Marine velvet - near wipeout

[karimwassef]

I've lost most of my fish now:
10" Naso Tang
6" Powder Blue Tang
4" Regal Tang
6 green chromis
4 anthias

I have a mater pair of false clownfish. They've been together for 4 years and I would be very sad to see them go. They're not in an anemone even though I have a small rose bubbletip for them.

I can't catch them because they're in a constructed reef. The reef has coral, shrimp, crabs, starfish, urchins, snails, and cucumbers.

So copper is out of the question. So is ripping up the tank.

I have a 40W UV sterilizer running on this 600g. Half the return passes through it.

I'm feeding with Selcon and Metroplex.

I'm dosing 3% hydrogen peroxide (I have dinos) at 50ml a day.

They were both looking good until my Powder Blue died and then they stopped eating. It's been a week, so they've outlasted every fish that's shown symptoms. I think their bond is helping them survive longer.

Is there anything else I can do?

 

[snorvich]

Wait until night time, then they are easy to catch. Must be treated for guaranteed survival. While about 5% of fish can develop immunity to velvet, unfortunately that immunity wears off after about six months and in the interrim, they are carriers of the parasite.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Try putting fish food in a specimen container. If they are like most other clowns, they should swim right into it for food.

 

[karimwassef]

I tried that last night but they've still got enough energy to hide. I'll keep trying

 

[karimwassef]

Their appetite is poor. The female stopped eating completely.

 

[snorvich]

Their appetite is poor. The female stopped eating completely.

Consistent with velvet. Unfortunately, UV has little effect on fish parasites. What quarantine protocol are you using?

 

[karimwassef]

The tank is new (4 months old when I added fish. It's 6 months old now). I have an aux tank that's connected by a 2" pipe to my main sump. I put the new fish in the aux sump for 48hrs.

I usually run my tank on the salty side (1.030).

All the fish were clean as far as I could tell. They were all in the tank together for about a month with no issues.

Then I had to go lights out with high pH 8.5 for my dino problem. Then they started dying one by one. This was strange because they didn't all get sick tigether. It's as if they were literally taking turns.

My Naso showed no symptoms at all, was eating great. In 24 hrs, he stopped eating. 24hrs later, he was dead.

A day later, my hippo stopped eating. One more day and he was dead.

A day later, the powder blue...

Literally, every 3 days a dead fish but each alone, not together. Like they're passing it on in a relay race.

 

[karimwassef]

Here's a couple of weeks before

http://youtu.be/UDS1lxLRWyA

 

[snorvich]

You might check out my blog for a robust quarantine protocol. Sounds like you purchased fish from an LFS that runs a low level of copper.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Then I had to go lights out with high pH 8.5 for my dino problem. Then they started dying one by one. This was strange because they didn't all get sick tigether. It's as if they were literally taking turns.

My Naso showed no symptoms at all, was eating great. In 24 hrs, he stopped eating. 24hrs later, he was dead.

A day later, my hippo stopped eating. One more day and he was dead.

A day later, the powder blue...

Literally, every 3 days a dead fish but each alone, not together. Like they're passing it on in a relay race.

I went through this once. Losing fish one by one. Only fish that didn't perish was a leopard wrasse, which was donated to a fish store for treatment. It's a really bad situation to be in, sorry.
Your salinity is a little high. Fish need to hydrate, and high salinity can be detrimental especially to sick fish. So I would lower it as fast as possible. Best thing to do is let the tank go fallow, no fish 4 weeks minimum, 8 weeks ideal.

 

[karimwassef]

I caught the female - she's more sluggish than the male. She's in my aux sump now. The male is more energetic and less sick.

Worried about separating them.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

I caught the female - she's more sluggish than the male. She's in my aux sump now. The male is more energetic and less sick.

Worried about separating them.

Do you have a QT? I would start copper treatment immediately, with Specific Gravity between 1.017-1.020. Lower salinity won't do anything for velvet but will make it easier for your fish to hydrate.

 

[karimwassef]

You might check out my blog for a robust quarantine protocol. Sounds like you purchased fish from an LFS that runs a low level of copper.

All of my recent fish were from LiveAquaria and I honestly think they looked very healthy when they came in.

 

[karimwassef]

I went through this once. Losing fish one by one. Only fish that didn't perish was a leopard wrasse, which was donated to a fish store for treatment. It's a really bad situation to be in, sorry.
Your salinity is a little high. Fish need to hydrate, and high salinity can be detrimental especially to sick fish. So I would lower it as fast as possible. Best thing to do is let the tank go fallow, no fish 4 weeks minimum, 8 weeks ideal.

I have one fish I really don't want to lose: my purple tang. Not that other fish are not precious, but if they all go, I'll go fish less for months if needed. This was setup to be a coral and invert tank.

 

[karimwassef]

I don't have a completely separate QT setup for copper but I can put something together on a 10g scale. I have a canister filter and plastic containers.

 

[snorvich]

All of my recent fish were from LiveAquaria and I honestly think they looked very healthy when they came in.

Looks are not relevant. Live Aquaria does run copper.

 

[karimwassef]

Ok. I wish they'd ask us to flag reef-only so they only ship fish that's been running copper free for a few weeks at least.

I didn't know that. I get my corals from them, so I assumed...

Anyway. Here's my makeshift quarantine with material I'm not planning on using for anything else.

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/Mobile%20Uploads/ACC55F1E-39FF-4F74-8B68-38C5279355AD_zpsk3ujxfal.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/Mobile%20Uploads/ACC55F1E-39FF-4F74-8B68-38C5279355AD_zpsk3ujxfal.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo ACC55F1E-39FF-4F74-8B68-38C5279355AD_zpsk3ujxfal.jpg"/></a>

I have no copper so I'm off to get some from PetSmart (not my LFS, but 30min closer).

 

[karimwassef]

Wow. None of the big store pet stores carry copper. I went to my LFS and got some. Also got some garlic and frozen food - hoping for a recovery...

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Good luck!

 

[karimwassef]

Thanks. I'm running low salinity 1.017 on my QT now.

What's the lowest my reef can tolerate? I've been running my slimmer run wet and topping off with RODI only to slowly lower it over the last week.