OMG doc just told me to use COPPER with my puffer

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Post Reply
herefishy
Puffer Fry
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:35 am

OMG doc just told me to use COPPER with my puffer

Post by herefishy »

I have been calling vets all morning trying to find out how much piperazine to use in the food while he did not know the answer to this and said it would cause nerve damage he told me that i should use copper to resolve the ick issue the puffer is still having. This poor lil puffer has got life bad right now. I cant seem to treat him with anything and it work fisrt issue i had him in freshwater wich was wrong got him into brakish but not before the white spot he had on his side fell off giving everyone in the fw ick they are all healed up now but the puffer still has it now i am sure he has wormes as his poo is white now also i have meds that are said to cure this but cant figure out how to give them to him and now i am being told to put copper in his tank to rid him of ick wich i thought was a big no no.
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32975
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Greenville, SC
Contact:

Post by Pufferpunk »

If used properly (in QT, while checking copper levels closely), it will work well, against ich. Very dangerous chemical & really should only be used as a last resort, for FW/BW puffers. May be the only recourse, for SW puffers.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
monsterpuffer
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:09 pm
Contact:

Post by monsterpuffer »

There are several different copper remedies out there. I used copper power with my porc and he's fine. Pay attention to the copper levels though, 2ppm is enough to kill the parasite - so dont exceed that.

The problem I had was getting rid of the copper in the tank. It took me a month using Poly Filter, Cuprasorb, and three large water changes to get it out of my main tank. Use a QT tank if at all possible!!!

MP
A man without data is just another man with an opinion.
Post Reply