Curious about how copper works

[HingleMcCringleberry]

Hi all,

 

Been dealing with ich and velvet but not really asking about treatment this time. There’s one part of the treatment that confuses me. 

 

So the lice cycle of ich and velvet says they’re not attached to the fish itself for all that long. Just a few days at most. And copper kills any ich or velvet in the swimming stage. So a fish in copper can’t get any new ich or velvet attached to it once it’s in. No?  So why should you wait so long to keep the fish in copper? After the first few days all that was on the fish has dropped off and you know nothing new has attached. So why can’t you call the fish cured and move it straight to an observation tank? 

[Clown79]

8 hours ago, HingleMcCringleberry said:

Hi all,

 

Been dealing with ich and velvet but not really asking about treatment this time. There’s one part of the treatment that confuses me. 

 

So the lice cycle of ich and velvet says they’re not attached to the fish itself for all that long. Just a few days at most. And copper kills any ich or velvet in the swimming stage. So a fish in copper can’t get any new ich or velvet attached to it once it’s in. No?  So why should you wait so long to keep the fish in copper? After the first few days all that was on the fish has dropped off and you know nothing new has attached. So why can’t you call the fish cured and move it straight to an observation tank? 

Most likely because its visually hard to tell what stage it's in.

 

Ich and velvet isn't gone just because we can't visually see it on the fish.

 

There is proven effectiveness in copper treatments with copper at a certain value and for a certain duration of time. 

 

Just like fallow periods, certain length of time is tried and proven.

[Tamberav]

There are many stains of velvet who's life cycle varies a bit.

 

However nature is hardly perfect. Some parasites will complete their cycle and turn into a cyst on the fish and not drop off at all.