Cured velvet in display

[tomekzopola]

Just wanted to share. Not sure if its able to be replicated. I got velvet last june from another tank as those fish were infected. Thought it was just ick at the time. After lots of losses in both tanks. Pretty much cleaned out our smaller 75g reef. Then it showed up in 180g.

To prevent another disaster. I pulled apart reef and threw all fish in 125g qt. Lost 3 to velvet with a few days bit then after copper it began attacking less and less. After 70 days moved fish back to both.

The fish in 75g were fine and no issues. The fish in 180g started shoeing symptoms. Swimming in powerheads. Dust covered etc. Must have been in anerobic parts of sand or sump. Started dosing peroxide daily a bit heavier. Helped a little bit. Then tried parashield. This was the lifesaver. It is hard on corals if poured anywhere close. Otherwise. Within a day or 2. They did better and looked completely fine. After the 5 treatments it came back like 5-10 days later. Then when i was on 3rd round. I just kept daily dosing peroxide on doser 2x daily. Once in a while i needed to dose parashield a few treatments. It kept it at bay until i accidentally let peroxide run out the powerhead swimming again. Just assumed it would be like that forever.

Then in January multiple fish at same time showed simptoms. I increased peroxide a bit and dosed parashield full 5 treatments and nothing since. No peroxide. No treatments.

Added fish and no symptoms. Moved tanks last week. No symptoms. I dont really know what worked truly but it does did.

I think maybe luck catching and dosing finally at right point of lifecycle maybe. It was definitely velvet as they were covered in a gold dust and died quickly without parashield or peroxide. Not ich.

Fritz parashield has saved my tank. I wish i stopped by their booth at reefapalooza to tell them how grateful we are. Peroxide on its own only kept flair ups less frequent.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just wanted to share. Not sure if its able to be replicated. I got velvet last june from another tank as those fish were infected. Thought it was just ick at the time. After lots of losses in both tanks. Pretty much cleaned out our smaller 75g reef. Then it showed up in 180g.

To prevent another disaster. I pulled apart reef and threw all fish in 125g qt. Lost 3 to velvet with a few days bit then after copper it began attacking less and less. After 70 days moved fish back to both.

The fish in 75g were fine and no issues. The fish in 180g started shoeing symptoms. Swimming in powerheads. Dust covered etc. Must have been in anerobic parts of sand or sump. Started dosing peroxide daily a bit heavier. Helped a little bit. Then tried parashield. This was the lifesaver. It is hard on corals if poured anywhere close. Otherwise. Within a day or 2. They did better and looked completely fine. After the 5 treatments it came back like 5-10 days later. Then when i was on 3rd round. I just kept daily dosing peroxide on doser 2x daily. Once in a while i needed to dose parashield a few treatments. It kept it at bay until i accidentally let peroxide run out the powerhead swimming again. Just assumed it would be like that forever.

Then in January multiple fish at same time showed simptoms. I increased peroxide a bit and dosed parashield full 5 treatments and nothing since. No peroxide. No treatments.

Added fish and no symptoms. Moved tanks last week. No symptoms. I dont really know what worked truly but it does did.

I think maybe luck catching and dosing finally at right point of lifecycle maybe. It was definitely velvet as they were covered in a gold dust and died quickly without parashield or peroxide. Not ich.

Fritz parashield has saved my tank. I wish i stopped by their booth at reefapalooza to tell them how grateful we are. Peroxide on its own only kept flair ups less frequent.

I say Luck . Both peroxide and parashield are ineffective and are alternates and Not solutions and reason some fish showed symptoms once again. What is safe for reef will often be safe for parasites and most effective is coppersafe or copper power at treatment level 2.25 for a FULL 30 days (and you dont want to interrupt this 30 day period) monitored with a Hanna Brand copper test kit- No API brand. Also you want to monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone. All other fish in with it should also have been removed as they were also been exposed to the parasites and placed in quarantine tank.
The display tank should be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off. Inverts and coral can remain in the display (not treatment) tank during fallow period.

 

[tomekzopola]

Just wanted to share. Not sure if its able to be replicated. I got velvet last june from another tank as those fish were infected. Thought it was just ick at the time. After lots of losses in both tanks. Pretty much cleaned out our smaller 75g reef. Then it showed up in 180g.

To prevent another disaster. I pulled apart reef and threw all fish in 125g qt. Lost 3 to velvet with a few days bit then after copper it began attacking less and less. After 70 days moved fish back to both.

The fish in 75g were fine and no issues. The fish in 180g started shoeing symptoms. Swimming in powerheads. Dust covered etc. Must have been in anerobic parts of sand or sump. Started dosing peroxide daily a bit heavier. Helped a little bit. Then tried parashield. This was the lifesaver. It is hard on corals if poured anywhere close. Otherwise. Within a day or 2. They did better and looked completely fine. After the 5 treatments it came back like 5-10 days later. Then when i was on 3rd round. I just kept daily dosing peroxide on doser 2x daily. Once in a while i needed to dose parashield a few treatments. It kept it at bay until i accidentally let peroxide run out the powerhead swimming again. Just assumed it would be like that forever.

Then in January multiple fish at same time showed simptoms. I increased peroxide a bit and dosed parashield full 5 treatments and nothing since. No peroxide. No treatments.

Added fish and no symptoms. Moved tanks last week. No symptoms. I dont really know what worked truly but it does did.

I think maybe luck catching and dosing finally at right point of lifecycle maybe. It was definitely velvet as they were covered in a gold dust and died quickly without parashield or peroxide. Not ich.

