Is this velvet? And what is the best way forward?

KGV · Feb 13, 2021

Fish from LFS in quarantine since a week (3 tangs, 3 wrasses and a Midas Blenny). Today, four of these are peppered with white spots. This happened very fast in the last 12 hours. Could this be velvet? The quarantine tank was on API General Cure for 2 days followed by a 50% water change yesterday. I have the following available: Formaldehyde (10% formaline = 4% formaldehyde), API General Cure, and Seachem MetroPlex. What is the best way forward?

@Jay Hemdal or @Humblefish ?

Cheers!

lapin · Feb 13, 2021

Formalin

I'm curious about the statement of fish not living past 18-24 months after being treated with formalin. Its purely anecdotal. Started over on RC with 1 or 2 respected members (I forget who exactly) claiming their fish were dying mysteriously after 18-24 months. The common denominator was they...

www.reef2reef.com

Qasimja · Feb 13, 2021

do you have copper on hand? whether its ich or velvet they both need to be treated with copper also how are the other fish do they have the same symptoms? or is it just the sailfin

KGV · Feb 20, 2021

To follow this story up. I treated the QT with 1ml/10 gallons formalin and all the fish were symptom free in 3-4 days. There were no white spots left. Because some fish started flashing and were visibly irritated on the gills, I started again on praziquantel. And behold, one day later the sailfin is covered again by white spots.

This really beats me... Could this be some mucus reaction to praziquantel? I can't believe that velvet would come back so quickly after 4 rounds of formalin over one week.

KGV · Feb 20, 2021

And here is a video:

You can also see that all fish are breathing really fast. Any idea what is going on?

Qasimja · Feb 20, 2021

ich/velvet needs to be treated with copper

h2so4hurts · Feb 20, 2021

Copper or chloroquine. The other things you have will do nothing unless you're doing formalin baths and 100% water changes every day (not recommended).

Jay Hemdal · Feb 21, 2021

That is pretty classic presentation of Cryptocaryon, ich. It needs to be treated with copper and a good test kit, ASAP.

Jay

KGV · Feb 21, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
That is pretty classic presentation of Cryptocaryon, ich. It needs to be treated with copper and a good test kit, ASAP.

Jay

@Jay Hemdal, thanks for the reply! I am surprised that it's ick since the popular saying goes that "if you can count the spots, it's ick, if not, then it's velvet". And I wouldn't start counting the number of spots the sailfin has today (photo below). I am also surprised that the infestation re-emerged very rapidly only one day after a 5-day formaldehyde treatment that totally pushed back the previous infestation.

Jay Hemdal · Feb 21, 2021

That’s ich. Trouble is, it is at the point where geometric growth will explode and when all of those tomonts drop, the fish will be overwhelmed and will likely die. Trouble is that copper takes three days or more to gain control of the infection....I’m not sure it has that much time!
Jay

KGV · Feb 21, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
That’s ich. Trouble is, it is at the point where geometric growth will explode and when all of those tomonts drop, the fish will be overwhelmed and will likely die. Trouble is that copper takes three days or more to gain control of the infection....I’m not sure it has that much time!
Jay

Thanks you so much Jay, I really appreciate your help! I can only get cupramine on Tuesday, and the nag is that I have also a wrasse in the QT... so that will be an interesting challenge. A week ago, formalin worked very fast on the sailfin, with visible health improvements in just 1-2 days. I hope I can repeat that and then possibly switch to Cu2+ treatment. Is copper that much more potent than formalin? Previously, I did an in-tank treatment of 1 ml formalin per 10 gals of water.