Marine velvet but I’m going on a trip

WilliamH2529 · Jul 6, 2022

Hey guys this is a quite annoying scenario for me but i want opinions from anyone on possible ideas, so I had decided to finally add fish to my tank lucky me after all the work cycling it it was finally ready yay! Turns out one of my little inhabitants has come down with what im almost sure is marine velvet, I immediately moved any and all fish in the tank into a quarantine tank and have begun treating them with copper, this is not the issue I am asking as I would keep this quarantine tank running for the full 6 weeks but what in the midst of this period I have a 9 day trip in which i can’t really cancel going on. So what should I do with my quarantine tank? I have an automatic feeder and an auto top off system but would 9 days be a death sentence for not treating them?

ReefLife_Guy · Jul 6, 2022

#fishmedic

How long do you have before the trip (or how long can you do copper treatment before you have to go on your trip)? Not sure about the stability of copper and if it is degraded/depleted at a linear rate, but there may be some way to continually dose copper to keep therapeutic concentrations while you are gone but this might be too risky. The fish medics should be able to help, you may be able to pause in the middle of that treatment or maybe they have some ideas about keeping levels up while you are gone.

If you aren't 100% sure it is velvet, then you may want to confirm with them first (give some details about what's going on https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...sease-treatment-and-diagnosis-section.775547/ ) because if its not then you might not have to worry as much.

MnFish1 · Jul 6, 2022

ReefLife_Guy said:
#fishmedic

How long do you have before the trip (or how long can you do copper treatment before you have to go on your trip)? Not sure about the stability of copper and if it is degraded/depleted at a linear rate, but there may be some way to continually dose copper to keep therapeutic concentrations while you are gone but this might be too risky. The fish medics should be able to help, you may be able to pause in the middle of that treatment or maybe they have some ideas about keeping levels up while you are gone.

If you aren't 100% sure it is velvet, then you may want to confirm with them first (give some details about what's going on https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...sease-treatment-and-diagnosis-section.775547/ ) because if its not then you might not have to worry as much.

I have no clue how to answer this question. I"m not sure why you would suspect velvet days before a vacation - unless you ordered fish before it - which might have been a mistake. if you look at the signature below - answer the questions - and some pictures would help. You need daily monitoring of a hospital tank - with copper levels, ammonia levels - and 30 days would be standard. Sorry - but this is my opinion.

WilliamH2529 · Jul 6, 2022

ReefLife_Guy said:
#fishmedic

How long do you have before the trip (or how long can you do copper treatment before you have to go on your trip)? Not sure about the stability of copper and if it is degraded/depleted at a linear rate, but there may be some way to continually dose copper to keep therapeutic concentrations while you are gone but this might be too risky. The fish medics should be able to help, you may be able to pause in the middle of that treatment or maybe they have some ideas about keeping levels up while you are gone.

If you aren't 100% sure it is velvet, then you may want to confirm with them first (give some details about what's going on https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...sease-treatment-and-diagnosis-section.775547/ ) because if its not then you might not have to worry as much.

14 days it’s incredibly tight and I’m kicking myself for having such an issue so close to a trip.

WilliamH2529 · Jul 6, 2022

MnFish1 said:
I have no clue how to answer this question. I"m not sure why you would suspect velvet days before a vacation - unless you ordered fish before it - which might have been a mistake. if you look at the signature below - answer the questions - and some pictures would help. You need daily monitoring of a hospital tank - with copper levels, ammonia levels - and 30 days would be standard. Sorry - but this is my opinion.

Well I suspect it’s velvet as it’s already killed one fish and it had the same dusty look I’ve seen on pictures.

MnFish1 · Jul 6, 2022

WilliamH2529 said:
Well I suspect it’s velvet as it’s already killed one fish and it had the same dusty look I’ve seen on pictures.So

Sorry - I meant - you shouldn't be suspecting velvet before a vacation. The history sounds like velvet. Unfortunately you will need someone to daily figure out how to dose copper/monitor ammonia in a hospital tank. IMHO - if thats what It is.

ReefLife_Guy · Jul 6, 2022

WilliamH2529 said:
Well I suspect it’s velvet as it’s already killed one fish and it had the same dusty look I’ve seen on pictures.

It is probably best to confirm this is what it is by providing the info that is most helpful to the fish medics on here (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...sease-treatment-and-diagnosis-section.775547/).

This will also give them an idea of the current state of the fish and they can probably tell you whether 14 days of copper treatment is enough for the fish to at least lower the burden of disease (maybe not eradicate it) but enough that it can survive 9 days of unknown copper levels so that you can resume treatment when you return.

