Is this velvet?

[danch]

I posted a couple of days ago about a group of PJ cardinals that I have in quarentine. I've lost 2 of them to what I thought looked like velvet, and I've been using Cupramine to try to keep the others from getting it. I've also been having trouble getting them to eat frozen, so there's been a lot of uneated food which I've been syphoning out in 5 gallon water changes (with all the disruption, I've been getting a bit of nitrite, as well). After each water change I've been putting more Cupramine in, trying to keep it at .5ppm according to an API test kit.

Yesterday the nitrite was undetectable, so I skipped the water change (wanting to give them a rest from being chased around by a hose). Cu was about .5 ppm still, so I didn't update the dose.

Tonight when I got home, the largest of them was showing the same blurry stuff that the now deceased ones were.

Nitrite is at .25, and Cu was down closer to .25ppm than .5. I'll do a water change and get the coper back up, but can anyone confirm that this is velvet? What else might it be?

Note the blurring/bleaching on the black band. In profile, this also seems a little swollen.

thanks all

 

[danch]

Better picture

And here's his healthy side for comparison.

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

Your pictures are not clear enough to see anything as fine as amylo/velvet.

QT water quality is all about ammonia .. not nitrite or nitrate. Ammonia is what kills a fish and if you don't have ammonia you don't get nitrite or nitrate. Do whatever water changes are required to keep ammonia at zero .. siphoning out any uneaten food or fish debris on a regular basis helps (suggest you do it about 1/2 hr after every feeding).

Make sure your test kit can accurately measure cupramine .. many don't. I know Red Sea, Seachem, and Salifert do. When in doubt contact Seachem.

Hope this helps.

 

[danch]

Cupramine causes ammonia tests to false positive.

 

[danch]

From the further googling I've been doing this could be velvet, brook or a bacterial infection. Do I through the blasted pharmacy in there? Example pictures I've been able to find aren't any better than what I've posted. The books I have have line drawings, not photos. From textual descriptions all I get is that it's probably not ich.

 

[danch]

Probably not velvet: "therefore rapid breathing is a key initial symptom. Always display rapid breathing (more than 80 openings per minute). "(from http://www.wetwebmedia.com/amylloodiniumart.htm - article by Bob Fenner)