Think my Kole tang has Velvet or Brooklynella, what do I do?

I think it's velvet and not brook, but I definitely am not an expert. I'm going based on the descriptions of each and some photographs.

I picked up some paraguard at the store while I was getting an A/C airstone (battery airstone was way too loud at night). I'll do some research on whether they can be combined or whether I should switch.

I didn't really think the slightly less saline environment would do much if anything at all, but I wasn't going to spend a lot of time balancing the QT against the DT while the fish stayed in there sick and untreated.
 
I may have had velvet in the past but I wouldn't have been were of its identity at the time... I'm no expert either... I hope u better luck with the goby...
 
My Flame Angel just started showing symptoms an hour ago, and that's how long it took to get her out of the tank. She's fast, smart, and extremely agile.

Now it's the goby and the angel in quarantine.

I verified that copper is the way to go with velvet. I've found nothing but negative reviews of paraguard so far. I'm not going to try combining them, gonna hope for the best.

The goby already LOOKS better after a few hours in QT. His color is back and he appears healthy, although I know better than to take him out of there yet.
 
Go with your gut... And give them both a few days... Externals seem to need a few days exposure, so I would be patient...

I'll add I use para guard, and seachem products are pretty solid... It's worked for me over 2 separate occasions of 48 to 72 hour exposure... Good for u however, for for doing some research and following your gut... Any treatment and proactivity is a good thing IMO... Good QT comes with some good patience... Observe, treat, and wait... Symptoms will re-occurs soon if they are present...

Everything I say is always jmo and based on personal experience and close observation only...
 
Apparently you're supposed to treat every fish in the DT in QT and leave the DT fallow for 6-10 weeks. I don't see how that's even remotely feasible with my equipment on hand.

I'm not even sure how to keep the QT running for an extended stay while maintaining copper levels. Do I do daily water changes and test copper (for re-dosing?) Can't use carbon, can't use biological filtration.
 
If you had an established tank that you could use to treat them, the cupramine would not kill off your bio as long as you didnt way overload it with fish.

Assuming from reading the majority of your post, you dont have that available. You will need to monitor your ammonia very carefully and control it with water changes.

Also dont try using an api copper test kit for cupramine it is very hard, may not even work correctly. You'll need to use a seachem or I think there is another good brand that works.

Also not running carbon, so the level of copper can only change 2 ways. evaporation/top off, or water change. make a mark on you tank so you know where to keep your water level to maintain the level of copper you want. And you can find a water change bucket that you know exactly the amount of water, and take out that amount, and add the same amount with the same concentration of cupramine. That will give you a ball park until you get a test kit.

Hope that helps. Also Pallobi seems to really know his stuff. I read a ton of his posts on fish treatment, so I would highly value his opinions.
 
Also I believe I read many times that a fresh water dip (alk and temp adjusted) helps quite a bit as a fast relief for velvet, but not as a treatment. And it will have no effect on ich at all.

Have you figured out how it was introduced yet?
 
It must have come in on the tang.

I think the other fish have ich. On the tang it looked an awful lot like velvet. He had a coating, not dots. He did develop dots later before he died, though.

The newly infected fish have dots, but no film. I'm confused, but it definitely looks much more like ich.

Luckily copper is still the treatment.
 
If you still have other fish in the tank I would guess ich, from what I understand velvet would have probably killed them by now, it is fast. Either way you have to treat all the fish that are in the system.

The film you saw could have just been a little extra slime coating on the fish as a result of the ich. I think with velvet it is a more extreme film and maybe even sloughs off, IDK though I've never seen it in person.
 
Make sure you only use Cupramine to treat the flame angel with, any other type of copper medication will kill them.
 
Thanks, Nami, I had no idea about that species specific concern. :(

Luckily Cupramine is what I got. Flame angel is doing well, at least compared to the tang who died overnight.

Since the fellow who was going to take my old 55G was a no show, I'm going to set it back up and use it for a large QT and get all the fish into it (the damsels are going to be a nightmare.) Then I'll run the main tank fallow for a month or two and hopefully eradicate this mess.

I'll mark the water level on the 55 and just do changes and assume even solution of cupramine for re-dosing. That's reasonable, right? As long as I measure what I take out very precisely I think I'll be OK.
 
No problem at all.

Measuring your water changes and re-dosing the cupramine should be fine. More importantly, just make sure your QT tank water is as pristine as can be and definitely try to keep the fish fat. I would definitely suggest soaking their food in garlic, while the effects of it are certainly up for debate, I've always had luck with it when I noticed a couple white spots on my PBT before.
 
I got the 55 back in the house and just spent an hour with a scraper, two rolls of paper towels, and 5 gallons of vinegar (and a gallon of RO/DI). Thing looks practically new, now.

So.. now I've got a big quarantine. I just have to go pick up a 200/250W heater...
 
Now the clowns have it too. Good thing I was already planning on getting everybody out.

The e-goby and angel are still alive but they are still pretty speckled, too.

What did you mean before about copper not killing off biological filtration if the bioload is low? That didn't make any sense to me.
 
I think just ment copper wouldn't put a big enough dent in your biological filtration, in an established tank, to matter as long as you weren't keeping way more fish than u should for the size tank. In which case enough bacteria might die & no longer be able to keep up. Holy run on sentence. Lol doesnt droopy to u since u set up a new tank for qt.
 
im hoping to read some good news on this over the next few days.
my tank appears to have the same problem. i will be setting up a 60 gallon cube as a permanent qt. first thing tomorrow. i usually use a 15 gallon for when i bring fish in and watch them for a few weeks before putting them in my DT.
Unfortunately 15 gallons wont be anywhere near big enough for all the livestock in my DT. hell, i dont even think my 60 cube is.
 
I've got my flame angel, female perc, and e-goby in the 55 quarantine. The flame and the clown are looking much better. The e-goby is still pretty covered, but seems fine otherwise. I can't bring the dose up to full yet because I still have 4 more fish to catch and put in QT, but the storm has seriously interrupted my work on the tank. Right now I'm oiling my boots and getting ready to go clear 3 feet of snow with up to 5 foot drifts from my driveway, walk, etc... so hopefully by tonight I'll be moving the rest so I can up the dose by Monday.
 
I lost my male clown. I was getting nervous about not raising the cupramine to full strength after the other fish had already been in there 4 days and the e-goby wasn't looking any better. I raised the dose to full and the male clown, who was already stressed, died.

This storm and a few other things screwed me all up this week. I wasn't able to catch and QT all my fish at once and I was getting antsy holding off the dosing. :(

Except for the male perc, the other fish are all looking a lot better. I still haven't caught the yellow tail damsels. I'm not sure how to handle them now that the QT is at full strength.
 
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