Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum)

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Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum)
Amyloodinium-ocellatum-throphont-s-in-gills-of-infected-fish-150x150.png


What You Need To Know:

* Fast killing parasite capable of wiping out most of your fish in just a matter of days. Sometimes there are survivors, sometimes not.

* Can be treated in a quarantine tank using Chloroquine phosphate or Copper. A 5 minute freshwater dip, and 90 minute acriflavine bath (or 45 minute formalin bath) can provide temporary relief before the fish enters quarantine. Once velvet is detected, treatment should begin ASAP!

*
The fallow (fishless) period for starving velvet out of a Display Tank is 6 weeks.

* Symptoms of velvet include swimming into the flow of a powerhead or wavemaker, and tiny white dots on the fins & body. The white dots can look similar to ich, but are smaller and usually far more numerous. If you can count the white dots its usually ich. However, if they are too numerous to count there’s a good chance you are dealing with velvet.

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Sometimes with light colored fish the white dots are mostly visible on the fins:

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This shows the difference between ich (1st photo) and velvet (2nd photo) on a Hippo Tang:

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Video of a Moorish Idol with velvet (notice the sheen as he turns):




Understanding Marine Velvet Disease


Amyloodinium ocellatum, commonly referred to as “velvet,” is a single-celled dinoflagellate capable of causing disease in marine fish. Velvet’s life cycle is similar to that of Cryptocaryon irritans (ich). However, there are a few key differences:
  1. Velvet “free swimmers” are referred to as dinospores instead of theronts.
  2. Velvet’s life cycle is typically faster (completed in 4 days on average), and the attacking free swimmers are more numerous than ich.
  3. Velvet dinospores can remain infective for up to 15 days, whereas with ich theronts it’s only 48 hours. This is because velvet tomonts and dinospores are both capable of using photosynthesis as a means of obtaining nutrients (remember it is a dinoflagellate).
MV2.jpg

Symptoms – Velvet dinospores will usually invade the gills first and sometimes kill the fish right then due to asphyxiation. If this happens, you may never see physical evidence of velvet on the skin & fins. Therefore, it is important to observe for these key behavioral symptoms of velvet:
  • Reduced or complete loss of appetite.
  • Heavy breathing, scratching, flashing, head twitching, erratic swimming behavior (unfortunately velvet shares all these same symptoms with ich & gill flukes.)
  • Swimming into the flow of a water pump/wavemaker/powerhead (unique to velvet).
  • Acting reclusive (velvet causes fish to be sensitive to light).
If visible physical symptoms do manifest:
  • Velvet may initially start out looking just like ich, with salt or sugar-like “sprinkles” visible mostly on the fins.
  • Within days or sometimes just hours, these tiny white dots will spread all over the fish’s body, covering it in “dust.” This dust may look grey-gold colored if viewed at the right angle and under the right spectrum of light. For this reason, it may be difficult to see velvet on a yellow or light colored fish (look from an angle, not directly from the side). However, sometimes a fish’s body will look “dirty” or show “dark areas” just before velvet appears.
There are two ways to differentiate velvet from ich:
  1. Velvet trophonts (and the correlating dots) are much smaller than ich. They range in size from 10-80 micrometers in diameter. They are also perfectly round. Ich trophonts are more oval shaped and range in size from 48 x 27 to 452 x 360 micrometers. Both start off small but then grow in size before dropping off. It has been said that velvet makes a fish look like it has been dusted with a fine powder, whereas ich is more like salt grains.
  2. If you can count the number of white dots on your fish, then you are probably dealing with ich. If they are too numerous to count, it is most likely velvet.
The importance of recognizing key behavioral symptoms of velvet and then beginning treatment immediately cannot be stressed enough. This is because once velvet has spread to the body, the fish is heavily infected and prognosis is bleak. Velvet cannot usually be managed, as ich sometimes is, due to its sheer overwhelming numbers. Sometimes it is possible in a very large aquarium (i.e. dilution of the free swimmers) if you also utilize equipment (e.g. UV sterilizer, diatom filter) capable of removing free swimmers from the water column. Survivors of velvet are usually clownfish, and other fish with a thick mucous coat like wrasses & dragonets. It is also thought a very small percentage of fish are capable of building up either natural or temporary immunity (usually 6 months max) to velvet.

