Velvet Help

ryanat25 · Sep 23, 2023

So my 55g got infected with Velvet when I stupidly bought a Tang from another aquarist. First week the new Tang was introduced it showed symptoms, the next 2 days my entire tank (except one) was wiped out before copper treatment arrived from Amazon. That was 2 months ago. I contemplated and decided not to treat the surviving fish (Flamehawk named Bandit) because I was afraid it might make it worse. Now Bandit’s symptoms are gone and he seems to have fully recovered. Should I still treat him with copper? Is he now a carrier and should be on his own for the rest of his life?

I’m planning to start over on a new 120g and I would like to seed the new setup with corals/rocks and little critters that boomed (absence of fish) from my old 55g but I’m hesitant that the water might still contain velvet because of Bandit. I’m super paranoid now and am willing to wait another 2 months and have a coral only 120g while seeding it with critters… but would rather not. Another thing is I don’t want to have a 55g-1-fish tank unless there’s no choice.

Please help.

MnFish1 · Sep 23, 2023

ryanat25 said:
So my 55g got infected with Velvet when I stupidly bought a Tang from another aquarist. First week the new Tang was introduced it showed symptoms, the next 2 days my entire tank (except one) was wiped out before copper treatment arrived from Amazon. That was 2 months ago. I contemplated and decided not to treat the surviving fish (Flamehawk named Bandit) because I was afraid it might make it worse. Now Bandit’s symptoms are gone and he seems to have fully recovered. Should I still treat him with copper? Is he now a carrier and should be on his own for the rest of his life?

I’m planning to start over on a new 120g and I would like to seed the new setup with corals/rocks and little critters that boomed (absence of fish) from my old 55g but I’m hesitant that the water might still contain velvet because of Bandit. I’m super paranoid now and am willing to wait another 2 months and have a coral only 120g while seeding it with critters… but would rather not. Another thing is I don’t want to have a 55g-1-fish tank unless there’s no choice.

Please help.

he 'Could' be a carrier. I would treat him with the usual QT protocol, and leave your tank fallow in the meantime (i.e. 45-76 days - depending on the protocol you want to use). Also the fallow period for velvet can be somewhat shorter - but without being sure that it was velvet - as compared to Ich I would go with the longer period, while you follow the QT process. Good luck with Bandit!

vetteguy53081 · Sep 23, 2023

Velvet is a flagellate and as MnFish stated, it does have a shorter lifespan but without treatment has potential to return however, you can use Ruby Rally Pro in the tank which addresses velvet and is safe for coral and inverts or do the complete protocol in the 30 day treatment cycle with use of copper.
Assume the fish have something and treat rather than risk the next fish contracting something you dont want