Treating Ick With Cupramine; Spiny Eel & Loaches

[the420buzz]

Well, I hate to say it but it seems that my 5 baby jaguars have came down with ick. Now, I've got a pretty much full bottle of Cupramine, as seen in this picture:

I bought it a while ago when I had my first case of ick, and it seemed to work despite unfortunatly losing the two juvy oscars I had. However, dosing it was a confusing experience for me, and I fear I might of misdosed, so to be safe this time, I'm going to come to you guys and hope you can help.

First question; is Cupamine safe to use with my spiny eel, or weather/dojo loaches? The three of them are not showing any signs of ick, so if Cupramine would harm them, I could move them into my 125 temporarily until the treatments over.

Second question; I have a 60 gallon tank (measures 36Lx18Wx21H), and freshwater. Now the instructions on the bottle of Cupramine say;

"Remove all invertebrates. Turn off UV sterilizer; remove chemical filtration. Use 1mL (top mark of enclosed dispenser) per 40L the first day, wait 48 hours, then repeat for a total dose of 0.5mg/L (in freshwater use half dose). Leave at this concentration for 14 days. Do not redose without testing (MultiTest Copper). Do not use in conjunction with any other medication. Although most fish tolerate Cupramine to a dosage of 0.8mg/L, it is not advisable to exceed 0.6mg/L copper. Remove with carbon or CupriSorb."

Now, I'm not the best with mL and mg/L, so could anyone tell me how much I will need to put in for a my 60gallon? (dimensions listed above.) And if anyone else has any advice on how to deal with this, feel free to comment.

 

[WILDER]

Ask in tropical discussion more members go over there. Never heard of the med before.

Dosage instructions is 1ml to roughly 8 gals.
If a freshwater tank you half the dosage.

Then I think if I'm understand the instruction right, you add 0.5mg after 48 hours, for 14 days.

But don't take my word for it. As the instuctions are not the best.

make sure the meds not out of date.
Some fish don't tolerate copper to well either.

According to the instuctions if you have sensitive fish don't exceed 0.6ml.

I think I would just buy another brand of whitespot med.

 

[CentrarchidFan]

Seachem advertises this product as having a wider gap than most copper meds between therapeutic dosage and lethal dosage. That being said, I would use another med if possible. Seachem's Paraguard is a twist on the traditional formalin/malachite green treatment that uses a supposedly less toxic formaldehyde substitute. I use it when quarantining new arrivals, and my loaches and spiny eels have tolerated it with no ill effects. I have also used API's Super Ich Cure at half strength to effectively treat ich with good results and no problems with loaches.

 

[the420buzz]

Thanks for the responses guys. I also left a post on Big Als's facebook that they have set up, asking for advice on it, and this is the response I recieved back.

Hi Michael - Scale-less fish, such as your weather loach, are more susceptible to adverse effects caused by aquarium medications. Because the fish is scale-less, medications and other products are rapidly absorbed and smaller concentrations can be toxic. I have consulted with a technician at Seachem, and they stated that when using Cupramine in an aquarium where there are scale-less fish present you must take more time for the fish to acclimatize/adjust to the medication.

Before you start the treatment ensure that you have the following on hand.

- Seachem’s Multi Test Copper Kit... See More
- Cuprisorb Media
- Carbon

It is vital that you have the copper test kit to ensure you are not over dosing and to ensure that after treatment, that copper is no longer present.

Your aquarium’s actual volume is approximately 223 liters.

- If you have ever treated your aquarium with a copper based product, I highly recommend testing the aquarium before treating.

- If your test shows no copper present, then you can add a total of 2.5 – 2.75 ml of Cupramine to your aquarium the first day.

- Wait 48 – 96 hours; if your fish do not show any signs of distress, then you can add 2.5-2.75 ml of Cupramine again.

- Test for copper. Your final concentration should be 0.25mg/l.

- Leave at this concentration for 14 days.

*Do not use in conjunction with any other medications.

Once the 14 day period is complete add Cuprisorb and or carbon to your filter to remove the copper in your aquarium.

Once the test kit shows no copper present then I would discard the carbon or Cuprisorb and replenish with new carbon.

The ideal thing to do would be to remove your scale-less fish, but then you risk spreading ick into your 125 gallon aquarium.

Ensure that you perform a 25 – 30% water change after treatment and that the water introduced is the same temperature as one of the leading causes of ick, is temperature fluctuations and swings.

 

[WILDER]

The advice sounds good to me.