Ich or Velvet Treatment

[chemaholic]

We noticed this morning that one of our fish has a few tiny white dots on it. It looks like ich or velvet.

My plan is to setup a seperate hospital tank, move all of the affected fish into the hospital tank, move all the other fish into a QT tank to monitor them, and begin treating the fish in the hospital tank. Looks like we are in for a long weekend.

Does anyone have any suggestions regarding the best treatment to use or any other tips or suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[chemaholic]

Another question. How large does my hospital tank need to be? My DT is a 120 and it is full to maybe too full of fish. How big should the hospital tank be? Do I need to treat all of the fish or just the ones that show symptoms?

 

[gill]

If this is just ich, you may want to sit back and observe. If you become confident that it is velvet (quick deaths), you definitely need to remove fish and let the tank go fallow for the appropriate period. Note that the purpose of removing the fish is primarily to rid your display tank of the parasite; treating the fish themselves is secondary (and if it is velvet, you are going to lose many no matter what you do). I personally think copper is fine, but just put them through some parasite eradication protocol. Those protocols do not "treat" the fish, they just prevent reinfection. And you need to do the protocol for all fish, not just those showing spots. I would read up on QT protocols on Humblefish forums.

 

[chaples55]

Yeah, if you do decide to treat them, definitely treat ALL the fish and let the tank go fallow. Otherwise it's only a matter of time till reinfection occurs and you'll have wasted time and effort on an incomplete treatment. QT and prophylactically treat all future fish. It's a PITA, but I haven't lost a single fish to diseases since I started doing it.

This is a good place to start:

How To - Quarantine

How to Setup a Quarantine Tank (updated 4-6-2023) The following are the essentials: Aquarium (10-30 gallons seems to work for most people. A larger QT lets you house more fish and gives you more wiggle room when it comes to ammonia. A smaller QT is cheaper, easier to maintain and can be...

humble.fish

I do CopperSafe + Metronidazole + General Cure

 

[chemaholic]

I triaged my fish. Some are in a treatment tank for observation and the remainder are still in the DT. I will likely begin treatment once the shock of being moved wears off.

 

[civics14]

I triaged my fish. Some are in a treatment tank for observation and the remainder are still in the DT. I will likely begin treatment once the shock of being moved wears off.

Do you plan to catch them all? If not, treating a few isn’t going to change that its still in the display.

 

[chemaholic]

I am going to try and trap the ones left in the DT. I got tired of chasing the tiny buggers and I needed to get my corals back in. I will be setting up another small tank to hold them as I catch them. The plan is nothing goes back in the DT for three months. I assume corals and inverts are okay to stay. If not I am setting up a bigger peninsula tank in the next month or two. I can dip all the corals before they go in the new tank and only put in fully treated fish going forward.

 

[chaples55]

Corals/inverts can stay in the DT and will also be considered "clean" after the fallow period.

In order to ensure the fallow period is successful, make sure you don't have any dead spots in the tank. The most common reason going fallow fails is because parasites can go dormant and survive for a long time in oxygen-deprived environments. So if you have sand, especially if it's deep sand, siphon it to make sure it's stirred up and we'll oxygenated.

 

[chaples55]

we'll

well*...

 

[chuck]

I agrre with all above. After you are done i would get a good uv light