Copper poisoning--murder?

rosita

rosita

Here
Jan 11, 2006
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Cape Fear River Basin
Well, once again the students have found a way to show their hinies (the "bad" kids) and yesterday dropped some pennies in the back of the 29g in a slot I missed when duct-taping the tank.

I don't know how long they were in there (no more than from 8 am , but another student spotted them and told me. I did an immediate 50% change, and did another one this morning. I know that copper is poisonous to fish (these are baby peacock cichlids and one 2" rainbow "shark"), but at the same time there isn't much copper content in pennies anymore.

The fish look fine--swimming as usual, chasing, eating, etc, although one was wedged up at the water heater (temp is @80 F.) Should I continue to do water changes? Or just observe? They'll go home with me Friday; just because a teen doesn't want to be in Art class doesn't mean they need to take it out on innocent creatures. Stupid scrotes already stole my brand new birthday-to-me 30G Ipod out of my desk (same class).

Please advise. Thanks very much. :shark:
 
don't worry about it. maybe if it were saltwater you'd have a problem, but a penny is not going to be corroded in freshwater overnight.
 
Unless they were pretty old pennies, there's not much CU in them anyway (anybody know how much Zn is toxic?).
 
I really don't think you have too much to worry about, especially since it's fresh water. As has been said, there's very little copper in the pennies anyway... And think about this - copper pipe is commonly used for water lines in houses, it doesn't present a problem there, and there's a lot more copper exposure there than there would be with a few pennies in the water...

(Yes, before anybody jumps on it, copper isn't used in new construction much any more, but that is more of a cost factor first, and a longevity factor second... PVC, CPVC, and Poly are the materials of choice now. Easier to work with, and way cheaper.)

I know what you mean about the kids though... We have some around here that were going around breaking into people's sheds. They did it with mine once. Well, twice actually, but the second time kinda put a stop to all of it. But I guess booby trapping isn't an option in your case...
 
CaptnDan said:
I know what you mean about the kids though... We have some around here that were going around breaking into people's sheds. They did it with mine once. Well, twice actually, but the second time kinda put a stop to all of it. But I guess booby trapping isn't an option in your case...
Click to expand...

HAHA that reminds me of the time people kept breaking into my car. So one night I stayed up and watched out the window all night until they finally came. I shined a 1 million candle power cordless spotlight on them and yelled obsceities, chasing them down the street. The look on their faces before they took off running was priceless. My car hasn't been broken into since...
 
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