copper band butterfly has white spot due to bullyi

hi guys,
im a newbie looking for some info regarding my copper band butterfly. i currently have 2 tanks a 75lreef and a 400 hundred L seahorse tank. ihad a problem with aptasia in the 75l so i purchased a copperband to get rid, which it did quite easily.i then decided to put him in with the seahorses not the best idea, but once the seahorses can sucessfully feed im happy enough i also have 2 blue damsals in the tank which have been there before the seahorses and again cause no threat to the seahorses (regarding feeding).now heres the prob. my copperband is been bashed by 1 of the damsals.his behaviour is starting to concern me as his erratic swimming will probably disturb the seahorses. the cb has some blemishing on its tail and has a couple of nips taken out of his fins. the damsel dosent seem to be bothering it as much as it was.i cant catch the damsels (stopped trying after 100 attempts)i dont want to get rid of the cb either as he is brill for aptasia and i cant put him in the reef tank permintly as i have recently added a lot of aggresive corals. this is what i need to know , how do i get rid of the copperbands whitespot without adding meds and is it likly the damsal will chill out with him as he isnt half as aggresive as he was towards him. i basically need to get the copper band back to his peacful self with no blemishes or white spot.
hope someone can give me some experienced advice. oh by the way its not a water issue as it is perfect.
thanks in advance,
reefpaddy

hi paddy,
personally i would quarantine him, this will give both him a chance to rest and recover and you a chance to medicate him if necessary. If u decide to do this you can lower the salinity of the quarantine tank somewhat (1.020) ...this makes it easier for marine fish to get oxygen from the water (i think) sean can clarify the exact reason for this.
Hyposalinity is a term used for a treatment of whitespot. no chemicals. lower the salinity to 1.009 (gradually) in your qt tank. whitespot (or any inverts) can not survive at this salinity. you'll have to keep the water at this level for 4 weeks after the whitespot dissapears, then gradually bring the salinity back up to the display tank's level.
ACT AS SOON AS POSIBLE, whether its with meds or hypo, do it now.
re cathing the damsels, you could try a fish trap (if u havent already).
fran

thanks for replying mate
only prob is i have no quarintine tank and if i bring another tank home she will kill me. unfortunatly the seahores are so dumb that the trap would more than likly end up a play ground for them. it has took me so long to get my water to a perfect level, im afraid to use meds. would a fresh water bath do him any good and medicate the bath also or would this cause much stress or should i bite the bullet and get rid . im almost positive seahorses cant get white spot and they are the most important feature of the tank. it wouldnt be a huge loss if the damsals got sick

what does a quarintine tank consist of

reefpaddy wrote:

thanks for replying mate
only prob is i have no quarintine tank and if i bring another tank home she will kill me. unfortunatly the seahores are so dumb that the trap would more than likly end up a play ground for them. it has took me so long to get my water to a perfect level, im afraid to use meds. would a fresh water bath do him any good and medicate the bath also or would this cause much stress or should i bite the bullet and get rid . im almost positive seahorses cant get white spot and they are the most important feature of the tank. it wouldnt be a huge loss if the damsals got sick

if it is in fact whitespot and it gets a hold on your tank you could be looking at a total wipeout, and having to leave the tank fishless for 8 weeks. thats the worst case scenario. you cant really medicate a tank with live rock. there are treatments out there for use with LR but the results vary. The more commonly used effective treatments are copper (never used this myself), formalin/malahite green (used this) and hypo. all of which must be done in a qt tank as they will kill your liverock.
This best thing you can do is get a photo of him and post it up. sean is an expert in marine maladies and has helped me out a lot before.
You cant really do without a qt tank if you are keeping your fish in a liverock system. Ive no experience with seahorses but google seahorse whitespot and the first result is this: www.seahorse.com/index.php?Itemid=218&ca...aboard&view=threaded
anyway sorry if this post scares the shit out of you. get a photo up asap.

reefpaddy wrote:

what does a quarintine tank consist of

simple 50 litre (depending on the size of fish) with a sponge filter, heater and a cave. thats it.

heres some very basic info on keeping cb , taken from liveaquaria.com

sorry it took so long

sorry it took so long

should work now sorry

any chance of a bigger pic?

hope you can see more. hes bashing himself of the rocks now:(

sorry dude, impossible to see from that pic. "bashing" himself off the rocks sounds like flicking or scratching. again, you need to qt him. or at the very least find a medication that can be used with live rock (if u have live rock) asap....this is risky though as it works for some and not for others. is he still eating? google image search marine ich to see if this is what u have.
I did a little reading and they seem to be a difficult fish to keep at the best of times. you might find this of interest:
www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1492696
ACT NOW!!
(sorry for shouting )

i have this stuff called esha oodinex it says it safe to use in marine aquariums i got it at least a year ago when the tank had a few fish in trouble from water quality which resulted in a whipe out:( it didnt seem to help then, but im going to give it a try now, by the way man, nice 1 for the message.bit late now (only in) but ill ring you tomorrow. thanks 4 taking the time.
a crap cant find instructions anybody out there know how long i should leave the skimmer and filteration off for.

oh yeah,he's feeding very well

howya paddy
i hav the instructions here .its a 3 day course.standard dosage
day i 25 drops/100ltrs
day 2 12 drops/100ltrs
day 3 12 drops/100ltrs
note; if you are using a sparcely decorated aquarium[quarantine tank] use half recommended dose
the insructions say you may continue to filter over non adsorbing materials such as filter wool ,sand ,gravel etc..always remove chemical active filter media such as activate carbon ,uv,oxidisers,resinsand protein skimmers etc.as these can have a negative nfluence on the action of oodinex
if you use polyfilters id take them out also.the instructions dont say how long these are left out for ,id recommend 4 days
hope this helps
john

I do not see white spot but that large lump does look very much like Lymphocyst, this is caused by stress and
keeping angles and butterfilies in too low temp (23-24C) the red sea species can take much lower temp, however the copper banded comes from a constant 26C region, I would remove/swop the cyste using Q tipps and introduse him to an aquarium with peasefull fish.


www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/...er_Lymphocystis.html

[img]

Pict of copperbanded with notes/arrows to lypo

thanks for all the help lads but he bit the bullet friday night. i did remove him from the big tank and put him in the reef tank, although he probably stressed more in that thank. he was due to go back to sh aquariums they were going to look after him(sat morn).yeah dont think he had whitespot,just those little damsel gits. they get on great with the seahorses though. weird