Copper with Inverts?

[hc8719]

I was at the lps today, and noticed there were some brittle stars and cleaner shrimp in the section of the store, which usually just carries fish, and has a sign "These tanks are treated with copper, be sure to take caution when acclimating them to your home tank"

I asked one of the employees there "Won't copper medication kill the star and shrimp" and replied "Nah, it treats parasites, if anything it's good for them".

I didn't wont to argue with him, and then find out I was wrong, but copper will kill the shrimp and stars won't it, there inverts

 

[Marc118]

Yes copper will kill inverts and corals.

 

[hc8719]

then its not that fast, though the brittle star had folded himself into a oval, and the cleaner shrimps weren't looking happy. Wish I had said something to someone else

 

[Marc118]

If your dosing enough to kill parasites it is plenty fast. You will wake up the next morning with a graveyard for a tank.

 

[melosu58]

Obviously the guy did not know what he was talking about. I would take caution buying from here in the future.

 

[tecwzrd]

lfs employees often only have minimal knowledge on the stock they keep unfortunately for the stock.

I recently visited a new store in my area and saw a tank full of 20+ dead camel shrimp and asked the owner if he was aware of it. He wasn't too happy about it because he had just gotten them in that morning and apparently one of the newer employees just dumped them into the tank without acclimating them along with all the other stock he had received that morning. Luckily the shrimp was the only stock that suffered.

Inverts in particular are very sensitive to ph/sg/temp differences and need long 2+ hour drip acclimations or even better introduced to a QT that is the same ph/sg/temp from which they came (still with a shorter 1 hour drip acclimation)

Copper can be deadly to inverts even at lower levels (not high enough to treat disease) which is why it's critical to never dose copper in the main tank since removing it completely is nearly impossible.