Fritz Aquatics Mardel Copper Safe Treats | Size: 118ml (4oz) | Aquarium Fish Medicine | Indian Fish Monsters (IFM)

I have used this product for decades. I used to buy it in bulk. 80% of fish diseases are parasites of some kind. This pretty much kills them all. A little bit goes a long way. Unfortunately, copper's effectiveness at killing invertebrates is not limited to your home aquarium. Wastewater treatment plants do not take out much copper, and everything you put down the drain (water changes) is released by the wastewater plant into rivers, streams, lakes, or the ocean. Copper sulfate disrupts the food chains of aquatic habitats by nuking all of the insects, mollusks, crustaceans, animal-plankton, worms, etc. It starves wild fish, amphibians, small reptiles, and shorebirds. Therefore, it is a last-resort medication. For fungus, use maroxy instead. For Ich, find a malachite green medication, or use "quick cure."* I actually keep this product around for my houseplants: copper sulfate is a known fungicide, and it's slightly antibiotic. I use it for root rot when natural remedies (Ginger, cinnamon, coffee grounds, granulated sulfur) fail. It is a last resort treatment for this too, and I never put it down the drain. *Quick Cure® is lethal to pet shrimp. Move sick fish to a hospital tank before treating for any parasites if you have shrimp in the tank.

I very rarely review products but this is an exceptional product. I had a group of swordtails and other fish that all came down with what appeared to be symptoms or ick or velvet (flashing, darting, shimmies, clamped fins, listlessness, etc.) but with no spots or dusting typical of those infections or heavy breathing indicative gill flukes, for example. My go-to treatment for ick and velvet is salt, which is usually effective; and these fish being very salt tolerant, I dosed a tablespoon per gallon, which I thought would have knocked out damn near anything. Well, despite a very temporary improvement, the symptoms persisted and the fish continued to suffer. Rather than trying a myriad of other treatments specific to only certain parasites, I decided on coppersafe - something that can knock down many different parasites. I pulled my snails out of the tank and dosed and the fish recovered within a few hours, fins up and moving and behaving normally. I don't think I'll know what these fish had but this product was highly effective at taking it out. I consider this a first line defense for anyone struggling to battle these symptoms, just make sure you remove any inverts as this stuff will kill them too!

If your betta fish has clamped fins AND looks like he has gold dust on him as if he is covered in pollen when you shine a flash light (not a phone flash light, but an actual flash light) on him, then you need CopperSafe. First, remove any carbon (carbon can also be present in replaceable filters, so cut them to get rid of the carbon balls that will absorb the mediation and make it ineffective) and perform a 50% water change with water that has been treated 24-48 hours ago (CopperSafe can become dangerous to your fish by binding with the chemicals in water treatments such as Prime and other dechlorinators and ammonia reducers, so it’s best to treat water 24-48 hours before adding it to your tank and adding CopperSafe). If you have a small tank and you aren’t good at chemistry conversions or math, ask someone for help to get the proper dosage in your tank. Too little will be ineffective and too much will be dangerous. Buy a copper testing kit that measures “chelated copper” for $7 at your pet store or online to make sure the copper is at a therapeutic level during the next 10 days. Don’t change the water for 10 days, and keep a towel draped over your tank because the velvet parasite uses light to grow. If you must change the water, you will have to do very precise math to replace the CopperSafe that you took out with the amount of water that was removed. Feed your fish a couple of pellets once per day if he’s still eating (mine had stopped). My picture on the left is of my betta fish with velvet disease on the day I added CopperSafe, and the picture on the right is on day 10 when I was able to perform a water change. And the last picture is of my betta fish now, nearly 1.5 months later! Happy and healthy!

Works great for those unknown bugs the fish come with

Used to treat a 75 gal aquarium for flukes. You have to re-treat the water when doing water changes, so the 4 oz bottle doesn't last very long if you're changing water like you should. I did notice less flukes after treating, but I don't know if this lasts long enough in the water to cover the life cycle, as it does not kill the eggs.