Gold Nugget Pleco & Coppersafe

SoCalDiscus

SoCalDiscus

AC Members
Jan 31, 2007
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Southern California
Hi Everyone,

Has anyone successfuly (or unsuccessfully...) used Coppersafe to treat Gold Nugget Plecos for Ich? If you tried it, did you use a half dose?

I know medications are always risky with catfish and I haven't found anything conslusive either way in my research yet. I'm a firm believer in the "wisdom of crowds" so the more feedback the better.

I appreciate everyone's help,

Eric
 
Instead of using medications, salt, or any other additive, try using the heat method. Turn up the heat to 87F, slowly a couple degrees an hour. Ich in all it's life cycles can not survive temperatures above 86F. Leave it there for a couple weeks to ensure all signs of ich are removed.
 
They (4 3" Gold Nugget Plecos) will eventually be in my discus tank (hopefully), so I had been keeping them at a pH of ~ 6.8 and a temperature of 84. I bumped up the temp to 88 over the last 12 hours, and I have also moved my extra UV sterilizer into the tank.

I agree in trying the heat method, but I also wanted to get some feedback on medication in case I have one of those really nasty breeds of Ich that tollerate high temperature. My reason for concern is that I generally have not had issues with Ich at 84 degrees and these guys are new. Luckily I was good and I have them by themselves in a bare bottom quarantine tank (with wood). Having discus has forced good quarantine habbits.

My plan for now is 2x daily water changes to get as many cysts as possible over the next few days. I have a heated RO reservoir system so I can match the water parameters exactly. If the heat treatment is effective I should see a reduction in the spots over the next few days given the sped-up life cycle. If I don't see a reduction, then I may well need to attempt medication and I figured it might take a little while to get feedback from the forum. So I thought I would ask now so I can make an informed decision. I am also in the process of getting a 14" Gold Nugget Pleco, so the stakes are even higher once I have that one. So, the more knowledge I can acquire about what works and what doesn't the better.

The other side to using copper based products is its toxicity related to low pH. I have read that copper can be more toxic at lower pHs. Does anyone know how low is too low? If I have to medicate, I was thinking of going up to 7.0, but is that high enough?

Thanks again for the feedback!

Eric
 
If the heat alone does not work, you could try adding the salt before going with the copper.

I treated pitbull plecos for ich with heat and salt once, and they recovered well.

I'm not hugely experienced with plecos and ich, but you said you wanted all advice ... :) Good luck!
 
Ich parasites can only be killed when they are in the free-swimming theront stage. Medications do not kill the parasites attached to the fish (white spot) or when the parasites are encysted in the gravel. Disappearance of the white spots simply means that the parasites have advanced to the cyst stage. In a few hours or days, depending on water temperature, thousands of infective theronts will burst out in search of a fish host. It is precisely at this point that the medication does its job. Since not all the Ich parasites "hatch out" at the same time, it is necessary to treat the aquarium or pond for several days to insure control. When one fish has ick, all fish in the aquarium or pond will be infected. All fish must be treated. Ich parasites are easily transferred to other aquaria or ponds by nets, hands, boots, etc. Quarantine the infested fish. Do not add or remove fish from the infested aquarium or pond. Begin treatment immediately.

From : http://badmanstropicalfish.com/meds/ick.html
 
I am not sure about salt being a problem for plecos in a general sense, but I do know that the L018s come from Amazon tributaries where there is very little or no salt content. Otherwise salt would be a good way to go.

The higher temperature (88) seems to be making them much more active in the daytime. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. Two are still chewing on the wood, but repositioning much more often, and two are on the glass at the mid water level of the 20 gal. tank scooting around. I guess active is better than wondering if they are still alive. A few times they were swimming up and breaching the surface, so I decided to reposition the output of the UV sterilizer to break the surface of the water to get a better mix with air.
 
Here are a few pictures of my fish just in case someone wanted to know what a Gold Nugget Pleco looks like with Ich. Hopefully this works.

IMG_1836.JPG

IMG_1870.JPG
 
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I know that the salt isn't natural in their habitat, but they may be fine with it as a temporary ich treatment.

Sorry about the ich, but those are some beautiful fish you have :drool:
Hope whatever treatment you use works.
 
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