Powder Brown Treatment

[chatyak]

My water volume in my quarantine tank is 31.2 gallons roughly. That's about 3 ml of Cupramine for .25 dosage and 6 ml for the .50 dosage.

I added 2 ml tonight (will do it over 3 days of 2ml a day) and noticed that the powder brown tang appeared to be breathing much faster than normal. Is this dangerous for it and should I continue the dosage?

[Tech Support EH]

Hi Chatyak,

Sorry to hear that your Powder Brown Tang is dealing with a parasitic infection. While Cupramine is an extremely safe form of copper since it is bound to an amine, there is always potential for medications to place stress on fish. It is for this reason that we suggest slowly acclimating the fish to the medication by spreading out the dosing over a 48-hour time period.

Though you did not add the full 3mL, I would still suggest that you wait until 48 hours after the first dose to add any more Cupramine to the tank. It will start having some effects on the parasite at a lower concentration than 0.5ppm.

The best idea is to closely monitor the tang for increased stress during the entire treatment period. Again, Cupramine is a very safe form of copper, however, some fish can have more of a sensitivity to copper than others.

Best of luck to you, and please let us know if you have additional questions.