Treatment Options – Chloroquine phosphate is the treatment of choice for velvet, but copper also works if symptoms are caught early on. These also work on ich, so if in doubt treating with Chloroquine or copper will have you covered both ways. A freshwater dip and/or chemical bath (discussed in more detail below) is recommended either before or during treatment, due to the severity of this disease; however these would only provide temporary relief and will not eradicate velvet.

I personally use the following treatment protocol on fish with velvet:
  1. 5 minute freshwater dip: https://humble.fish/freshwater-dip/
  2. 90 minute bath using Ruby Reef Rally. Temperature control and heavily aerate the bath water.
  3. Treat for 30 days in a quarantine tank using either Chloroquine phosphate (60 mg/gal) or chelated copper (e.g. Copper Power – 1.75 ppm).
Final Thoughts
  • You need to move with a sense of urgency when a fish has velvet. This is not the same as dealing with ich. A fish with velvet may have days or just hours to live without prompt treatment.
  • A small percentage of fish are thought to be capable of building up a natural or temporary immunity to velvet (and perhaps other parasites as well). Natural immunity is less understood, but temporary immunity usually only lasts 6 months max. During that time the fish is still a carrier and capable of infecting other fish. Over the years I have noticed this trend: Clownfish, mandarins and other fish with thick slime coats are often the only fish left standing following a velvet wipeout.
  • Disease masking: There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that fish treated with a non-therapeutic level of copper will not show symptoms of ich, velvet, brook, etc. for weeks. This is why it can be dangerous to buy from LFS who treat their fish with copper but do not test daily to ensure it remains within the therapeutic range.
  • The life cycle of velvet varies according to strain. The trophonts, which feed and do all the damage, can remain on a fish for as little as 12 hours or as long as 4 days. Common sense dictates you are more likely to save a fish with velvet if it’s a “12 hour variant” than one which feeds on the fish for 4 consecutive days, since the medication will not kill the trophonts still on the fish.
  • Even after completing the freshwater dip and chemical bath, you will still see tiny dots all over the fish. This is because the dots you see are not the actual parasites. Velvet, like ich, is invisible to the naked eye in all forms. The dots or “dust” you are seeing is actually excess mucous buildup around where the trophonts are feeding. It will take a few days for this to diminish.
  • If you can’t get acriflavine or formalin right away, daily freshwater dips may buy you more time.
  • As mentioned previously, velvet dinospores (free swimmers) can remain infective for up to 15 days. By contrast, ich theronts only remain active for 48 hours, with infectivity greatly reduced just 6 – 8 hours after it leaves the cyst. What this means is that velvet has a lot more time to seek out and attach to a fish host, which partially explains why a fish with velvet is often covered in it.
  • Velvet doesn’t take much of a break. Velvet tomonts release free swimmers every 4 days (on average). As mentioned above, those free swimmers can hang around for up to 15 days looking for fish to infect. Ich tomonts only release theronts (free swimmers) every 2-4 weeks (on average), with at least one strain taking up to 72 days. Since the trophont (feeding stage) remains on the fish for 3-7 days before dropping off, a fish with ich gets some relief in-between bombardments.
  • Velvet likes light. As a dinoflagellate, velvet tomonts and dinospores are both capable of using photosynthesis as a means of obtaining energy. So when a dinospore ruptures from its cyst, it propels upward (towards the light) by using whip-like appendages for locomotion. Therefore, top swimming fish are probably more at risk than bottom dwellers. I highly suggest not using an aquarium light during treatment and also when running fallow for velvet (if possible in a fish only system).
  • The study on aerosol transmission – which established the 10 foot rule – was done using velvet as the subject of the study. More info on that here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044848606001785
More info regarding Marine Velvet Disease can be found here: http://agrilife.org/fisheries/files...mportant-Parasite-of-Cultured-Marine-Fish.pdf

life-cycle-amyloodinium-ocellatum.jpg
 
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Emergency Treatment for Marine Velvet Disease

I recently acquired 3 fish - Longnose Butterfly, Kole Tang, Naso Tang - with velvet. None showed visible physical symptoms right away, but they all came from a tank where velvet was known to be present so I just patiently waited. Before & after pictures will follow immediately after this write-up.

