Velvet?

[Gabridge83]

Picked up a very small powder blue tang this weekend. He’s currently in a qt tank and yesterday I noticed some flashing and some pale-ish spots on his side. I didn’t know if they were from the flashing or not. I did treat with pazipro yesterday and today I noticed no flashing and more spots. I was thinking maybe the start of velvet but I don’t know. Any ideas? I posted the best pics I could of him but the spots aren’t showing up on the pictures.

 

[Shawn]

If that was velvet he'd probably be dead already, if not then he darn sure wouldn't be eating.

I think it's stress/flashing. Keep observing. Just my take on the information.

 

[Gabridge83]

If that was velvet he'd probably be dead already, if not then he darn sure wouldn't be eating.

I think it's stress/flashing. Keep observing. Just my take on the information.

Thanks! He is going to town on the sea veggies we got him.

 

[Gabridge83]

Well I think we ruled out any dieases but we did treat him with pazipro. We’ve had him almost a week now and he’s thriving and eating up everything we give him!

 

[Gabridge83]

Well this ended up being velvet but it didn’t show its ugly head until after we put him in the display tank. Everyone is now in QT and we lost our Midas Blenny to it last night. We did a freshwater dip on him and our Pygmy Angel last night before transferring into a new sterile tank. We can’t use copper because of our mandarin so we are doing a 36 hour TTM. So far this month we’ve lost 3 fish from our other tank due to a mysterious diease. We did end up saving 2 from that tank and now we have lost 2 from this tank . Unfortunately it happens and we will fallow the tank for 8 weeks before adding anyone back in it. I know this discourages a lot of newbies and it sucks but we love the tanks so much that we will “rebuild”

 

[civics14]

Well this ended up being velvet but it didn’t show its ugly head until after we put him in the display tank. Everyone is now in QT and we lost our Midas Blenny to it last night. We did a freshwater dip on him and our Pygmy Angel last night before transferring into a new sterile tank. We can’t use copper because of our mandarin so we are doing a 36 hour TTM. So far this month we’ve lost 3 fish from our other tank due to a mysterious diease. We did end up saving 2 from that tank and now we have lost 2 from this tank . Unfortunately it happens and we will fallow the tank for 8 weeks before adding anyone back in it. I know this discourages a lot of newbies and it sucks but we love the tanks so much that we will “rebuild”

Sorry to hear man. I went through velvet just a few months back when I cross contaminated my hospital tank with my display tank. Its the worst feeling.

 

[Gabridge83]

Sorry to hear man. I went through velvet just a few months back when I cross contaminated my hospital tank with my display tank. Its the worst feeling.

Yeah it’s an awful feeling knowing you can only do so much. The only thing we can do is try and learn from our mistakes.

 

[Adam]

With a PB tang I would have prophylactically treated it with Copper Power for 30 days.

I'm getting to the point where I can take on fish from members to QT in a few months but I'm having reservations about doing that. After losing a fish of my own I'm not sure how to handle that if it happen to someone else's. I can't foot the bill for replacements so I don't know what I'm going to do yet.

 

[Gabridge83]

With a PB tang I would have prophylactically treated it with Copper Power for 30 days.

I'm getting to the point where I can take on fish from members to QT in a few months but I'm having reservations about doing that. After losing a fish of my own I'm not sure how to handle that if it happen to someone else's. I can't foot the bill for replacements so I don't know what I'm going to do yet.

We were hesitant to use copper and he was eating well and looked well and looking back we should have kept him in the observation tank longer. We will now use copper with the fish that we can and we are going to pick up a Hanna copper tester as well

 

[Adam]

We were hesitant to use copper and he was eating well and looked well and looking back we should have kept him in the observation tank longer. We will now use copper with the fish that we can and we are going to pick up a Hanna copper tester as well

I never used copper in the past. I observed first and treated if something showed up. I was scared copper would hurt the appetite of the fish. Well, I got burned too. Fortunately it was just Ich at the time.

I will say that I am pleasantly surprised how well Copper Power has worked for me so far. The fish are all eating great and I have about 10 days left for the first batch. They're eating so good that one of the Yellows that had Lymphocystis on some of it's fins has all but cleared up. Now I have to look real hard at all three of them in there to see which one it was. The Hanna Checker has worked great for me too, holding steady at 2.5.

