Sick Fish (Another Newbie)

[howdy20012002]

IMO it is velvet
i had the same thing happen in one of my tanks
i lost everything
apparently there really isn't anything u can do for velvet that will cure it fast enough..from what i have read about it
they say copper..but i dunno. Whatever u do decide, do it quickly...my whole tank was dead in a week.
u can take u fish out and put into a tank with just SW and try treating it will copper sulfate..or maybe a freshwater dip
if you put the copper into your main tank it may kill ur LR
I would let ur tank sit for at least 6 weeks before putting any fish into it.
That way you can make sure that if it is velvet or ick, that the parasite will be dead.

[bulletsworld]

Sorry I’m late jumping on here….

If ever you are unsure about whether or not you have Velvet, you can perform a FW dip that will help confirm it. Click here for details on HOW TO DO A FW DIP –
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...waterdips.html

After following the direction on how to do a FW dip, I found a dip of approx 3mins - 5mins, providing the fish are not stressed. Use a clear glass dish for dip & dim lights low, I found this helps reduce the fish stress or panic. After the fish is taken out of the dip, putting it back into your main tank, go back to the dip dish. In the light, swirl around the water & inspect the water dish closely. If you see a dust like powder or little white flake particles in the water, you have Velvet (Amyloodinium) and the parasite has dislodged & fallen off your fish only because it was mature. The only time this dip doesn't show if Velvet parasites are present on your fish is when the parasites have only been attached for less than 24 hours. Approximately every three days the parasite drops off the host (your fish) and divides and looks for hosts (your fish) re-infects again.

NOTE: You can use this dip for relief of Velvet (only mature parasites will fall off) but when you put the fish back in your infected main tank, your fish will become infected again with free swimming parasites.

In heavily infected cases of Velvet, you may see the fish with thousands of tiny yellowish white spots all over (often confused with Ich, but Ich spots are larger & look more like salt sprinkles all over the fish) Another way to tell if it’s Velvet in early signs is fins of the fish are not clear and display random smudges through them. When heavily infected with Velvet the fish will take on a shiny yellowish appearance and may seem darker in color than normally. If you ever have any scale less fish (i.e porcupine puffers, all cowfish, lionfish, etc). they will ALWAYS be the first to show signs. I found clownfish, damsels, gobies, chromis, some tangs, angels, wrasse, even when heavily infected show very little to no signs other than to the naked eye. They will go darker in color, take on a shiny appearance and they will breathe more rapidly.


For information on different treatment options, check out a really good article by Steven Pro.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php



Hope this info helps,

Lee