Copper safe fish?

[JTrigger]

Sorry guys, I've been searching, but was hoping someone might point me to a thread where I can find a list of copper safe vs. unsafe fish... I had read about difficulties with angels, blennies, wrasses, etc, but was hoping I might have a consensus list of some sort so I know what I'm risking before I consider adding a fish straight into my display. Thx!

JT

[Jacob D]

I haven't seen a list that narrows down anything to the genus-species level. In general angels and butterflies don't tolerate it well. Never use it with any scaleless fish and use your instincts when it comes to using it on fish that you know to be sensitive/delicate in general.


FWIW, I would never add a fish directly to the display - even if you don't plan to copper it. Quarantine is always a good idea and there are other options if/when you feel that copper would have been needed.

[JTrigger]

Gotcha. After losing a nice batch of fish a while back, I'm very pro-QT, but I want to make sure I know which guys are more sensitive as you said with angels/butterflies... is the concensus that wrasses are sensitive too?

[Chris27]

I used copper on tangs, dwarf/large angles, clowns, some puffers, gobies and cardinals if that helps you. For puffers, I use chelated, but for all the others I use ionic copper. Generally speaking, sharks and rays shouldn't be put through a copper treatment, but most other fish will due just fine.

[tubntxawg]

tangs, angels, and clowns seems to do fine with copper... i havent seen anything happening in my tank...

[davidwillis]

Are there any fish that can take copper, but not hypo salinity?

[tubntxawg]

Are there any fish that can take copper, but not hypo salinity?


Hey David, The answer to that one hasn't been totally figured out yet. There is a lot of speculation that is going around it, but the fact is that marine fishes have lived in hyposalinity for several years. But, Is this good for them? It isn't conclusively known.
Most professional aquarists are 50/50 but vets and the scientific community say that the hyposaline is not good for the internal chemistries (physiology) of the fish. Still, fishes have been kept alive in this low salinity for several years.

Some fishes are more tolerant of it than others. About 1 in a 100 don't seem to be able to handle it even for a short time. It's not a species problem, but an individual fish intolerance.

hope that helps...

[davidwillis]

Thanks, yes that helps. So 1 in 100 can't handle it, but there is no specific fish that get stressed more than others, like copper is harder on scaleless fish?

[JTrigger]

I appreciate the input. Anyone with experience with wrasses in Cupramine? More specifically, Halichoeres sp? Any troubles with bb QT and their nature to want to bury themselves at night?

[Jacob D]

I have put a few Halichoeres through quarantine but have not coppered any of them. My QT is a bare bottom. I have a few pieces of LR in there and they just slept beneath the LR. The biggest concern with fish that bury an BB QT is spooking them; if they attempt to dart under the sand they can end up with physical injury.

[Stuart60611]

I think a distinction here needs to be drawn between what kind of copper one is treating with. Ionic copper is much harsher than complex copper found in cupramine. Very copper sensitive fish, like puffers and some angels and tangs, generally tolerate complex copper far better than ionic copper.

[Jacob D]

I think a distinction here needs to be drawn between what kind of copper one is treating with. Ionic copper is much harsher than complex copper found in cupramine. Very copper sensitive fish, like puffers and some angels and tangs, generally tolerate complex copper far better than ionic copper.

That's true.

[JTrigger]

I appreciate your experiences Jacob... I'm only speaking of Cupramine as my agent of choice...

[Stuart60611]

I appreciate your experiences Jacob... I'm only speaking of Cupramine as my agent of choice...

Cupramine if used carefully and correctly can be safely used with many copper sensitive fish, including puffers, angels, and tangs -- all of which I have successfully treated with cupramine on multiple occassions. As I have posted in this forum before, the key to treating fish (especially copper sensitive fish) with cupramine is to ramp up to the .5 treatment strength extremely slowly and even more slowly than what is stated on the bottle's directions. You want to very slowly and incrimentally (adding a little more each day) ramp up to the .5 level over the course of at least 4-5 days and not the 2 days suggested on the bottle.