Marine Velvet horribleness

[fishoholic]

So it's been (as of July 1st 2009) 12 weeks since I first got velvet in my tank. The surviving fish are back in the displays (along with some new friends) and it's been 2 weeks (since the fish went back) so I thought I'd update this thread (the update will be at the end). This thread is primarily to share my experience in the hopes of saving others from having velvet in their tank.

Edit: list of loses as of 10:00am July 1/09: (26 Dead) (8 Alive)

Dead: achilles tang, orange shoulder tang, regal angel, one of my two cleaner wrasses, bi-colour blenny, queen angel, blueface angel, emperor angel, blue ring angel, valmingi tang, regal tang, yellow tang, naso tang, six line wrasse, green clown goby, falco hawkfish, spotted mandarin dragonett, male clownfish, one chromis, sailfin tang, female clownfish, clown tang, 2nd cleaner wrasse (committed suicide, went to sleep curled up inside of the heater cover), coral beauty (possibly from old age, 5yrs), and red corris wrasse (I think the lunare might of killed him), and the last one to not make it (survived the velvet but got to badly beat up in QT) is one chromis.

Still alive: Sohal tang (face is healed but bumpy and top lip is gone), king angel (my personal favorite, pic. is my avatar), 2 chromis, lunare wrasse, checkerborad wrasse, bursa trigger, CBB (copper band butterfly). All of these fish are finally back in the display tanks.

Below this line is my original post.
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Well as a few members already know I have been dealing the horror of my fish being infected with Marine Velvet. At least I'm fairly certain that is what it is. I thought I should start a thread about what's happening so everyone can learn from my mistakes, and so that all the people I have kept in touch with through pm's can all keep updated in one thread. Thanks again to all my canreef friends who have been helpful and supportive through this difficult time. *warning the link I'm adding (at the end) has some very graphic pictures and a video*

So I'll start at the beginning, about 3 weeks ago my boyfriend and I added some new fish to the system. I added an achilles tang and then he added an orange shoulder tang (fairly certain it was one of these tangs that brought the velvet into our system) then he added a regal angel and I added a king angel. The regal had been in QT at the lfs for awhile looked very healthy and was eating so I don't think it was him and the king angel came from a display tank were he had been in it for a year so I'm sure it wasn't him.

Anyway I thought I just had some fish with a bit of ich on them (the two new tangs) so I wasn't too concerned, I've had ich in my system before and my fish have seem to build up a natural immunity to it. Unfortunately I wasn't dealing with ich I was dealing with marine velvet which is much more deadly.

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

This is the line that stands out for me and keeps me awake at night "Amyloodinium has shown a preference for first attacking the gill tissue of fish (Noga & Levy, 1995 and Stoskopf, 1993), so once it has spread to the body, I would consider the fish to be heavily infected and perhaps beyond hope of recovery." 90% of my fish that are left have it spread over their bodies

I will forever regret not QTing the two tangs first but now that it's after the fact all I can do is hope the others make it. I have what's left of my fish in a 110-120g (6 feet x 1 1/2 feet x 1 1/2 feet) QT tank and I am currently treating them with cupramine from seachem which is a copper treatment for the fish. I was reluctant to treat with copper considering how tricky it can be (not enough copper will do nothing to rid the fish of the disease and to much copper will kill the fish) be I've come to realize that the copper treatment is the best way to go to try to save who's left.

Losses to date: achilles tang, orange shoulder tang, regal angel, bi-colour blenny, queen angel, cleaner wrasse, blueface angel, and as of this morning my emperor angel

Who's left: King angel, blue ring angel, sailfin tang, clown tang, sohal tang, valmingi tang, regal tang (looked really bad this morning), yellow tang, naso tang, cleaner wrasse, six line wrasse, checkerboard wrasse, lunare wrasse wrasse, red corris wrasse, CBB, 2 clownfish, green clown goby, falco hawfish, coral beauty, 4 chromis, bursa trigger and a spotted mandarin dragonett who is in his own 10g QT tank being treated with protomarin coral since copper is know to kill mandarins.

The pictures are to awful to post but if you want to see them here's a link

http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii53/Laurie_Morin/BRA/

Moral of the story: QT fish before adding to display.

[my2rotties]

You know how sorry I am that this happened... good for you to have the balls to post about it. If you ever want to talk, you know my phone number...

Lets hope this is now over and the rest of the fish have a speedy recovery.

[Delphinus]

Ouch. So sorry once again Laurie.

At least you were able to get them into a hospital tank. I think that's the best course of action forward at this point. I hope it works out. Best of luck with everything.

[my2rotties]

Just a quick couple of questions...

How long do you need to treat the fish in QT for?

How long will have to keep the livestock out of the display tanks for?

[TheRealBigAL]

Sorry to hear.

[Chaloupa]

Marine Velvet is HORRIBLE...I am sooo sorry for your loss. I experienced it when I first started in the hobby...had an established little system...added a final fish and lost all of them..it was nasty. Good luck!

[marie]

Oy, sorry the emperor didn't make it, my toes and fingers are still crossed for you.

[Lance]

This really sucks! I know how much your fish mean to you. Cupramine is good stuff and hopefully does the trick. (fingers crossed)

[fishoholic]

"Velvet Disease (Oodinium)

Is similar to ich however these organisms are smaller, like gold-coloured dust, while ich is white, larger and more rounded. Velvet disease ("rust disease") is highly contagious, however it is a curious dinoflagellate that contains chlorophyll-like plants, including algae. It may be difficult to see until a heavy infestation develops. Bleeding can eventually occur, with the skin peeling off. When the gills are affected the fish will have difficulty breathing and may die from asphyxiation. Velvet is a rather uncommon disease. The remedy often used for velvet is copper (try Aquarisol by Aquarium Products). The fish affected should be quarantined and the tank darkened for best results."

The above quote is exactly what is happening to my fish. My valmingi is dead my sailfin is almost dead my king doesn't look good. The bleeding is occurring and the skin is peeling off of my female clownfish and Sohal tang faces

Going to try Fresh water dips now, I figure they're pretty much dead anyway maybe the FW dip will help.

[my2rotties]

OMG!!! Why can't this just be over for you. I can't imagine what it is like to dread waking up in the morning and then coming home for work...

I wish I could help in some way.