Tang; copper or not to copper

[ShoeCrew]

I previously ordered multiple blue/green chromis from liveaquaria. They were infected with uronema. I lost all but one. I just got a powder brown tang from California facility with the store credit. The fish looks healthy in a qt tank. I just did prazi-pro on him. If I wait long enough(2 months), can I make sure that it does not have ich, without making it go through copper? 

 

 

[Micah]

Have you quarantined any of your other fish?

If the answer is no, then you already have ich in your system.  Anybody that tells you otherwise is uneducated and shouldn't give advice.  In that case I would say observational quarantine only for 2-3 l weeks.  That'll ensure you aren't getting velvet or brook.  Those are super aggressive and will show in a week or so.  

If you HAVE quarantined your entire system (including snails, rocks, corals, etc) and every drop of water entered into your tank is either from a fully medicated fish quarantine or a 76+ day fishless quarantine, then I'd say definitely quarantine as you did the others..

My guess is that it's the first one.

[ShoeCrew]

It is somewhere in between. But I hear you.

All the fish in DT right now were kept in observational qt more than a month before I placed them in the tank. In some cases it was longer if they needed to be medicated for flukes or uronema, i.e. the chromis that survived - it went through metro mixed food and metro dosed water for more than 6 weeks. The wrasses looked like they had problems with their mouths. So they are through 3 rounds of prazi pro along with fw dips and it has been more than 6 weeks now. they are not in the tank yet. 

The rocks were from an established tank. The rocks were partially dried, then subjected to fresh water. Then the salinity was increased and kept in dark with microbacter clean for about 3 months. 
 

Corals were coral dipped. And the chaeto was kept separate from the main tank for more than 3 weeks. I got the chaeto from shaywood(Thanks a lot!) 
 

so it is not perfect by any means but I don’t see any sign of illness in the DT. 

[Micah]

If you have a healthy tank with little fish stress, then ich isn't something you usually see visibly, but it's almost definitely there.   Coral dip doesn't do anything.  

I think you'll be good with observational quarantine for a couple weeks.  Just make sure the big nasties aren't there. Ich, in your system, is inevitable.

[ShoeCrew]

Thanks a lot for the insight! 

[islandVib3s]

If you already have it in QT id treat it,not worth risking everything else. Tangs usually do well in copper in my experiences.

[Micah]

Don't treat for ich if you're just putting it into your tank with ich.  There's literally no point.

[Lexinverts]

While I generally agree with Micah about ich, the risk of velvet necessitates copper QT in my opinion.

I got a nasty velvet outbreak from a Powder Brown Tang from Diver's Den. The fish looked great for 2 weeks and then was dead in 2 days. I would absolutely do a copper treatment for 30 days in a QT tank. See directions at the below link. Get a Hanna Copper checker to check your levels. I use Copper Power.

https://humble.fish/copper/

 

[Micah]

Yeah, typically velvet/brook will kill within a week or two.  Especially on sensitive fish. That's why I say a couple weeks of observation is sufficient.  If you need to, do the black molly method. That'll tell you right away.

[ShoeCrew]

Thanks for all the input. I will do copper. May be my DT is already contaminated but it is still better to eliminate worse strains of parasites. 

Edited March 2, 2022 by ShoeCrew