jschrecongost

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I just had a Royal Gramma die after caring for the fish for months with no signs of disease. The fish died within 24 hours after I noticed it acting distressed. After it died, it had what appeared to be the outline of a bite mark on its side, but the bite mark was about five times the size of the mouth of any fish I have in the tank with it. It also appeared the fins, most notably the dorsal and tail fin, had deteriorated. Yesterday, when I saw the fish acting distressed, a melanaurus wrasse appeared to be biting near the wound. It may possible that the wrasse did a series of bites that caused the wound on the side of the royal gramma. Could it be possible that the wrasse was trying to eat something on the royal gramma, i.e. pests or parasites?

Now my concern with velvet is that I have a tomini tang that appears to have very small white marks on his body and his pectoral fins. I noticed these several days ago and thought that they may just be scratches, which I still am not ruling out. My concern is that this could be velvet and that the royal gramma could have died due to velvet, despite showing no physical signs of the parasite. I have had the tang for about six months. The most recent fish I have added to the tank is a starry blenny, which I added about a month ago. The blenny is in good health and is showing no signs of any diseases or parasites, so I am very confident that it did not introduce any parasites.

My main question is if marine velvet or any other disease can spring up in a closed system, not via the introduction of a new fish? I have not been able to find an answer to this. Any feedback would be appreciated, and I apologize for not having photos, I know that would be helpful. Thank you for your time.

Thanks,
Josh
 

sunken3

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there are several pests that can be in the aquarium unnoticed until a fish is in distress which is their opportune time to wreak havoc. I had an outbreak of ich (or similar) without anything added for months..

fish will pick on / nip other sick fish.. they are inherently hungry/territorial/bullies.. anything is possible. do you have a picture of what you think is MV?
 

vetteguy53081

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Pics under white light will be helpful.
Velvet has certain characteristics often confused with ich, flukes and such.
Velvet spots on the fish that are much finer than the spots seen in Ich making it harder to catch until in cases too late to treat.
Some behaviors associated with a fish with velvet are :
- Scratching body against hard objects
- Fish is lethargic
- Loss of appetite and weight loss
- Rapid, labored breathing
- Fins clamped against the body
- rapid breathing and mucus around the gills

Fish with velvet will typically stay at the surface of the water, or remain in a position where a steady flow of water is present in the aquarium. As the disease progresses outwards from the gills, the cysts then become visible on the fins and body. Although these cysts may appear as tiny white dots the size of a grain of salt, like the first sign of Saltwater Ich or White Spot Disease, what sets Oodinium apart from other types of ich is that at this point the fish have the appearance of being coated with what looks like a whitish or tan to golden colored, velvet-like film, thus the name Velvet Disease.
Remove fish from main tank and give them a FW dip or bath and then place them into a QT with vigorous aeration provided. Treat the fish in the QT with a copper-based medication. Although many over-the-counter remedies contain the general name as ich or ick treatments, carefully read the box to be sure it is specifically designed to target "Oodinium".
 
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jschrecongost

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Thank you so much for your replies! His behavior has been completely normal, if anything he has been more feisty than ever recently. Here are three pictures if that can help with the assessment. He looks no worse than yesterday, if anything better. I am thinking they are wounds that are slowly healing, but it seems odd that they would be over more than one centralized location. Obviously, I just want to be cautious and make sure that everything is doing well in the tank, as I have to leave the tank unattended for several days in the near future. Any further answers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Josh
 

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