Duane family
Active Member
I thought I would list some recent experiences with blue/green chromis currently quarantined in a copper treatment process. I hope this saves someone time and effort and reduces losses.
I have 6 chromis and a small size foxface in QT since Saturday 21st and the following is what occurred.
Quarantine tank:
QT tank is 35gal with side overflow filter using filter foam 1st chamber, small skimmer in 2nd chamber (not yet running) and return pump in the last chamber. I have also added a regular airstone to the display side while I don't have the skimmer running. Although there is lots of natural aeration to to water flow through the chambers (its actually a bit noisy) I felt that while the skimmer is off I should just run the airstone anyhow as it can do no harm.
Sat - Sunday general observation with standard water conditions
Sunday evening I introduced copperpower to 1ppm (using hanna HR test unit)
Sunday evening an hour or two after adding the copper I noticed the Chromis becoming extremely aggressive towards each other as if they were all agitated. Constantly charging each other with open mouths, sort of fighting as bass fish often do. I added a few more open PVC fittings for them to find peace in. Clearly there was a correlation between the copper and this aggression. Copper at a level is toxic to all fish so there is likely to be a reaction but at 1ppm copper I was very surprised.
Monday morning I observed the fish for a short time and to my surprise they were all completely normal again, schooling and swimming as chromis do. So I increased the copper to 2ppm, an hour later a distinct behavioral change was noted.
Monday late afternoon I adjusted the copper from 2ppm to 2.29ppm. Again an hour after I observed a distinct change in the fish however this time along with the aggression was clear signs of heavy breathing, repeatedly darting forwards to increase water flow through their gills. I've worked with fish in holding tanks for decades and when I saw this I actually became fairly comfortable as I realized that these fish were finding it hard to breath in the current water conditions. To mitigate this I moved the airstone to the return pump chamber and put it close enough to the pump to cause the pump to cavitate slightly. The result of this as you can imagine was tiny micro bubbles forming in the water column.
After about 10min of the hyper oxygenated environment the chromis all began displaying normal chromis behavior which was a relief. This morning I checked on them and all was fine, I feel that the situation has stabilized and I did not have to pull any copper from the water column at all. I noted that at no stage since adding the copper on Sunday did the foxface display any reaction to the copper, where as I'm 100% certain that if I did not intervene all the chromis would have perished.
Summary of events:
Everytime I adjusted the copper levels the behavior of the chromis changed. Added aggression between 1-2ppm and breathing difficulties when above 2ppm
This clearly identifies that the chromis are fairly sensitive to copper and a highly oxygenated water column is required to mitigate the effects of the copper treatment.
The questions I still have are what exactly is causing this.
1.Is it that the copper is reducing the available oxygen in the water column which is only effecting the chromis ?
2.Is the copper effecting the chromis ability to use the available oxygen in the water column ?
My gut feel is that scenario 2 is more likely to be the case. Anyone with additional info ?
I have 6 chromis and a small size foxface in QT since Saturday 21st and the following is what occurred.
Quarantine tank:
QT tank is 35gal with side overflow filter using filter foam 1st chamber, small skimmer in 2nd chamber (not yet running) and return pump in the last chamber. I have also added a regular airstone to the display side while I don't have the skimmer running. Although there is lots of natural aeration to to water flow through the chambers (its actually a bit noisy) I felt that while the skimmer is off I should just run the airstone anyhow as it can do no harm.
Sat - Sunday general observation with standard water conditions
Sunday evening I introduced copperpower to 1ppm (using hanna HR test unit)
Sunday evening an hour or two after adding the copper I noticed the Chromis becoming extremely aggressive towards each other as if they were all agitated. Constantly charging each other with open mouths, sort of fighting as bass fish often do. I added a few more open PVC fittings for them to find peace in. Clearly there was a correlation between the copper and this aggression. Copper at a level is toxic to all fish so there is likely to be a reaction but at 1ppm copper I was very surprised.
Monday morning I observed the fish for a short time and to my surprise they were all completely normal again, schooling and swimming as chromis do. So I increased the copper to 2ppm, an hour later a distinct behavioral change was noted.
Monday late afternoon I adjusted the copper from 2ppm to 2.29ppm. Again an hour after I observed a distinct change in the fish however this time along with the aggression was clear signs of heavy breathing, repeatedly darting forwards to increase water flow through their gills. I've worked with fish in holding tanks for decades and when I saw this I actually became fairly comfortable as I realized that these fish were finding it hard to breath in the current water conditions. To mitigate this I moved the airstone to the return pump chamber and put it close enough to the pump to cause the pump to cavitate slightly. The result of this as you can imagine was tiny micro bubbles forming in the water column.
After about 10min of the hyper oxygenated environment the chromis all began displaying normal chromis behavior which was a relief. This morning I checked on them and all was fine, I feel that the situation has stabilized and I did not have to pull any copper from the water column at all. I noted that at no stage since adding the copper on Sunday did the foxface display any reaction to the copper, where as I'm 100% certain that if I did not intervene all the chromis would have perished.
Summary of events:
Everytime I adjusted the copper levels the behavior of the chromis changed. Added aggression between 1-2ppm and breathing difficulties when above 2ppm
This clearly identifies that the chromis are fairly sensitive to copper and a highly oxygenated water column is required to mitigate the effects of the copper treatment.
The questions I still have are what exactly is causing this.
1.Is it that the copper is reducing the available oxygen in the water column which is only effecting the chromis ?
2.Is the copper effecting the chromis ability to use the available oxygen in the water column ?
My gut feel is that scenario 2 is more likely to be the case. Anyone with additional info ?