Ideally it is better to try and find a pet sitter who you could teach to measure and dose the copper while you are gone. At least with the hanna checker it is pretty easy to test and dosing would just be following a recipe and retesting.

livinlifeinBKK · Jul 6, 2022

MnFish1 said:
Sorry - I meant - you shouldn't be suspecting velvet before a vacation. The history sounds like velvet. Unfortunately you will need someone to daily figure out how to dose copper/monitor ammonia in a hospital tank. IMHO - if thats what It is.

Just an idea (definitely not ideal) but if OP can't find someone to come daily to test copper levels and ammonia levels, maybe he could try having someone dose peroxide daily to the DT with the fish while he's gone to buy him some time...I actually tried this with velvet a while back and it did buy me some time when I didn't have a QT set up ready to go (just an idea since dosing peroxide might be easier for an inexperienced person vs testing for copper and ammonia)

WilliamH2529 · Jul 6, 2022

Alright so let me give the full down of my situation I have two fish one is an ocellaris clownfish who has exhibited no signs of velvet or ich having no white specs on him and being just as active and interested in eating as always, I had a goby who was once a good eater but I noticed spots on day and they were dead the next day before I could get the chemicals to treat either ich or velvet, I also have a yellow banded possum wrasse who I have noticed tiny spots on and such as of today, I immediately moved the possum wrasse into a quarantine setup and I’m debating on if I should move the clownfish, I have several chemicals being 3% h202, cupramine copper, reef rally pro, and kick ich? So far my possum wrasse has still seemed healthy but they’re showing a few spots here and there and I wanted to catch it as quickly as I could get everything setup.

Sharkbait19 · Jul 6, 2022

How are the fish acting? Breathing fast or swimming into the flow? Post pics.
All fish should be moved to qt with copper for 30 days. Tank should be fishless for 6 weeks. Assuming copper has been properly dosed, the qt can go without much more than feeding, which can easily be provided by someone you trust.

WilliamH2529 · Jul 6, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
How are the fish acting? Breathing fast or swimming into the flow? Post pics.
All fish should be moved to qt with copper for 30 days. Tank should be fishless for 6 weeks. Assuming copper has been properly dosed, the qt can go without much more than feeding, which can easily be provided by someone you trust.

They’ve been acting healthy my clown has not shown any sign of sluggish or being controlled by the flow and I’ve not noticed fast breathing from the wrasse

Jay Hemdal · Jul 6, 2022

WilliamH2529 said:
They’ve been acting healthy my clown has not shown any sign of sluggish or being controlled by the flow and I’ve not noticed fast breathing from the wrasse

The primary symptom of velvet is rapid breathing. Secondary symptom is lack of feeding. If the fish are not breathing fast, and are still eating, it isn't velvet...could be ich.

Taking a nine day vacation with your tank on autopilot is never the best scenario, even without an active disease. So many things can go wrong that need a person's attention. If you can't get an aquarist to come in a few times, the best thing to do is to get the copper level up to full dose right away, and then test and redose the amount estimated to get back to a full dose right before you leave.

Jay

WilliamH2529 · Jul 6, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
The primary symptom of velvet is rapid breathing. Secondary symptom is lack of feeding. If the fish are not breathing fast, and are still eating, it isn't velvet...could be ich.

Taking a nine day vacation with your tank on autopilot is never the best scenario, even without an active disease. So many things can go wrong that need a person's attention. If you can't get an aquarist to come in a few times, the best thing to do is to get the copper level up to full dose right away, and then test and redose the amount estimated to get back to a full dose right before you leave.

Jay

I should ask when you say full dose what exactly does that mean? I’m still learning all this with it.

Sharkbait19 · Jul 6, 2022

With cupramine, that is 0.5 ppm

WilliamH2529 · Jul 6, 2022

Sharkbait19 said:
With cupramine, that is 0.5 ppm

Thank you, I should ask how much water volume do I want for a permanent quarantine tank? Ive been using a 50 l plastic tub but would I want a larger one?

ReefLife_Guy · Jul 6, 2022

WilliamH2529 said:
I should ask when you say full dose what exactly does that mean? I’m still learning all this with it.

There is a very detailed quarantine protocol here by @Jay Hemdal : https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/

Lost in the Sauce · Jul 6, 2022

WilliamH2529 said:
Thank you, I should ask how much water volume do I want for a permanent quarantine tank? Ive been using a 50 l plastic tub but would I want a larger one?

That is completely subjective to the size of fish and length of time you are planning on keeping in it.

I keep a 40 breeder and standard 20 going non-stop with or without fish in it as QT'S.

How many days do you have before going on vacation of medicating the fish? What Kind of filtration will you be using? Is This a newly thrown together QT, Or are we using a cycled filter here?

WilliamH2529 · Jul 6, 2022

It’s completely thrown together best I can do is take an old sponge or filter media from my cycled tank and place it in there, the fish is a juvenile ocellaris and sub adult possum wrasse, I have 14 days until I go on the trip, and I’ll be using sponge filtration for the qt setup.