Debating Whether to Use Cupramine

G

Grumpyfish

Premium Member
Hello, Two weeks ago I brought home a purple firefish and two bangaii cardinals and put them in a 20-gallon QT.  The cardinals are not tank raised (my bad).  A few days ago, one of the cardinals started acting lethargic, just hanging out in a corner, and almost stopped eating. He wasn't flashing. Yesterday he hardly moved, was breathing heavy, and started lying on his side on the bottom of the tank.  The other cardinal started bullying him, so I separated them with some egg crate. Yesterday I did a water change (probably 50%) and gave him a 5-minute freshwater bath. He perked  up a little afterwards, but this morning he was dead. Note that last week (their second week in quarantine), I added PraziPro to the tank according to the directions.  After yesterday's water change, I added carbon to remove the remaining PraziPro.  I was going to treat with PraziPro again in another week.  Now I am debating whether to start a Cupramine treatment for the two remaining fish, who are showing no signs of problems, although I have seen the firefish flash a few times, but never repeatedly. I had not planned on using Cupramine unless they showed signs, but I'm guessing that a dead fish qualifies as a sign. Anyway, I would love some advice on whether to use Cupramine.  I have used Cupramine successfully before, and I have the appropriate test kits, but I know how easy it would be to overdose, so I was hoping to avoid it. Thanks in advance.  
 
Did you end up dosing cupramine? My thinking is the same as yours that if it's not necessary then don't do it.Are the others still acting lethargic? If so, the same, not as bad, worse?I've had success in the past with lowering the salinity to about 1.017 as well as 30-40% wc bi-daily for about a week. I think hypo would be a bit too extreme for your situation but lowering it some should make it less stressful for the fish. I'm curious about your freshwater dip. Did you drip acclimate the cardinal back into the salinity of the system? You can drop the salinity rapidly and have no ill effects but raising it too rapidly can do damage. It may have been the cause of the overnight death.
 
Hi Rockwall_Reef, Sorry for not responding sooner.  No, I did not dose Cupramine. I'm not sure that was the right call, but we'll see. (I may start a second round of PraziPro tonight.) The purple firefish sometimes flashes against his "home," but nothing like my old royal gramma did when he definitely had ich, so I'm hoping it's normal. (I see my clownfish do that occasionally, and they're healthy.)  Otherwise, the firefish and the remaining cardinal both seem to be doing fine - knock on wood! Both are active and eating. I'm feeding Rod's Food, frozen mysis, flakes, and pellets. The firefish scarfs down everything. The cardinal only seems interested in the mysis and select pieces of the Rod's Food; he spits out everything else.  But at least he has an appetite. He often bites the plastic pipette I use to feed them!  (I don't think he's too bright though; he often watches me intently while food is floating around behind him, so I walk away so as not to distract him.)I matched the QT's temp (78-80) and salinity (1.0235) to my DT so that I could use water from the DT for water changes. Water changes are usually 50-60 percent every weekend. The guy at the LFS said they kept their salinity pretty low (I forget what he said, but I think it was around 1.017 like you mentioned) to help fight parasites. No, I did not reacclimate the sick fish to the QT salinity after the freshwater dip. That would have been a good idea.  My mistake.  He was pretty well gone before the freshwater dip, so it may not have made any difference, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt. I'll know better next time. Thanks for the tips.  They're always appreciated. 
 
Sounds like you're having success with it. The most important part about the freshwater dips are to very gradually increase the salinity back up. As said before. Keep this post updated, I'm curious to hear how it turns out for you buddy@!
 
Thanks. I'm pretty curious about that too. The cardinal is beautiful, but he sure is a picky eater. I've never had to deal with that before. I'm not sure that he's getting enough to eat, but he seems ok at the moment. If he doesn't expand his menu on his own, I'm worried about keeping him long-term.  Maybe he should come live with you! 
 
Both the cardinal and the firefish are still in QT and appear to be doing well. However, after much debating, I've decided to not keep the cardinal. I'm worried he might not be a good fit down the road with the other fish I would like to add next. I also keep reading about bangaii cardinals developing a taste for shrimp when they get bigger, and I really like my shrimp. I will open a new topic in the For Sale/Trade forum to see if anyone wants him. Thanks again to everyone for your help. 
 
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