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View Full Version : Do I switch to Hypo now for Ich?


honcho
04/20/2010, 11:04 PM
Hello, I had an ich (I think) breakout in my display tank and that is now running fallow after catching everyone. I have a 30 gallon "hospital" tank now set up and running for a 12 days. 3 fish were infected with ich, a tomato clown, royal gamma and a 3 spot damsel which have all perished. I have 3 fish that never showed any signs of ich or any illness, a pink spot goby, firefish goby and a blue chromis currently in the hospital. I had started coppersafe as that was the only copper product that I could find at any pet stores in my area. I had to order a copper test kit as no one had one in stock and that took a week to come in.

I added the coppersafe according to directions but when the kit came in it showed my copper level low which may be why the sick fish died since there wasnt enough copper in the system to be of any benefit. Should I start to run carbon and pull the copper out of my system and then lower the salinity on the remaining fish? Should I just add more copper and get it to the correct level and run it that way for another month even though the remaining fish have shown no symptons of disease. I am under the impression that even though they dont show any signs of disease they could very well carry the parasite back into my main tank.

I just dont want to run my main tank empty for six or eight weeks, then put my fish back in only to reinfect my tank again and since they dont show signs of disease I wouldnt know till I added another new fish.

Thanks

Chris27
04/21/2010, 08:46 AM
Keep up with the copper - when using coppersafe, you'll want to make sure that your test is capable of reading chelated copper and not copper sulfate.

The parasite lives on the fish for a week, once it falls off, lays dormant, and then hatches, that is when the copper kills the parasite, so keep the concentration up for a few more weeks and you'll be good to go.