Lesson learned here so I thought I would share. About 3 weeks ago, my Powder Brown Tang (PBT) developed ick. Nobody else in the tank had/has it. Something stressed him and I don't know what. Anyway.....I started treating with medicated foods (Metro & Focus) but I wasn't using the correct dosages.
Further investigation told me what I should dose so I fed medicated 2 - 3 times daily and he ate like a pig! The ick didn't diminish but it didn't get worse either. My UV had been offline during this period of time so I got it hooked back up and running slow....right at 300 gph. Still no real change. I did this for a period of 2 weeks. At the end of that two weeks, I noticed he would almost eat from my hand so I saw an opportunity to catch him and that was successful.
I began dipping him with Rid-ick. Twice a day for about 10-15 minutes. He was quarantined during the treatment period so it was easy to catch and dip him every other day. He tolerated this very well and ate as usual during the 2 weeks of dipping. The ick was almost completely gone. So as one last dip, I decided today to do a dip in Coppersafe. I dipped him for about 15-20 minutes with an airpump providing O2 to the dip container (the same process I used with the Rid-ick). At that end of that period, I returned him to his quarantine, with the hopes of returning him to the DT in the next week provided no signs of ick return. At first, he swam but didn't seem interested in anything. I normally fed him again upon return for the dip session. He didn't want food. Slowly he got lower and lower in the quarantine until finally he was at the bottom. Now it looks like he's dead.
The only thing that I can figure is that the Coppersafe did something to him. I read through the entire instructions multiple times and there is no mention of a time limit. I don't know what happened. I thought for sure that I had successfully treated this fish and would be able to return him to the DT but that's not going to happen. Lesson learned.....NEVER get a Powder Brown Tang!
Further investigation told me what I should dose so I fed medicated 2 - 3 times daily and he ate like a pig! The ick didn't diminish but it didn't get worse either. My UV had been offline during this period of time so I got it hooked back up and running slow....right at 300 gph. Still no real change. I did this for a period of 2 weeks. At the end of that two weeks, I noticed he would almost eat from my hand so I saw an opportunity to catch him and that was successful.
I began dipping him with Rid-ick. Twice a day for about 10-15 minutes. He was quarantined during the treatment period so it was easy to catch and dip him every other day. He tolerated this very well and ate as usual during the 2 weeks of dipping. The ick was almost completely gone. So as one last dip, I decided today to do a dip in Coppersafe. I dipped him for about 15-20 minutes with an airpump providing O2 to the dip container (the same process I used with the Rid-ick). At that end of that period, I returned him to his quarantine, with the hopes of returning him to the DT in the next week provided no signs of ick return. At first, he swam but didn't seem interested in anything. I normally fed him again upon return for the dip session. He didn't want food. Slowly he got lower and lower in the quarantine until finally he was at the bottom. Now it looks like he's dead.
The only thing that I can figure is that the Coppersafe did something to him. I read through the entire instructions multiple times and there is no mention of a time limit. I don't know what happened. I thought for sure that I had successfully treated this fish and would be able to return him to the DT but that's not going to happen. Lesson learned.....NEVER get a Powder Brown Tang!
