Marine velvet or ich?

Tkieu78

New member
Well from power outage to my energy bar dying on me. Next up. Shortly after everything noticed my yellow tang and perculas having white spots. Thought maybe due to stress and temp swings thought maybe ich. But doesn't seem to go away and seems to be lingering. Fish are active and swim freely. Other fish in the tank like marine Betta. Coris wrasse. Lunate wrasse and bi color angel show no signs. Possibly due to stronger immunity or thicker slime coat? I know I know. I should QT all fish and dip all frags but over all the years I never have and rolled the dice. Maybe now it's caught up to me? Please check out the pics. If it's truly marine velvet. I'll have to pull the fish and treat and go fallow for 6-8 weeks?

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I read marine velvet kills in days and spreads. Well the other fish are fine. And the fish that do have spots acting normal and eating. I'd rather not pull out to treat. But if it's a must then it is what it is


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If you haven't added new fish/corals, then it's more likely to be ich, manifesting with a stressed tank. Velvet is much less likely to be carried without manifestation of symptoms.

If you can count the spots (and I think you can based on the photos) it's more likely to be ich. If it looks like a dusting and countless spots, then velvet.

If it's been a few days and your fish are behaving normally it's more likely to be ich. Velvet will cause more abnormal behavior. More reclusive, potentially swimming into powerheads or slapping more aggressively against substrate/rock (though this can happen with ich too).

If you think it's velvet and want to pull and treat, ick shield is supposed to be chloroquine phosphate and you can get it quickly on amazon:

New Life Spectrum Powder Ick-Shield Bath Food, Medium https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MNQWACU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_PCP6AbVFTJ848



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Ich. You should remove the fish and treat them. Other issue you have is needing to leave the DT fish less for 72 days
 
I have to comment because I am literally sitting in a lecture at UC Davis about freshwater and marine parasitic disease, including ich. FWIW, one of the main take-aways I've learned in the past hour is the temperature-dependent life cycle speed of Crytpocaryon spp which is to blame in most of the ich cases we see. The temperature is important to consider when making your plan to teat for Ich. Treating Ich successfully in a 78 F tank can be done in 4 days, treatment beyond this is apparently not needed. Specific teatments we discussed was doing a quick look under the microscope to confirm cause, then choosing between copper or formalin treatment. Caution using anything with Malachite green because this is a considerable safety concern to humans (as is formalin).

Also the idea of leaving your DT fish-less for 72 days is at odds with what I just learned - the motile free-swimming parasite lasts only 48 hours without a fish host after which it dies, so 72 hours is likely over-kill and I'd be comfortable returning fish to the DT after treatment and resolution of signs. I have seen 6-8 weeks recommended in the past and I think it is generally accepted in the hobby but is possibly much longer than needed to clear the DT of parasites.

This is all new to me in the past hour and in previous years with Ich I was more aggressive with treatment so I don't want to advise against the advice above which is surely valuable since most of our success in treating disease in the aquarium hobby comes from our fellow hobbyists' anecdotal evidence and positive outcome experience.

My addition would be to consider my points and make sure stressor in the tank are at a minimum, ie good water quality, no wild fluctuations in parameters, no electrical shorting of equiptment etc.
Please let us know your treatment regimen and outcome - i hope it works out well!
 
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If it where velvet all your fish would be dead already

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I agree with this. Velvet kills quick

If it's stress related ick then they might recover from it once the stress levels come down. You said they are all still eating and acting normally correct? Nothing new was added to the tank recently?
 
Nothing new to the tank. All fish acting normal and eating like normal. Did have a power outage a couple weeks ago which the tank was without power for around 17 hours. which stressed out the tank then a week later my energy bar died which left the tank again with a couple plugs down. All in all yes tank has been very stressed out off and on. Nothing new. Clowns in the nem like normal and leave to eat when fed. Tang grazes all day and eats flakes and pellets when provided. All other fish no signs and acts normal. Tank temps are steady at 77 at night and around 78-79 during the day.



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Keep them eating and reduce the stress level. Hopefully that brings everything back to normal

I’ve had fish for years that had signs of ick come and go. The trick is to keep them well fed and stress free

I use garlic in my food as well. I know people say it’s an old wives tale that it cures ick (I don’t think it does) but it will keep them eating the food IME
 
The food I was telling you about also contains chloroquine phosphate. Feeding it to your fish should help, just try to keep it away from your nems and LPS.
 
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