Velvet treatment for single fish or all the fish from my tank.

[Sprinting]

Hello all,

i had mysteriously lost a few fish I had for over a year a few months ago after adding some fish. I never really quarantine but after that, I did hang on to a couple fish in quarantine for about a month before adding them to my tank.

my newly added purple tang definitely has velvet after one night but he is eating and I went ahead and put him back in quarantine. Going to start treatment immediately. Looks like my tank my have dormant velvet?

what should I do with my other 20 fish (mostly nano fish and goby’s) in my Display? I have a 100 gallon stock tank that I was going to use for the purple tang.

Should I just have them all get the full velvet treatment and let my display go fallow?

I just get nervous about quarantining because I know it stresses my fish out but I’m weighing out that risk of medication treatment versus

encouragement needed! Lol thanks all

 

[fishguy242]

#fishmedic

 

[Sharkbait19]

Are you sure it’s velvet? Can you send pics to confirm?
Unless fish were treated in qt, it is easy for any disease to stay on them. Also, the tank needs to remain fishless for 6 weeks to really ensure velvet was starved out.
All fish need to be moved to qt and treated with copper to kill velvet.

 

[MnFish1]

Agree with @sharkbait - I would add one thing - whatever you're going to do - do it quickly (as you said in your post) (i.e. move into copper treatment). It can be a delay, etc - getting things set up - IF it is velvet - it can quickly wipe out a tank. Hopefully this will help you feel better. quarantining - is preventive - and you're right - it can be stressful - the difference here - is that this is 'treatment' - not quarantining. All of your fish should be treated IMHO (whether its velvet - or CI)

 

[Sprinting]

I’ll send a pic as soon as I can. uying copper power now.

I’ll start collecting my my fish and putting them into the stock tank for treatment once I get home. Thanks all!

im thinking 30 days copper with weekly water changes then I might follow up with other treatments during the last 46 days of the fallow period for my display.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I’ll send a pic as soon as I can. uying copper power now.

I’ll start collecting my my fish and putting them into the stock tank for treatment once I get home. Thanks all!

im thinking 30 days copper with weekly water changes then I might follow up with other treatments during the last 46 days of the fallow period for my display.

Just a side note - if you do have velvet you may need to run the copper power at 2.5 ppm instead of the normal 2.1 ppm dose.

Jay

 

[Sprinting]

 

[Sharkbait19]

Pics in water would be better for id purposes. What I see looks more like ich to me.

 

[Sprinting]

 

[Sprinting]

I hope that helps. It was a bunch of small white dots from what I could see but how would it being ich versus velvet change my procedure?

 

[Sharkbait19]

I hope that helps. It was a bunch of small white dots from what I could see but how would it being ich versus velvet change my procedure?

It could be either based on the pic as far as I can tell, so I’ll leave it to someone else to make the final call.
Both ich and velvet can be treated with copper, the trick is just that velvet is a fast killer. Fallow for ich is 45-76 days.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I hope that helps. It was a bunch of small white dots from what I could see but how would it being ich versus velvet change my procedure?

For one- taking a stressed fish out of water will further stress it. While it does appear to be ich, for either, you need to move all the remaining fish to treatment setting and dose with copper for 30 full days. Do make it a point to treat in a separate quarantine tank setting (starter kit at walmart makes a great QT system)
Coppersafe is a best bet for ich - IF ich and you want to/must treat at 80.5 degrees and monitor therapeutic copper levels of 2.25-2.5 using a Reliable copper test kit- No Api brand.
The display tank itself should be and remain fishless known as FALLOW for 45-60 days - No longer 76. This allows all the cysts and tromont stage parasites to die from no host and complete cycles and die off.
If you dont do a full 30 day treatment- that alone will invite new cysts as you are seeing. When the dots disappear does not confirm they are gone.
If velvet, 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. Coppersafe also will work as it does for ich

 

[Sprinting]

Thank you everyone for the insight and replies. I have caught my my fish except for the masked goby, but will update you all once I’ve settled.

 

[Sprinting]

Alrighty, I fresh dipped then ruby reef soaked all the fish then added them to my stock tank. I setup a 100 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank and dosed 2 ounces of copper power, and have been testing the copper level. The directions said 2.5 ppm target dose at one o
nce per 20 gallons. I figure it’s about 80 gallons up to top line inside the tank?

For my display I have the temperature set to stay above 80.6. If the fish finish the copper and other treatments before the fallow ends in my display, is it better to transfer my fish into a temporary container and sanitize the stock tank then put the fish back in to let them hang out for observation while I finish the fallow period? I’ve read as much as I could of the material by humblefish, but this was one thing I still uncertain of.

i also have a Chiller on the stock tank. Wondering if running vinegar solution after the copper treatment would sanitize it?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Technically everything you are doing in qt will kill any diseases that were present, so no real need to sanitize or move the fish out after treatment.