatever copper was left in the tank. I was going to start hypo tonight since the copper does not seem to be helping after 5 days. Am I rushing it? I have a refractometer so no worries there.
Thanks
Derek

SAT · #8 03/08/2005, 09:21 AM

You may in fact be rushing it. No safe treatment will kill the parasites on the fish, you have to wait for them to fall off on their own. Copper or hyposalinity merely prevent reinfection. The normal life cycle has the parasites on the fish for 3-8 days, so you would expect about 1/2 to have fallen off at this point. If you go for a period with sub-clinical doses of copper, BTW, you basically have to start the clock over again.

Since you don't report seeing any spots, this may not actually be Ich. Scratching is a symptom of skin irritation; Ich is one possibility, there are other parasites that could be responsible, or it could be an indication of something bad in the water.

I'd start with the water quality. Have you been testing for ammonia? I find that it's difficult to keep ammonia out of a quarantine tank unless you have been careful to condition the filter beforehand. Try a series of large water changes, drawing the replacement water from your display tank and diluting to match the salinity with well aerated RO water.

Copper can irritate the skin also, particularly if you exceeded the dosage or used straight copper sulphate or a formulation containing formalin.

Do you see any signs of excess mucous production or heavy breathing? Cloudy spots on the fins? How about a "dusty" or "velvety" coating on the skin that might only be visible at certain angles? If you don't see any of these, I'd hold off on medication for a little while (although hyposalinity won't hurt him any).