Canary Blenny and Copper Treatment

[speckled trout]

I have a Canary Blenny that I've had in a Hospital Tank along with some other fish that were being treated for an ich outbreak.

I treated the Hospital tank with Cupramine for the recommended 14 days at a level of .25 ppm. I saw some indications of ich on one fish through day 8. A friend of mine that has successfully treated ich in the past, said to continue the treatment for at least 12 to 14 days past the last sign of ich on any of the infected fish.

On day 15 my poor little blenny was helplessy drifting in the current created by the powerhead. All the other fish continued to look fine.

I have a small 5 gallon tank that only has a couple of hermits in it, so I decided to place him in there to see if he could pull through. The five-gallon contains untreated water.

Well, the fish just layed there for a day or two and only recently has begun to swim around in a more normal manner. Does anyone think that the copper was doing him in? This particular fish had never shown any outward signs of a possible infestation, except occassionally scratching against a rock(no spots). I decided to treat him with all the rest of the fish because I wanted my main tank to remain fishless for 40 days.

My main concerns are have I treated this particular fish long enough in the copper (15 days at .25 ppm). The 5-gallon has never had any fish in it, so is it okay to assume that the fish is ich-free after 15 days in the treatment ?

I don't think that this fish would ever be able to tolerate another copper treatment, so what do I do with him? I absolutely do not want to risk a re-infestation in my main tank?

[ATJ]

Now that you have the blenny separated you should treat it with hyposalinity (http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html). This is much safer and easier than copper as long as you have an accurate device for measuring specific gravity or salinity. A refractometer is perfect for this.

Note that copper does not affect the parasites attached to the fish which is why you would have seen the spots stay on. It also doesn't affect the reproducing tomonts, which is why you must continue the treatment past 14 days.

[speckled trout]

I will lower the salinity. My only other question is for how long since I already treated him originally with the copper.

My guess is that I would have to start over since one of the fish still showed signs at about half way through the intitial treatment.

Thanks Again,
Mike W.

[ATJ]

Copper either kills the tomites/theronts or it doesn't. In your case it didn't, so you'll have to do a full course of hyposalinity: 4 weeks at ≤1.009 or <14 ppt.

[oama]

Just a note on the use of Cupramine. The recommended dosage is 0.25 for the first two days, then 0.5 ppm for two weeks (for crypto, longer for amyloo). Although the cupramine can be effective at dosages of 0.25 ppm, I would use the 0.5 ppm for the majority of the treatment period in cases of actual disease outbreaks.

[speckled trout]

I'm sorry, I meant to say that I've been treating him at .5 ppm.