Help marine velvet

[Sistawolf]

I am pretty new to saltwater.. So please excuse my ignorance if I do not know proper terminology for everything.. But I know my 30g has velvet and may have ich as well. My boyfriend did like many others and didn't qt new fish and one give the tank velvet. We treated the two with velvet and they passed. The entire tank of fish went into a qt tank and was treated for two weeks even though they had no signs of ich or velvet.. After losing 4 fish I suggested maybe the 10 gallon was to small and our only option at the time was placing them back into the main. Well now two clowns and a blenny are showing good signs of velvet/ich.. They are still hosting to their anemones and eating but I have to do something.. My boyfriend is irritated and doesn't want to fool with it anymore. I do.. I read where the inverts should be moved into a seperate tank as well.. So I have two 10 gallons.. I was planning on removing all of the rocks and coral out into a bucket so I can catch the fish.. And placing them in one tank and the anemones in the other tank.. Then placing the rocks and corals back.. In between the swap I plan on doing a FD individually on the three fish showing signs. I am going to set up the 10 gallons with oxygenated same temp fresh saltwater while I run and grab copper.. Is there any other suggestions or anything I am about to do wrong that I need to know.. Please help me. I don't want to lose my fish..

 

[Humblefish]

First thing I want to offer is this article I wrote about Marine Velvet Disease: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/

It helps to know more about the foe you are facing; however if you just want to know how to treat the fish with velvet, read the second part here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/#post-2499437

Basically, you'll want to treat the clowns & blenny in a QT with copper for 30 days. More info on how to setup a QT here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/

The DT itself should be left fallow for 76 days to starve ich & velvet out of the system. All corals/inverts should be left in the fallow DT for the entire 76 days, as they are not capable of hosting parasites the same way fish do.

 

[Sistawolf]

@Humblefish thank you so much.. I am about to read the links you sent. I went to purchase pre made saltwater as I don't have time to wait 12-24 hours for a new batch to settle to add my fish to a qt and the lady suggested that I remove all of my corals and treat the tank instead of removing fish and treating the fish.. What do you think

 

[Sistawolf]

Also the only copper I can get right now is the kordon copper aid which says its active ingredient is chelated copper sulfate... Is that strong enough

 

[Humblefish]

the lady suggested that I remove all of my corals and treat the tank instead of removing fish and treating the fish.. What do you think

That is a bad idea, because copper is toxic to corals/inverts and very difficult to get out of a tank once it has been dosed. Especially a tank with rock/substrate which will absorb some of the copper. Best to treat in a QT and leave the DT fallow.

Also the only copper I can get right now is the kordon copper aid which says its active ingredient is chelated copper sulfate... Is that strong enough

Yes, that is fine. However, I recommend also picking up an API copper test kit to measure your copper level with. Therapeutic range for chelated copper is 1.5 - 2.0 ppm.

 

[melypr1985]

^^ agreed. Take the fish out and treat them in a QT. Never put copper in your DT. Sounds like you have all the info you need to get started! Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[4FordFamily]

^^ agreed. Take the fish out and treat them in a QT. Never put copper in your DT. Sounds like you have all the info you need to get started! Good luck and keep us posted!

I agree if at all possible keep it out of the DT

 

[Sistawolf]

Update! I contacted a friend of mine and he had some Cupramine so I was able to drive an hour and pick it up with his test kit.. I filled the qt up with the premade water.. So it could warm up.. Set my three buckets up of FD with three air stones.. Soaked my sponge bubbler with the biomix in a bottle.. Put in qt.. And went to my main to remove all of my rook and coral so I could chase down the fish.. One by one I grabbed out and placed in the FD for three minutes watching very closely to their breathing and actions.. First fish was my cinnamon clown.. He was doing very well until the last minute and he started jumping up and trying to get air. I almost took him out but continued to watch him as he has the worse case. He made it the 3 minutes and I placed him in the qt. second was the goby. He didn't do so well with the FD so at 2 minutes I removed him and placed in qt.. Third was the last clown.. My tomato clown.. He's a lot smaller so I thought he would do worse. He went into the FD like a champ staying the entire 3 minutes.. Placed him in the qt and swam for a minute and started acting bad. He was sitting on the bottom heavy breathing and would lean to one side and straighten back up.. I just knew he would not make it. I finished catching my other fish placing them in the tank. Put all of my coral and rock back in main and went back to my qt. I placed a long piece of pvc as this is all I had on hand in to the qt.. Dropped one drop of garlic and waited a few minutes.. Fed them and all was eating except for the tomato.. I prayed and watched him for about 10 minutes and he finally grabbed him a little bite!! Yay!! This morning I woke up.. ALL FISH ARE ALIVE AND SWIMMING AROUND!! Now what? Lol! What next! Do I do a water change and if so when? When do I add the cupramine in again? Need more help @Humblefish and for all of you who replied to my post.. I can't thank you enough.. Being a newbie at this is overwhelming when a problem arises.. Especially when you do not have access to a saltwater medicine cabinet! Thanks again

