Velvet Question

sgrager

New member
So I think my fish have velvet... It all started when I bought two black ocellaris clowns. The first day they were fine, second they were sluggish, swimming in the current, not eating, then buy night they were covered in tiny white spots. Day 3(morning) the spots were gone and their skin was peeling off and color was gone. I put them in QT but they died anyways. So, since I let this disease into my tank like an idiot, I watched my other fish and they started acting strange so I took them out and put them in QT. They are being treated with copper right now for velvet... But I am not 100% sure thats what they have. I FW dip them once a day for 4 mins, which seems to help alot. I have 4 fish in there- 2 cromis, 1 yellow watchman, and 1 lawnmover blenny. cromis have had the velvet like patches on them, which dissapear after FW bath, watchman will get pale and gills are redder and seem inflamed, blenny only once has looked pale. So I was thinking once they have been in there 2 weeks on copper, would It be a good Idea to switch medications to a metrondazole and praziquantel one that says it will get rid of it in 2 doses 48 hours apart... Then maybe switch back to copper? I want to leave my main tank fish free for 4 weeks total anyways... Any suggestions and ideas would be much appriciated!!!
 
Sounds like you have velvet as you're seeing peeling/sloughing
Also since the sheen is falling off after dipping in freshwater, then it's likely to be velvet.

Velvet looks more like a thin film of white sheen. Ich looks like large grains of salt. Ich spots do not fall off with freshwater dips.

Flukes can sometimes be seen by the naked eye. They appear as tiny transluscent jelly-like papules.

2 wks with copper is not enough to treat velvet. You'll need at least 4wks. Also make sure you test the concentration level and keep it at 0.5mg/liter. If you're using Seachem's Cupramine copper product, then i highly recommend using Seachem's copper test kit.

Consider leaving the main tank fishless for 8wks.

I lost an entire tank with $1,000+ of fish 9mths ago. Very devastating. I left the tank fishless for 3mths. Mainly cuz I was so disheartened.
 
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