 

[Gabridge83]

I never used copper in the past. I observed first and treated if something showed up. I was scared copper would hurt the appetite of the fish. Well, I got burned too. Fortunately it was just Ich at the time.

I will say that I am pleasantly surprised how well Copper Power has worked for me so far. The fish are all eating great and I have about 10 days left for the first batch. They're eating so good that one of the Yellows that had Lymphocystis on some of it's fins has all but cleared up. Now I have to look real hard at all three of them in there to see which one it was. The Hanna Checker has worked great for me too, holding steady at 2.5.

I don’t like to rush to treat either but we will do a longer observation period from now on but on tangs I’ll probably just be proactive from now on. I heard Copper Power was better so I’ll probably pick that up at some point to have on hand. Glad the Hanna worked we had heard it was better but nice to have someone local that agrees with it too.

 

[90gDreams]

Go check out tank transfer method on humble.fish I've never had confidence to properly run copper but after a lot of reading and reassurances I decided to go the TTM route. I ran everybody through safety stop first (formalin/malachite green & methylene blue baths) and then into the first tank. There will be two rounds of API general cure through the process as well. Hydrogen Peroxide is also a method but I chose to go with general cure.

I'm completely green to trying to QT fish as years ago I just rolled the dice and never had an issue. Getting back into the hobby now I feel like every day on every forum there are multiple people getting whole tanks wiped out by velvet. TTM seemed like the easiest route with just the cost of salt being the only downside.

I don't think I, or most people, have the time or skill set to really properly id and diagnose in an observation tank so my thoughts were to go this route and sort of shotgun a variety of common issues.

I'll be doing my 2nd transfer tonight. I have a fishless 13.5 fluval that has a few pieces of rock and some macros that will be their observation tank before hitting the DT.

PBT are notoriously fragile coupled with being prone to having a real bad attitude, but they are some beautiful looking fish.

 

[Gabridge83]

Go check out tank transfer method on humble.fish I've never had confidence to properly run copper but after a lot of reading and reassurances I decided to go the TTM route. I ran everybody through safety stop first (formalin/malachite green & methylene blue baths) and then into the first tank. There will be two rounds of API general cure through the process as well. Hydrogen Peroxide is also a method but I chose to go with general cure.

I'm completely green to trying to QT fish as years ago I just rolled the dice and never had an issue. Getting back into the hobby now I feel like every day on every forum there are multiple people getting whole tanks wiped out by velvet. TTM seemed like the easiest route with just the cost of salt being the only downside.

I don't think I, or most people, have the time or skill set to really properly id and diagnose in an observation tank so my thoughts were to go this route and sort of shotgun a variety of common issues.

We are actually doing a modified TTM right now. We lost our Blenny on day 1 as we started just doing the 72 hour and at 36 hours we say a big ramp up in parasites. We FW dipped him and our Pygmy angel and transferred but it was to late for him. We aren’t doing copper this round because of our mandarin and wrasse but will in the future for other species. I ran antibiotics 2 transfers ago and they seem to be on the mend finally but still have 2 36 hour transfers to go and 2 71 transfers until they go into an observation tank. We will be doing an 8 week fallow on their tank to ensure no more parasites are in the tank. I’ve been doing a lot of my research lately on Humble fish for our current situation and future ones. I can’t tell the difference between velvet and ich so I’ll probably always do the 36 hour TTM

 

[90gDreams]

We are actually doing a modified TTM right now. We lost our Blenny on day 1 as we started just doing the 72 hour and at 36 hours we say a big ramp up in parasites. We FW dipped him and our Pygmy angel and transferred but it was to late for him. We aren’t doing copper this round because of our mandarin and wrasse but will in the future for other species. I ran antibiotics 2 transfers ago and they seem to be on the mend finally but still have 2 36 hour transfers to go and 2 71 transfers until they go into an observation tank. We will be doing an 8 week fallow on their tank to ensure no more parasites are in the tank. I’ve been doing a lot of my research lately on Humble fish for our current situation and future ones. I can’t tell the difference between velvet and ich so I’ll probably always do the 36 hour TTM

Best of luck with it all. I just could not make the 36hr work with my schedule between working long hours and sports for the kids so I went all 72 hours and relying on the safety stop and general cure to knock velvet out if it is present. All 3 of the fish looked healthy and are eating when purchased so certainly a lower level of stress than what you are going through.