In short, the Butterflyfish didn’t make it; however the two tangs did. The only difference in their treatment was I used formalin (with Methylene Blue) on the butterfly in a bath solution, whereas the tangs got acriflavine (with NO Methylene Blue). It’s also worth noting that the butterfly & Kole Tang showed symptoms the worst, whereas the Naso only had moderate visible symptoms. Tangs are also generally considered hardier than butterflyfish, so there’s that factor to consider as well. Anyway, here is the treatment I used on them:

The short version:
  • 5 minute freshwater dip
  • Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:
  1. Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
  2. Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)
  • After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
  • While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
  • Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.
The long-winded version:

I’d like to explain in more detail about what the above mentioned treatments accomplish:

Freshwater dip - This is very useful for removing most of the “surface parasites”. Noga (2000) and Noga & Levy (1995) both reported that a single freshwater dip would remove 80-90% of the parasites. I thought that would be enough to move on to copper or CP in a QT. However, the fish I treated with just a freshwater dip and then in-tank QT treatment continually died. Therefore I came to the conclusion a chemical bath was also needed before being moved into QT treatment (see below). Here is how you perform a freshwater dip:

Fill a bucket with RODI water, and use a heater to match the temperature to the water the fish is coming from. Aerate the water heavily for at least 30 minutes prior to doing the dip, then discontinue aeration while performing the dip. Fish aren’t overly pH sensitive for short durations like this, but you can squirt a little tank water into the dip just before the fish goes in to help bring it up.

Place the fish in the freshwater (FW) dip and observe closely. It is not unusual for them to freak out a little at first. Also, tangs are notorious for “playing dead” during a FW dip. The important thing is to watch their gills; they should be breathing heavily at all times during the dip. If breathing slows, it’s time to exit the dip. Dip the fish for no longer than 5 minutes.

Some fish can have an adverse reaction to a FW dip by appearing unable to maintain their equilibrium once returned to the aquarium. If this happens, hold the fish upright (using latex, nitrile or rubber gloves), and gently glide him through the water (to get saltwater flowing through the gills again). It is also a good idea to place the fish in an acclimation box until he appears “normal.”

Acriflavine - This is a new drug (to me anyway), but it seems to have a lot of potential as a replacement for formalin. It has a broad range of effect, being effective against both protozoans and bacterial infections. The latter gives it an advantage over using formalin, because all those tiny bite marks inflicted by velvet have the potential to get infected. You can also leave a fish in acriflavine longer than formalin, because it is not as harsh on the fish. Dosage varies by the product you are using, but for straight acriflavine (Acriflavine-MS) use 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water for a bath solution.

Formalin - Cheap, effective and readily available; formalin can sometimes even be sourced from a vet or local pharmacy (37% Formaldehyde is what you’re looking for). However, the downsides are numerous: First, it can be very harsh - some fish cannot even survive in it the full 60 minutes. Formalin will quickly deplete oxygen from the water, so it’s important to aerate heavily for 30 minutes before and also during the bath treatment. The bath should be done in a large glass bowl/container or small aquarium, as plastic may absorb some of the medication and then leach it back out during future use. Finally, formalin is a known carcinogen, so precautions must be taken when handling it. Prevent your skin from coming into contact with it by wearing waterproof gloves, and protect your face by wearing a face mask and eye protection.

Even though I lost the butterfly I had treated with formalin, I still wanted to include it as a chemical bath option. In the past, I have successfully treated clownfish with Brooklynella by using formalin and also know those who have been successful using it to treat velvet as well, so it is not without its merits. However, there is anecdotal evidence that some fish treated with formalin will suddenly stop eating at a later date. So, similar to cyanide poisoning. I’ve also read that many fish treated with formalin do not live past 18-24 months, possibly dying of cancer. However, when faced with velvet and if formalin is your only viable option, 18-24 months is a heck of a lot better than just letting the fish die in a matter of days or even hours. ;)

Methylene Blue - May be added to the formalin bath only. It is a healing agent, useful for treating the tiny bite marks inflicted by velvet.