Fritz parashield has saved my tank. I wish i stopped by their booth at reefapalooza to tell them how grateful we are. Peroxide on its own only kept flair ups less frequent.

I say Luck . Both peroxide and parashield are ineffective and are alternates and Not solutions and reason some fish showed symptoms once again. What is safe for reef will often be safe for parasites and most effective is coppersafe or copper power at treatment level 2.25 for a FULL 30 days (and you dont want to interrupt this 30 day period) monitored with a Hanna Brand copper test kit- No API brand. Also you want to monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone. All other fish in with it should also have been removed as they were also been exposed to the parasites and placed in quarantine tank.
The display tank should be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off. Inverts and coral can remain in the display (not treatment) tank during fallow period.

Yes. I covered all that with i did my qt for 70 days. Left my corals inverts alone. All fish were out. Kept copper at 2.25. Used coppersafe. Tested with hana kits. Since more reliable than tridents. Did not reuse anything from qt if i could not sanitizr it first. But in theory parashield should not be as effective as it was. But it helped each time so much its hard for to argue against it. I will also say i feed dried nori and frozen food soaked in selcon and garlic daily to keep fish immunity up regardless.

 

[Mebbid]

Yes. I covered all that with i did my qt for 70 days. Left my corals inverts alone. All fish were out. Kept copper at 2.25. Used coppersafe. Tested with hana kits. Since more reliable than tridents. Did not reuse anything from qt if i could not sanitizr it first. But in theory parashield should not be as effective as it was. But it helped each time so much its hard for to argue against it. I will also say i feed dried nori and frozen food soaked in selcon and garlic daily to keep fish immunity up regardless.

There was a mistake somewhere in your process though. If you did a 70 day quarantine and completed a treatment through that time, there wouldn't have been any velvet in the tank but you had it pop up again.

Fish can presumably develop a temporary immunity to velvet, I'd keep an eye out for when it shows up again.

 

[tomekzopola]

Yes. I covered all that with i did my qt for 70 days. Left my corals inverts alone. All fish were out. Kept copper at 2.25. Used coppersafe. Tested with hana kits. Since more reliable than tridents. Did not reuse anything from qt if i could not sanitizr it first. But in theory parashield should not be as effective as it was. But it helped each time so much its hard for to argue against it. I will also say i feed dried nori and frozen food soaked in selcon and garlic daily to keep fish immunity up regardless.

There was a mistake somewhere in your process though. If you did a 70 day quarantine and completed a treatment through that time, there wouldn't have been any velvet in the tank but you had it pop up again.

Fish can presumably develop a temporary immunity to velvet, I'd keep an eye out for when it shows up again.

My mistake was maybe leaving an area in sump or tank where trophants were able to go into hibernation so to speak if no oxygen. In sand maybe. Dunno. And added like 9 new fish. No velvet now 3 full months.

 

[W31Olds]

Parashield has been around since 2019 and doesn't seem all that popular. If it really was a Reef Safe solution for Ich and Velvet, it would be quite a breakthrough. I don't think Trophonts go into hibernation and a typical sump would have no dead spots.
@Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Parashield has been around since 2019 and doesn't seem all that popular. If it really was a Reef Safe solution for Ich and Velvet, it would be quite a breakthrough. I don't think Trophonts go into hibernation and a typical sump would have no dead spots.
@Jay Hemdal

First thing - true velvet is very rare. It is best diagnosed with a microscope. Most of the home diagnoses I see are mistaken, usually for long term ich.....

But, if this WAS velvet, hydrogen peroxide has shown to kill the trophonts and the theronts at very high doses (75 ppm as a dip for 30 minutes). In the study, they then moved the fish to sterile tanks and the velvet was cured. Low dose, in tank treatments fail because they only kill the theronts, and the tomonts and trophonts are still in the tank.

I can't comment on Parashield, I haven't (and won't) use it. It is one of those oil based botanicals of very questionable efficacy. Could that and peroxide have synergist effect? I really doubt it because by its nature, peroxide is going to try and oxidize organic molecules, just like the ones in Parashield.

 

[tomekzopola]

First thing - true velvet is very rare. It is best diagnosed with a microscope. Most of the home diagnoses I see are mistaken, usually for long term ich.....

But, if this WAS velvet, hydrogen peroxide has shown to kill the trophonts and the theronts at very high doses (75 ppm as a dip for 30 minutes). In the study, they then moved the fish to sterile tanks and the velvet was cured. Low dose, in tank treatments fail because they only kill the theronts, and the tomonts and trophonts are still in the tank.

I can't comment on Parashield, I haven't (and won't) use it. It is one of those oil based botanicals of very questionable efficacy. Could that and peroxide have synergist effect? I really doubt it because by its nature, peroxide is going to try and oxidize organic molecules, just like the ones in Parashield.

 

[tomekzopola]

sorry for gap in reply. So. Still no symptoms of velvet. Added powder blue and still good now 3 weeks later. Not sure how but some combination of peroxide and parashield worked. At least maybe by shear luck.

On subject of fallow and dead spots. I was thinking foam blocks. Or like in sand in display. Read a few studies that no oxygen areas can put velvet into hibernation.

Now everyone is in new 300gallon adjusted and healthy. Albite abused by powder blue. Wish i could catch him and give him away. But he only eats nori so difficult to trap. Trying with nori on clip in trap 4 days now. He does not eat frozen or pellets. Only nori for some reason.

I will say i had to be careful to dose parashield even accounting for split dose per instruction. So not to stress acros and birdsmests especially