Humble fish is such a fantastic resource. Very happy to know there are guys like that to help us mortals out.

 

[gill]

Whatever method you choose (TTM, copper, chloroquine, etc.), I cannot overstate, from personal experience, how important it is to quarantine. No fish gets anywhere near my display tank unless it has gone through therapeutic levels of copper for the requisite period (2 weeks if you move the fish to a second sterile QT tank, 4 weeks if you use one QT tank). I used to have constant disease issues and mysterious deaths. Then a velvet wipeout 3 years ago. Since I established my QT, I have had no issues in my display. In fact, it is a little boring now because no fish are dying and the tank is full, so I can't buy more fish!

Please note that QT itself can be tricky. You will lose fish quickly to ammonia and oxygen deprivation. Read up on how to make sure the QT is habitable. In my experience, ammonia is the killer in QT, not copper. I personally add biomedia from my DT, dose bacteria, AND do regular large water changes. That has cut down my QT deaths significantly.

 

[Gabridge83]

Well we have officially made it through 2 weeks of tank transfers and medications. Last night we moved the remaining 3 into the cycled observation tank. Loosing 2 out of 5 really isn’t that bad considering this was our first round of ICH/Velvet. Looking back on it we now know how we will qt new fish and how to notice any signs of disease or parasites. We also need to figure out a better ammonia control solution during the 71 hour transfers. Now to wait out the remaining 6 weeks of the display being fallow then everyone can officially go back home.

 

[90gDreams]

Well we have officially made it through 2 weeks of tank transfers and medications. Last night we moved the remaining 3 into the cycled observation tank. Loosing 2 out of 5 really isn’t that bad considering this was our first round of ICH/Velvet. Looking back on it we now know how we will qt new fish and how to notice any signs of disease or parasites. We also need to figure out a better ammonia control solution during the 71 hour transfers. Now to wait out the remaining 6 weeks of the display being fallow then everyone can officially go back home.

Ammonia is what worried me about the process the most. I didn't test but no signs of any issues from the three fish I was running in a 10g. 2" Tomini, 3" lemon wrasse, and a 1" yellowtail damsel. I think some better guidance on bioload vs tank size would be useful.

There is some worthwhile reading stuff about 45 days being sufficient for a fallow period, but if you have the room and ability 72 days couldn't hurt.

From things I've read about velvet I'd saying successfully treating any fish in time is cause for celebration after your first attempt.

 

[Gabridge83]

Ammonia is what worried me about the process the most. I didn't test but no signs of any issues from the three fish I was running in a 10g. 2" Tomini, 3" lemon wrasse, and a 1" yellowtail damsel. I think some better guidance on bioload vs tank size would be useful.

There is some worthwhile reading stuff about 45 days being sufficient for a fallow period, but if you have the room and ability 72 days couldn't hurt.

From things I've read about velvet I'd saying successfully treating any fish in time is cause for celebration after your first attempt.

Yeah we read with upping the temperature and other methods would lessen the fallow period. We did up the temperature some but since we have a cycled bare bottom 20 long already set up we decided to go a total of 8 weeks to play it safe. Plus all 3 fish are on the small side anyway. We did keep adding AmGuard every 24 hours in the 71 hour tanks to help neutralize ammonia. Next time though I don’t think we will plan on having 3 fish in the transfer tanks unless things happen. It just stinks to have such a pretty tank with no fish in it.

 

[york1]

Yeah we read with upping the temperature and other methods would lessen the fallow period. We did up the temperature some but since we have a cycled bare bottom 20 long already set up we decided to go a total of 8 weeks to play it safe. Plus all 3 fish are on the small side anyway. We did keep adding AmGuard every 24 hours in the 71 hour tanks to help neutralize ammonia. Next time though I don’t think we will plan on having 3 fish in the transfer tanks unless things happen. It just stinks to have such a pretty tank with no fish in it.

Ya it stinks having an empty tank but in the end it's the best way to go.

 

[Shawn]

You can have a super medicated QT tank and have a good bacterial load for nitrifying purposes. I take sponges and filter fleece and drop it in my sump and pull it when I need it for QT. It never goes back in my DT sump tho for obvious reasons. I keep 10+ sponges in there for that reason.