Chloroquine phosphate/copper - While all of the above will remove the vast majority of velvet on a fish, some will inevitably survive. Within 4 days the remaining trophonts will drop off the fish, then encyst, and usually 48-96 hours later (although it can take up to 20+ days depending upon the strain) release dinospores (free swimmers) seeking to reinfect fish. The presence of CP or copper at therapeutic levels kills the dinospores, effectively shielding your fish from reinfection. It is important to note that CP/copper does not eradicate any other stage of velvet, just dinospores. It has zero impact on the parasites on the fish; they must “weather the storm” until the trophonts fall off. This is why it is so important to do a freshwater dip and chemical bath beforehand, to reduce the number of parasites feeding on your fish’s body & gills. :(

As mentioned in “The short version”, if you only have one QT to work with leave the fish in CP or copper for one month before performing water changes/running carbon. This will ensure the fish has been protected from reinfection before removing the medication. However, if you can transfer the fish to a non-medicated holding tank (at least 10 feet away from the QT) for observation then you may do so just 10-14 days after CP/copper treatment has begun. So long as therapeutic levels were continuously maintained for the 10-14 day period. Transfer nothing but the fish, and even as little water as possible with the fish (like doing Tank Transfer Method). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring, as that is “the shield” protecting the fish from reinfection. Once transferred, your fish should have a “clean slate” in his new environment and have left behind all the velvet problems in the QT. Observe for at least 2 weeks before declaring your fish to be velvet free!

Chloroquine is considered the treatment of choice for velvet, because you can go from zero to full therapeutic all in one dose, without negatively affecting the fish. This is not the case with copper, as some fish can be overly sensitive to it and sometimes stop eating or even die. But with velvet, that’s a risk you’re just going to have to take if copper is the only viable option. Also, with CP anything from 40-80mg/gal should get the job done where velvet is concerned. I just dosed at the high end for my experiment, because I saw no downside in doing so.

Wide spectrum antibiotic - Velvet does A LOT of damage to a fish’s skin & gills. The trophont sits on the skin’s surface and puts out small rhyzoids (root-like structures) into the skin of the host where it absorbs nutrients directly from the fish’s skin. With all those tiny wounds, the likelihood of infection is high. This is something I missed in my earlier experiments where the fish died. Therefore, I consider it prudent to preemptively treat with Kanaplex and/or Furan-2 to ward off any potential bacterial infections which might arise.

Final thoughts:
  • You need to move with a sense of urgency when a fish has velvet. This is not the same as dealing with ich. A fish with velvet may have days or just hours to live without prompt treatment.
  • A small percentage of fish are thought to be capable of building up a natural or temporary immunity to velvet (and perhaps other parasites as well). Natural immunity is less understood, but temporary immunity usually only lasts 6 months max. During that time the fish is still a carrier and capable of infecting other fish. Over the years I have noticed this trend: Clownfish, mandarins and other fish with thick slime coats are often the only fish left standing following a velvet wipeout.
  • Disease masking: There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that fish treated with a non-therapeutic level of copper will not show symptoms of ich, velvet, brook, etc. for weeks. This is why it can be dangerous to buy from LFS who treat their fish with copper but do not test daily to ensure it remains within the therapeutic range.
  • The lifecycle of velvet varies according to strain. The trophonts, which feed and do all the damage, can remain on a fish for as little as 12 hours or as long as 4 days. Common sense dictates you are more likely to save a fish with velvet if it’s a “12 hour variant” than one which feeds on the fish for 4 consecutive days, since the medication will not kill the trophonts still on the fish.
  • Even after completing the freshwater dip and chemical bath, you will still see tiny dots all over the fish. This is because the dots you see are not the actual parasites. Velvet, like ich, is invisible to the naked eye in all forms. The dots or “dust” you are seeing is actually excess mucous buildup around the tiny insertion points. It will take a few days for this to diminish.
  • If you can’t get acriflavine or formalin right away, daily freshwater dips may buy you more time. However, I’ve never saved a fish just by doing freshwater dips and then treating with copper or CP.
  • As mentioned previously, velvet dinospores (free swimmers) can remain infective for up to 15 days. By contrast, ich theronts only remain active for 48 hours, with infectivity greatly reduced just 6 - 8 hours after it leaves the cyst. What this means is that velvet has a lot more time to seek out and attach to a fish host, which partially explains why a fish with velvet is often covered in it.
  • Velvet doesn’t take much of a break. Velvet tomonts release free swimmers every 4 days (on average). As mentioned above, those free swimmers can hang around for up to 15 days looking for fish to infect. Ich tomonts only release theronts (free swimmers) every 2-4 weeks (on average), with at least one strain taking up to 72 days. Since the trophont (feeding stage) remains on the fish for 3-7 days before dropping off, a fish with ich gets some relief in-between bombardments.
  • Velvet likes light. As a dinoflagellate, velvet tomonts and dinospores are both capable of using photosynthesis as a means of obtaining energy. So when a dinospore ruptures from its cyst, it propels upward (towards the light) by using whip-like appendages for locomotion. Therefore, top swimming fish are probably more at risk than bottom dwellers. I highly suggest not using an aquarium light during treatment and also when running fallow for velvet (if possible in a fish only system).
  • The study on aerosol transmission - which established the 10 foot rule - was done using velvet as the subject of the study. More info on that here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/aerosol-transmission.190292/
 
