Ich - Coppersafe - Black Knife

[yeldarb]

My m & f apistos have ich. Also in the 20g planted tank are 3 silver tip tetras, a striped raphael cat and a black knife. I intend to treat the tank with Coppersafe, but am concerned about the knife, in particular, but also the tetras. Should the Coppersafe be added in half doses similar to what must be done with a number of other medications in order to protect the scaleless fish? I intend on increasing the water temperature from 77 F to about 83 F in 1 degree increments. I do not have the insert instructions for the Coppersafe.

Any help is appreciated.

pH - 7.2, KH - 6, nitrate - 10-15. DIY CO2. 25% water change weekly. Tank startup end of Dec 04. Eheim 2213 - no carbon.

 

[Menagerie]

Forget the coppersafe. Use the natural, effective method of heat and salt, as detailed in this article: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=32

 

[AlonelyCody]

Well you can QT the afective tank members.

YES what ever you do don't/or be very carful with puting ich medication in the tank with a BGK. The BGK is a scale lessfish and they might get burned by the medication I lost a lot of fish because the lfs where I got it from didn't tell me not to add what the directions said to add. I didn't know better, I was stupid and just starting out. My BGK and my TTE are the only scale lessfish that I did not lose. The BGK got burn't but he survived and got better that was almost 2 years ago. (O:


I agree with Menagerie !!!! The best way is with salt and heat !!

 

[Frisckey1]

BGK

I would NOT treat your BGK if he isn't showing any signs of ich. Do you have another tank?

The poison effect of coppersafe is dependent on the hardness of your water. The softer and more acidic your water is, the more dangerous using coppersafe will be.

Treating tetra with coppersafe is questionable also.

If you decide to treat using meds, i'd recommend something more gentle, or something like quick cure at 1/2 dose. It does contain formalin which is also dangerous for scaleless fish - but less so than coppersafe.

 

[hartman57]

raise your heat to 82!!!! i had a huge ich problem and i used all types of chem. none worked !!! i then herd about salt i used that and raised my temp and whalla no more ich i also keep my temp aroyund that all the time to prevent it

 

[NJFishman]

I thought the temperature needed to be in the 90's. 82 seems only a touch above normal.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I believe ich Dies at 86F

I've treated Tetras with Coppersafe before, but I also picked up a copper test kit, and chemi-pure to clean it out of the water after, I now read 0 copper in the tank, and 0 ich.
But that was before I found that fish can survive @ 86F+ as long as the water has some airstones in it. (and this is the most certain way to beat it, you don't need salt, but it does help with thier breathing since the higher the temp the lower the Dissolved O2, key is to get the temp up and leave it up for about a week after the last spot is seen.)