Lfs fishes dying

Newbiejb

Newbiejb

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I need some advice from the experts. On the 29th of December i bought a regal tang and a powder blue from lfs the sales person told me they have been in tanks for 3months plus all the tanks are copper treated. I brought them home driped them for 2 to 3 hours then in to the tank they went. On Monday the 11th of January the both got sick looks like white spots. I started treatment with resqmed. And on Friday my powder blue died. The regal is also not looking well she is still eating.
So my question is can long term exposure to copper treated water weakens the immune system so that they cant fight of diseases.
Please help me with this issue have been buying fish from more than one lfs and have no problem with them.
 
Sick fish

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Sorry to hear @Newbiejb. Always better to quarantine (especially powder blue tangs) before adding fish to your display. As for treatment the best would be to remove all your fish to a separate hospital tank where you can treat them. I had whitespot with my regal tang and treated him with garlic mixed with frozen food cubes that I thawed with tank water. As long as the regal eats it helps to build his immune system which helps against the whitespot. I know there is other stuff that you can treat the whitespot with but I have no experience with them.
 
Hi @Newbiejb. I know there are better methods to help with white spot I tried Herbatana but with no success . Then switched to Garlic in the food and dosing vitamin c tablets also got hold of an cleaner wrasse which helped . I know this isn't the best option but in my case I had no other or space for other options.
 
Sorry for your loss. Two pieces of advice that will save you a great deal of pain and money:

Stay away from Powder Blues or Browns until you have a firm handle on what you doing. They ultra prone to white spot, easily stressed and likely to be belligerent to your other tank mates. Big tank will help but definitely not a fish to start out on.

Regal also very prone to Whitespot but a lot easier than the Poweder Blue

Unfortunately most shops will not tell you that when you buying them.

Other thing is do some google on what you intend buying before you buy them – Are they easy to keep, disease resistant, easily fed, aggressive etc.
 
I've been reading up on QT quite a bit, and my understanding with copper is vague.
But what I have learnt is that copper needs to be administered slowly, and removed slowly as well. Through means of GAC or cuprazorb over a 24 to 48 hour time period.
Bringing a fish home like the Powder, which is extremely sensitive to everything. Having been in a LFS's tank with copper, and being acclimated over a period of 1 to 2 hours and put into your DT, might have been too big of a shock to it's immune system.
I can't be 100% sure on my facts, it's all based on what I read and my understanding of it.
 
Newbiejb said:
Hi guys tx for all the advice. But my question was, what is the long term effect copper treated water has on fish.
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I get the idea you think the copper treatment was somehow detrimental to the fish? The problem is that you had white spot in your tank before you added the new fish.
 
Hi tx for feedback. Dont get me wrong @SteveZi im not blaming anyone it was just strange it was only the 2. Im stil relatively new to hobby. I always to research before i buy guess i should have done more intense research on powder blue. So the copper may or may not have been a contributer.
 
Newbiejb said:
Hi tx for feedback. Dont get me wrong @SteveZi im not blaming anyone it was just strange it was only the 2. Im stil relatively new to hobby. I always to research before i buy guess i should have done more intense research on powder blue. So the copper may or may not have been a contributer.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that any shipping or move of fish puts them in position to stress. Especially tangs have very gentle skin, just a scrape of a net when catching can cause harm. Stress causes the protective mucus layer to thin and makes it susceptible to whitespot and other diseases. I have heard and seen fish stay in copper for quite a while with no harm.
 
Ok, borderline big enough for a regal and pb, but should be ok for the two small ones you had. Have you tested ammonia, alkalinity, ph and nitrite recently? If any of especially those four parameters are out, your fish will stress, and it will compromise their immune system, leading to more disease and possibly death.
 
Bought them on the 29 of December tested on the 27th
Kh 7.3
Ph 8
No2 0
No3 50
Did water chance was away on holiday

28th
Kh 7.3
Ph 8.2
No2 0
No3 3

31st
Kh 7
Ph 8.4
No2 0.1
No3 1
So you can see it was quite stable my temo was between 25 an 27 degrees and amonia was 0 at all.
 
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The thread heading suggests that the store could be responsible for the fish dying - In my opinion, any fish kept in copper would be more susceptible to pathogens if they are moved from a copper tank to an infected tank> These fish did not have a chance to build up natural defenses against such pathogens. In reality you have to accept that any aquired fish would be stressed in some way and insure your tank is in the best possible state to house them. That means keeping it ich free.
 
Yes i do get your point when i started the thread i was angry and wanted to blame them. But after reading all comments and suggestions i now belive its just a very sensitive species. I didnt know my tank had ich till this outbreak i do try to keep my tank in pristine condition.
 
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