Almost all fish showing signs of velvet/ ich

[poojan]

My 125 is stocked with 6 fish a kole tang, a fox face, two saddle back clowns an engineer and diamond goby, the tang fox face and clowns all showing signs of velvet / ich I only have a few frags in the tank how should I go about treating these guys?

 

[poojan]

Attached is a pic of the kole tang

 

[Huff747]

Sure the more seasoned veteran reefers will be along shortly but you need to pull the fish out into a QT tank if possible and treat with copper (or CP if you can find a vet to prescribe it) and leave the display fallow for 76 days.

@Humblefish's thread on ich https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-eradication-vs-ich-management.188775/

Think the main difference between treating ich vs velvet is the speed at which you need to increase copper to therapeutic levels.

 

[poojan]

76 days seems pretty long will the fish be fine ima hospital sized tank for that long?
Will inverts be fine left in the display? Also the gobies aren’t showing any signs should I remove them as well

 

[cracker]

sorry for your issue ! Have You checked out the disease forum? If not, it's a good place to start. You have a separate frag tank? this could turn into a quick QT for You.
Will the other tank be big enough? how big is it? Probably not for the long term. But at least You have somewhere cycled for them to put them until You can get another tank cycled & ready. & start treatment. If it is velvet I understand you have to act quickly !

 

[Huff747]

76 days seems pretty long will the fish be fine ima hospital sized tank for that long?
Will inverts be fine left in the display? Also the gobies aren’t showing any signs should I remove them as well

THere are threads on how to control ammonia in a hospital tank as well. It may take a bit more work but they will be fine for 76 days. Inverts and anything non-fish can stay in the display. Gobies need to go to hospital tank as well, anything fish needs to go to the hospital tank or the ich will still have something to feed on in the display.

 

[poojan]

I don’t have a frag tank but I’ve got plenty of salt mixed already so I think I’m picking up a 20 long or 40 breeder and throwing together an emergency qt. I’ve been fighting an algae outbreak of what I believe are dinoflagellates Is there any way this could be related? Either to the outbreak or to the treatment additionally I have only a handful of corals and maybe 10 snails and 15 crabs might it be better I remove the inverts and coral and treat the fish in the dt?

 

[Neo Jeo]

The best method is to take fish out and treat but that was not my option. My fish have ich right now going on 3 weeks. Read this . Also I got this natural stuff that’s seems to be working

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tang-with-ich.423082/page-6#post-4971536

 

[Big G]

With that many fish, I'd get the 40 breeder. HOB filter with the foam pad soaked in Dr. Tim's/Bio Spira. Also use either Seachem Matrix or Fluval Bio Max, also soaked in Dr. Tim's/Bio Spira. And a foam bubble filter with the foam soaked in Dr. Tim's/Bio Spira. A small powerhead like a Hydor 240 or larger aimed at the surface of the tank will greatly increase the O2 exchange in the QT.
As far as treating the fish. Here's Humblefish Emergency Treatment Plan for Marine Velvet. Time is not on your side.

The short version:

• 5 minute freshwater dip Very important step. It removes many of the parasites from your fish's gills helping it to breathe easier and buys you time.
  
• 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. (highly recommend Ruby Reef Rally).
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, 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. (highly recommend Copper Power. The dosage info on the bottle is accurate. Small doses spread throughout the day over 24-48 hours to get to minimum therapeutic level 1.5 ppm. Many are happy with an ultimate dosage of 1.75 ppm. Works for me. A Hanna HL Copper Checker will lower your stress while dosing. 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.

 

[Crabs McJones]

With that many fish, I'd get the 40 breeder. HOB filter with the foam pad soaked in Dr. Tim's/Bio Spira. Also use either Seachem Matrix or Fluval Bio Max, also soaked in Dr. Tim's/Bio Spira. And a foam bubble filter with the foam soaked in Dr. Tim's/Bio Spira. A small powerhead like a Hydor 240 or larger aimed at the surface of the tank will greatly increase the O2 exchange in the QT.
As far as treating the fish. Here's Humblefish Emergency Treatment Plan for Marine Velvet. Time is not on your side.

The short version:

• 5 minute freshwater dip Very important step. It removes many of the parasites from your fish's gills helping it to breathe easier and buys you time.
  
• 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. (highly recommend Ruby Reef Rally).
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, 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. (highly recommend Copper Power. The dosage info on the bottle is accurate. Small doses spread throughout the day over 24-48 hours to get to minimum therapeutic level 1.5 ppm. Many are happy with an ultimate dosage of 1.75 ppm. Works for me. A Hanna HL Copper Checker will lower your stress while dosing. 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.

+1 Rock solid advice right there.

 

[Maritimer]

Re: MicrobeLift Herbtana - It may reduce numbers of the parasite, it may make Ich's life a little less pleasant and your fishes' lives a little more bearable, but it will not eliminate ich from your system. A proper QT and fallow, however, will.

There's no such thing as a reef-safe cure for ich.

~Bruce

 

[4FordFamily]

Re: MicrobeLift Herbtana - It may reduce numbers of the parasite, it may make Ich's life a little less pleasant and your fishes' lives a little more bearable, but it will not eliminate ich from your system. A proper QT and fallow, however, will.

There's no such thing as a reef-safe cure for ich.

~Bruce

I might add it won’t work for tangs with ich the overwhelming majority of the time and it will have nearly zero impact on velvet.