Copper in water?

[wontonflip]

I went to my lfs today to pick up my first fish --- 2 young clownfish, and more crabs and snails. They told me they have copper in their water, and to try to minimize the amount of the fish and inverts water to get into my tank by putting them in a clean bucket and acclimatize them there, then just transfer them with as little water as possible. Why would tanks use copper?

Anyhooo....my 2 li'l clowns are sittin' in my bucket and I'm just adding a little tank water over the next hour, then hopefully the temp will more or less match my tank's. The trick...is keeping my li'l kiddies out of their bucket! :)

 

[Oscarsdad608]

They use copper to treat the fish for diseases. When you put water into the bucket take a little out. Don't put your snails in the bucket with the clowns.

 

[cthegame]

I went to my lfs today to pick up my first fish --- 2 young clownfish, and more crabs and snails. They told me they have copper in their water, and to try to minimize the amount of the fish and inverts water to get into my tank by putting them in a clean bucket and acclimatize them there, then just transfer them with as little water as possible. Why would tanks use copper?

Anyhooo....my 2 li'l clowns are sittin' in my bucket and I'm just adding a little tank water over the next hour, then hopefully the temp will more or less match my tank's. The trick...is keeping my li'l kiddies out of their bucket! :)

Copper is used to treat sick fish or prevent them from caring parasites, etc.

Just use a net to put the fish in your tank so no copper can get in. If you get enough copper in there, it will pretty much kill your corals & inverts and your rock will be useless.

 

[wontonflip]

Yeah, I've got the snails in another bucket. I didn't think to take water out as I add y tank water. Thanks for telling me :)

 

[Piggy]

Never add LFS water to your tank. At least your LFS told you they use copper. We'll be waiting for pics.

 

[Damseluver]

Just for yuks I would get a copper test kit and find out just how much your lfs is running. Most lfs these days will run copper in there fo holding tanks to prevent losses from parasites. The problem is they don't test often enough and are either running to low a dose or to high.

Tangs and angels can be quite sensative to copper exposure and IMO many of the mysterious deaths of these fish can be attributed to copper exposure. The fish simply stops eating and dies, most likely from liver damage. Of course the fish has long since been in the hobbyist tank before the internal damage catches up with it. Yet another reason I primarly focus on corals for my tanks these days and try not to dump a bunch of money into the fish.

 

[Doc]

Copper will be fatal to your snails. Hopefully your LFS did not add them to any water treated with copper. I have never used, nor will I use copper-based medication in my tanks. Glad to hear about your additions and I look forward to pictures

-Doc