Fish Velvet in a Mixed Reef Aquarium

[64Redsea19]

Reef Central - I recently had an outbreak of fish velvet in my reef aquarium. My corals and inverts look good, but I lost all the fish except for one Blue Jaw Trigger. The tank is a 110 gallon mixed reef with mostly LPS. I've been in a hobby for years but I've never had an outbreak of fish velvet. For those familiar, how long would you wait until you introduced fish again??, because obviously I cannot do a copper treatment in a reef aquarium. Thanks for any input.

 

[cody6766]

You need to get the trigger out and let the tank sit fallow. I think it's a 2 month period, but I could be forgetting. I had a velvet outbreak around 2 years ago and it wiped out everything but my YWG, who went tile surfing out of the QT tank. Velvet has a lifecycle that's similar to ICH, but longer. If you have any fish in the tank, the parasites will persist. They won't affect corals or inverts.

In all of my reefing years, I've never quarantined. It bit me bad, so now I do. In fact, I just finished a round of ich treatment for some new fish after a power loss wiped out my tank back in November.

Velvet sucks.

 

[64Redsea19]

Thanks for the information, I will go fishless for a few months. I have been in a hobby for many years and I've never been struck with the velvet.

 

[Zionas]

Do you know what might have brought in the velvet?

 

[cody6766]

Don't default to a few months, do some research and find out how long you should wait. I found some good info after an hour of research, but I don't remember where. A lot of it was in this forum and one or two other big reef forums on the interwebs. I think some were also from articles linked within posts. Bottom line: spend some time doing a bit of research and you'll understand the parasite well enough to isolate and mitigate it.
I've been at it since 2007 and never even saw ich. A lot of it speaks to the quality of LFS in my area. A lot QT prior to sale. I rolled the dice and won A LOT of times. My velvet fish came from one of those respected LFSs...it just slipped through the cracks. Now I'll always QT. A heater, filter and small tank are cheap...cheaper than the fish that wiped out my tank. My recent QT saved a yellow tail damsel, two clowns, and the coral beauty angel that would have brought ich to my tank. Again, from a respected store...but the ocean isn't always clean.

Some digging on the internet will let you know how long you have to go fishless. The good news is, you can still add coral during that time.