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Here are the "before" pictures of my test subjects:



And below are pictures post treatment in my frag tank. They hid a lot when I got close to the tank, so it was difficult getting closeups. I'll see if I can get the folks I rehomed them to, to take better photos. ;)



More recent pics of the naso in his new home...

 
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Wow this was very informative! What a great success too!
So, my initial thoughts went straight to why the freshwater dips and CP/copper treatments didn't work without the formalin/acroflavine dip. Maybe the Noga & Levy studies were correct but the parasites are so numerous that the 10-20% that are left (coupled with the damage already inflicted) are still enough to overwhelm the fish. It seems that velvet is almost like a cloud of constantly releasing "spores" that feed on the fish in such numbers that it's terribly difficult to catch it in time to save the fish. If they are releasing every 4 days, and i doubt they are all releasing at the same moment, it seems insurmountable but your protocol is definitely doable by anybody. It's very easy to see why it kills so many fish and so fast.
Its weird to be wanting to try this, but maybe i will in the future. I have an 'in" with an LFS that might let me try it on a dying fish.
 

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This looks so much like what I've thought was "ich" over the years at times.

Great write up!
 

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Awesome information! Thank you so much for providing it!
 
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Wow this was very informative! What a great success too!
So, my initial thoughts went straight to why the freshwater dips and CP/copper treatments didn't work without the formalin/acroflavine dip. Maybe the Noga & Levy studies were correct but the parasites are so numerous that the 10-20% that are left (coupled with the damage already inflicted) are still enough to overwhelm the fish. It seems that velvet is almost like a cloud of constantly releasing "spores" that feed on the fish in such numbers that it's terribly difficult to catch it in time to save the fish. If they are releasing every 4 days, and i doubt they are all releasing at the same moment, it seems insurmountable but your protocol is definitely doable by anybody. It's very easy to see why it kills so many fish and so fast.

I'm still boggled by that, but velvet does do a tremendous amount of damage to the fish's skin/gills. So I guess every little bit helps. I think many times people eradicate velvet with just copper, but the fish still dies from the inevitable bacterial infection. Using acriflavine gives you a jump on this, as it contains both anti-parasitic and anti-bacterial properties. ;)

Its weird to be wanting to try this, but maybe i will in the future. I have an 'in" with an LFS that might let me try it on a dying fish.

I know, my wife thinks it's bizarre how I get all excited when I find a fish loaded with ich or velvet to experiment on. :p If you decide to do it, make sure you get at least 50% off the fish! :)
 

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I'm still boggled by that, but velvet does do a tremendous amount of damage to the fish's skin/gills. So I guess every little bit helps. I think many times people eradicate velvet with just copper, but the fish still dies from the inevitable bacterial infection. Using acriflavine gives you a jump on this, as it contains both anti-parasitic and anti-bacterial properties. ;)



I know, my wife thinks it's bizarre how I get all excited when I find a fish loaded with ich or velvet to experiment on. :p If you decide to do it, make sure you get at least 50% off the fish! :)

That makes total sense. Thinking of the shear amount of parasites attached to the fish it must leave so many holes to be infected later that it's not even a shock that they rarely survive.

