How do you use copper w/ Tangs?

[Ixthys]

Hi Lee,

In one of your threads you mention you treat all Tangs (or was it just Acanthurus?) with a Copper dip upon arrival. This was in addition to a freshwater dip with Methylene Blue, right?

Anyway, could you please explain how you do the copper dip? Is it done immediately after the freshwater dip?

Second set of questions: I have a few fish in quarantine right now that I did not dip on arrival. Basically my quarantine has been a watch and wait game, and then treat if needed. Your way makes more sense and I'll be doing this in the future. As for right now, should I take the fish out, dip, and return to quarantine? Or something else?

Thanks!
Craig

[leebca]

Thanks for posting Craig!

I need to tweak your understanding of what I wrote. Sorry, if what I wrote wasn't clear.

Yes. I only copper treat all the Genus Acanthurus tangs. But the copper treatment isn't a dip. It's a full copper treatment.

Say you just acquired the fish. It's still in its travel bag. You acclimate to your QT water. Then you dip it in freshwater-Methylene Blue. Then you put the fish in your QT. Now you treat the QT with copper medication. I strongly recommend Cupramine (by Seachem) for this treatment. It is a 14-day treatment and you follow the directions on the medication. At the end of the 14-day copper treatment, remove all copper and continue with the quarantine for a total of 6 weeks in quarantine.

The freshwater (FW) dip going into the QT was to remove external parasites that might be visible on the body of the fish or invisible (on the gills). If the fish gets to the QT carrying these organisms, then the QT water is infected. Dipping the fish already in the QT and then putting it back into the QT doesn't help the fish in the long run since the disease isn't just on the fish any longer, it's in the QT.

What you can do is, after the 6 weeks in QT and the fish looks healthy and good, is give the fish the freshwater dip on its way into the display tank. You bag the fish from the QT, acclimate it to the display tank water, then proceed to perform the FW dip.

Your 'watch and wait' process is the standard process. Nothing wrong with this approach. I just hope you are putting only one fish in one QT for the process. "Group QT" is fraught with problems.

[Ixthys]

Thanks! That cleared things up.

You are mentioning specifically the Genus Acanthurus, and not the Family Acanthuridae, right? What makes them stand out?

[Ixthys]

Oh, by the way, you are a very clear writer. It is my speed reading that messes things up!

[leebca]

Just the Genus, not the family. Technically, the family name is: Acanthuridae; the Genus name is Acanthurus

1. The Genus Acanthurus have probably the worst defense mechanisms against obligate parasites, than any other common marine ornamental fish, at least form my experience.

2. Next: they are herded together in the collector's containers; acclimated in wholesalers in one tank; and usually in the same LFS water system. This community/grouping pretty much has them sharing what any one of them might be infected with, with the other fish.

3. From my observation (take this to mean I have no proof) their immune system seems to be weaker than most other ornamental marine fishes.

4. I have seen this past year more and more of this Genus coming through the importation process with diseases of either Marine Ich or Marine Velvet or both.

5. If the Marine Velvet comes in with the newly acquired fish, the fish often dies in a day or two. By the time I figure out it was sick, it is dead.

Putting all the above together tells me the right thing to do for this Genus is treat them with an organic copper when I get them. No other Genus of fishes share this combination.

The odds are so great of one or the other or both conditions, that it isn't worth the effort (in my mind/in my opinion) to perform the wait and see procedure. It's more worth it (in my opinion) to just launch into a copper treatment for these fishes.


(I have 8 from this Genus going through quarantine right now and they have finished their copper treatment yesterday. Before I put them into quarantine I do the posted freshwater dip:
Freshwater Dip for Marine Fishes
and found Marine Velvet organisms in the bath water.)