 

[Humblefish]

@Sistawolf First thing you want to do is get the copper up to therapeutic levels. So, test the Cu level and see where its at. For Cupramine, you want to get it close to 0.5 ppm. But do it slowly; take a few days to get it there and make sure the fish are still eating (appetite suppression is a common side effect of copper).

Next thing you'll need is a Seachem ammonia alert badge (pic below). Ammonia is enemy #1 in QT and you'll always want to have freshly mixed SW on hand to do a WC. Make sure to add copper to any replacement water (but NOT top-off due to evaporation) before dumping it into the QT, so a therapeutic level is maintained at all times. DO NOT use any ammonia reducers, such as Prime or Amquel, with Cupramine!

Do you have a HOB filter on the QT? You'll need a bio-filter of some kind to help break down ammonia in the QT. Otherwise, you'll be doing regular WCs for the next 76 days.

 

[Sistawolf]

Here are a couple of photos or at least I'm going to try and upload some.. I took some last night but they were not good. And tonight's are not any better.. But I did find a lfs that had a variety of seachem supplies so I purchased everything I read in @Humblefish post on treating velvet and ich.

 

[Sistawolf]

They are looking a lot better. I did my 25% water change as added half the dose from 48 hours ago of the copper. And this is my reading.. Not even sure what it is..

 

[Sistawolf]

@Humblefish i did run out and purchased a fluval HOB.. I added the biochemical by fluval so I could "seed" the sponge and started it up.. I can't tell if this guy has velvet, ich, or if this is just his coloring..

 

[Sistawolf]

I added stability when I did my water change as well.. I just fed them all mysis shrimp mixed with a drop of garlic.. I didn't think the tomato clown would make it the first night as he was sitting on the bottom and would lean back and forth.. As I think I mentioned above and has been doing well until I added the copper again.. I think he is stressing with the copper.. Maybe he will do ok in a little while like he did the first night. But I do believe I need to add more copper.. It looks t me like it's at the very most .25 but maybe I'm wrong.. I will take advice lol.. Anyway.. There is the lengthy update! Thanks for all of your help that is reading along and helping with advise:.

 

[Humblefish]

@Sistawolf Is that a Bicolor blenny? If so, they get white circular splotches when stressed. You need to keep slowly raising the Cu level until it reads 0.50 ppm. Are all the fish still eating?

 

[Sistawolf]

@Humblefish yes that's a bicolor blenny.. He looked way worse (velvet spots) when I first put him in qt now it looks gone but looks like ich.. Again it could be spots of his own. I think I have a pic of him in main but can barely tell what he looked like. I will share it though.. They are all eating very good. I have not noticed blenny eating though.. What do you think the copper is reading above?

 

[Sistawolf]

Blenny in main

 

[Sistawolf]

The tomato and cinnamon clown had it the worse out of all of them.. I tried taking pictures in different lighting and to get them to stay still long enough in the correct lighting is almost impossible.. Lol.. But these pics are all of them while in main..

 

[Sistawolf]

@Humblefish when do you suggest starting antibiotics

 

[melypr1985]

They are looking a lot better. I did my 25% water change as added half the dose from 48 hours ago of the copper. And this is my reading.. Not even sure what it is..

Are you using the Cupramine in that other picture? If so then this API kit wont measure in the smaller amounts that you need for ionic copper. The seachem copper test kit in that picture is the one you want to use.

 

[Humblefish]

Are those little black dots I see all over the yellow coris wrasse?

I'm also confused about the copper test kit you are using. In the pic of all the medications, I see a Seachem copper test kit (correct test kit for Cupramine); but the chart in the pic @melypr1985 references, it looks like an API chart.