I've tried to take fish off their hands to cure, but they didn't want to give me any kind of deal. I'm going to try again when i have a set up for it. I'm there every friday, they can't say no forever. ;)
 

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When the parasite falls off the fish and encysts on a rock, is it just one per cyst? When they break out are there more than one that come out of each cyst? I'm wondering how they reproduce. Say if you had just one velvet dinoflagelate make it into the display by a drop of water- or whatever method- how does it then become a huge infestation killing everything?
 
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When the parasite falls off the fish and encysts on a rock, is it just one per cyst? When they break out are there more than one that come out of each cyst? I'm wondering how they reproduce. Say if you had just one velvet dinoflagelate make it into the display by a drop of water- or whatever method- how does it then become a huge infestation killing everything?

Yes, one trophont that feeds on the fish drops off to produce one tomont that encysts. However, the kicker is when a single tomont ruptures it releases around 200 dinospores seeking to infect fish. Those are some overwhelming odds stacked against the fish. :(

One dinospore (or even several) making it's way into the water via cross contamination I think most fish could handle. It's the encysted tomonts which stick to rocks, substrate, shells, glass, etc. which really does the fish in. Even more reason to QT corals/inverts.
 

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Yes, one trophont that feeds on the fish drops off to produce one tomont that encysts. However, the kicker is when a single tomont ruptures it releases around 200 dinospores seeking to infect fish. Those are some overwhelming odds stacked against the fish. :(

One dinospore (or even several) making it's way into the water via cross contamination I think most fish could handle. It's the encysted tomonts which stick to rocks, substrate, shells, glass, etc. which really does the fish in. Even more reason to QT corals/inverts.

ahhh.. now that makes sense to me. Yes that makes for some bad odds for the fish and doesn't take long for a full blown infestation to start overwhelming fish.
 

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I'm setting up a qt when I get off work today. Some of my existing fish are showing signs of velvet, brought in from either a neon goby or 2 skunk clowns a few weeks back.

I'm curious, does copper kill the nitrifiying bacteria in the filter? Unfortunately, I'm wasn't prepared don't have a seeded filter on hand. I just want to make sure if I use Dr. tim's one and only it won't be a waste of money.
 
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I'm curious, does copper kill the nitrifiying bacteria in the filter? Unfortunately, I'm wasn't prepared don't have a seeded filter on hand. I just want to make sure if I use Dr. tim's one and only it won't be a waste of money.

If the bio-filter is already established, it will just put a dent in your bacteria levels and they will bounce back quickly. But if copper is already present, it will zap the nitrifying bacteria as soon as it hits the water. It needs to be embedded in some sort of bio-media in sufficient numbers not to get completely wiped out.

If you suspect velvet, you cannot delay. You need to start dosing copper immediately once all the fish are in QT. So what I would do in your particular situation is seed your bio-media (using Dr. Tim's) in a bucket for a few days before using in the QT. Add an airstone for circulation and obviously use non-medicated SW. ;) You may still have to do WCs to control ammonia, but the seeded bio-media will help.
 
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So what are the minimum fishless DT for Velvet? Im just curious. I know max is supposed to be 6 weeks.

20 days (maybe less if you go lights out during the entire fallow period.) But 6 weeks is not too long to wait IMHO.
 

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If the bio-filter is already established, it will just put a dent in your bacteria levels and they will bounce back quickly. But if copper is already present, it will zap the nitrifying bacteria as soon as it hits the water. It needs to be embedded in some sort of bio-media in sufficient numbers not to get completely wiped out.

If you suspect velvet, you cannot delay. You need to start dosing copper immediately once all the fish are in QT. So what I would do in your particular situation is seed your bio-media (using Dr. Tim's) in a bucket for a few days before using in the QT. Add an airstone for circulation and obviously use non-medicated SW. ;) You may still have to do WCs to control ammonia, but the seeded bio-media will help.
Thank you humble fish. I'll do exactly that.

I have a bad feeling I'll be coming home to a missing or dead blue spot jawfish, but hopefully I can save the rest. Although I'm sure catching them will be a challenge.
 
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I always keep some Ruby Reef Rally on hand now after a velvet outbreak wiped out half of my fish. That stuff is pretty amazing!!!

Yes, this is what I use when I have a fish with velvet to experiment on.
 

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