FW dip for velvet?

A

Angela Short

New member
I am in a bad situation as my 80 gallon tank is in hypo just for a insurance against ick in my 270 and the last fish I introduced before dropping it into hypo brought in velvet. The tank has been in hypo for 2 weeks and its just now got to plague proportions for me to notice. I had to go ahead and dose copper even though its not recomended in hypo due to it being more toxic but the fish are in bad shape from the disease. Can I do a FW dip on the most affected (PB tang and fairy wrass) for instant relife or just wait for it to fall off and the copper to do its thing? I have already lost a royal gramma and the others are not far behind. I don't want to stress them more but wonder if it will make most the protazoans fall off and give relife faster? I also posted my sad story in the forum so others may learn from my getting in a hurry mistake! Thanks!
 
Thanks Steven. So the added stress from a dip out weighs not doing one in this case? I have never been a big FW dipper. I may try to catch them tonight to do a dip. Seems I have nothing to loose. So far everyone is hanging in there.
 
Did the FW dipp on all fish and tons of nasty stuff fell off them. For sure the powdery look to the dip water. The wrass was pretty bad off and kinda in shock last night but swimming around fine today. I also added a airstone to hyper oxgenate the water. Hopefully since they have made it this far with 2 days of copper behind them ( I just added the second dose of seachem today) they will all pull through. I hope I am not to late.
 
I am trying to get some right now as my reef club wanted some also. My digi is not the best for fish shots but I will see what I can do....
BTW thanks for the dip advise, I probably wouldn't have done one otherwise Steven.
 
What exactly does a FW dip do?

If i were to do a FW dip on a new tang that i would like to buy would this kill all the possible parasites on him (ich specifically) before putting him in my tank?

I have a FW tank should i dip it in there or use tap water or use tap water with dropps?

Is this safe for the fish and how long do you "dip" it for?
 
A FW dip can dislodge some (not all) of the marine velvet parasites from an infested fish. FW dips must be dechlorinated and pH and temperature matched to the water the fish is in. Typical dip times last 5-15 minutes depending on the species and the individual fish's reaction.
 
Some people routinley do FW dips on all new fish but it will only dislodge the parasites almost ready to fall off anyways and many more are in different stages in the fishes flesh if it indeed does have ICK or velvet. Tap water has a pretty low PH (my RO was in the 7 range last night) so it will need to be adjusted with some baking soda or other buffer to match the tanks PH so you do not stress the fish out. TRUST me, a cheap QT and proper methods are the only way to be happy in the long run with a tank. Especially when one bad incident can cost hundreds of dollars in fish loss. Totally not like FW where if your tiger barb dies from ick its no biggy and you go to wal mart and grab another!
My bad luck is even more sad for me as I preach QT and currrenty have a 29 and 30 gallon QT going in full hypo with many other new fish in antisipation of the 270 I just moved up to a few weeks ago. I wanted to add all my tangs at once is why my QT tanks were all full with so many fish. Soooo I went ahead and added a new fish un QTed to my healthy 80's stock thinking the hypo would kill the chance of Ick but ended up with velvet, which hypo doesn't touch, as a slap in the face :(.
 
Sorry Steven, I can't get a decent pic to show at all. Are you thinking I may be off in my diagnosis? I totally thought 3 of the fish were gonners night before last as they were gasping in air right in the PHeads and the royal gramma died with the same symtoms earlier that day. I was surprised it took so long to manifest in the fish because I thought it was very fast moving disease. Maybe the hypo slowed it down or the fish had a very mild touch and it took a few cycles to get bad enouph to show symptoms in the fish. Other symptoms are very pale color on the PB tang and the very fine dust on all the fish with a skin color that shows it well. More so on the front half and finns of the tang and sprinkled all over the coral beauty and clowns and the wrass is a color I can't see it on very well. The FW dip did produce a lot of white stuff in the water. No fish would eat yesterday but seemed to be breathing much easier and I did the FW dip last night for 5-6 mins each fish. The fish all did take myasis soaked in vitamins today. Got any advice? So far the fish are all hanging in there.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8141221#post8141221 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Angela Short
Sorry Steven, I can't get a decent pic to show at all. Are you thinking I may be off in my diagnosis?
Click to expand...
No, based upon your description, velvet seems to be correct. I just desperately need an image of velvet infested fish.
 
Well gladley some of the powdery look is falling off most fish but sadley some seem worse again this morning with spuratic fast swimming, not eating again and some flashing. Mainly on the coral beauty. Obviously still in real trouble from the damage already caused and maybe what was already embedded in the tissue starting to be at the end of ots cycle.

I tried for 30-45 mins yesterday to get a good shot but its hard to see unless the fish is at a angle and the light hits it just right. They are only under NO lights and the camera wouldn't pick up the light good enouph without a flash like it does with Metal halides going. So the flash just made the powdery look disapear :(. I will try again today when the kids are napping.
 
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