TANK TERROR: Identifying And Treating Marine Velvet

Humblefish · Aug 3, 2016

The reef aquarium hobby is not for the faint of heart. Maintaining a complex ecosystem can be a daunting task with many variables in play that all have effect on one another. However, beyond the effort to maintain the ecosystem and address common day-to-day issues, there are catastrophic situations which can place the entire place the life in the reef tank in great peril. Many of these “Tank Terrors” can strike literally overnight leaving a trail of rapid death in their wake. In this...

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purpleoctopus · Sep 13, 2016

is this a common parasite seen in tanks?

4FordFamily · Sep 13, 2016

purpleoctopus said:
is this a common parasite seen in tanks?

Yes i would say it is almost as common as ich these days, perhaps it is as common. It's running rampant.

The most common fish I've seen coming with velvet have been angels of all kinds, and tangs. I can almost guarantee you an angel will have velvet (although because they're probably kept in low doses of copper during distribution you won't know until a few days or weeks later).

For awhile I was qt'ing fish for local clubs and stocking my tanks full of angels and I perpetually had velvet. There are newer strains where they don't show spots or other "classic symptoms" they remain in the gills.

I had a strain that would kill in 2-7 days I didn't identify for months.

Day 1: eating and fine no symptoms, perhaps heavy breathing
Day 2: more cryptic and hiding, eating less if at all, heavy breathing
Day 3: absolutely not eating and hiding from the light, sometimes swimming in to powerheads like a zombie fish when it did come out. No other symptoms, some were already dead at this stage.
Day4: dead

Again, no spots, glazing, hazing, powder, etc. many also came in with flukes.

I'm guessing the reason angels have it more is that people think they're more sensitive to copper so through distribution they're kept in less which increases the chance of infection.

But trust me it's coming in on everything, and even the best suppliers and LFS are inadvertently distributing fish with it.

I've seen it least from NYAquatics, I can't be sure if I've ever received a fish with it but by sheer numbers of purchases I'm sure I have-- but he does an exemplary job. Guys just qt and treat your fish. I've seen it from live aquaria and even divers den fish.