Can you use copper and hyposalinity in conjunction?

[32flavors]

I am wondering if I can do both methods at the same time--especially during the first few days/week when salinity is not yet low enough to be effective against ich? It's taken a couple of days to get a QT going and a couplle of fish have gotten very worrisome.

[janakaybravo]

I think you can copper at 1.017 for a week but not 1.009, which is the salinity for hypo. If you're going to go to the trouble of copper, why not just do a full copper course at 1.017 or whatever and then observe fish at that salinity for a week before removing them to display. In any case, you need to leave your tank fallow for the 7-8 weeks recommended period.

I would do it to save the fish.

Kay

[fishyvet]

There is a great sticky at the top of the forum about Crypto and treatment options... combining copper and hypo is not one of them. I would not personally try it on my fish. You might want to consider a fresh water or formalin dip if you are faced with extremely heavy parasite loads while you wait to adjust the salinity down.