Brook vs Velvet

[Empress]

How can I tell if my fish has brook or velvet when they both look the same? Lots of pictures that I've looked at look almost exactly alike.

 

[pga7602]

A few things to look for. If your fish has had the spots come and go without dieing, that's a clear sign of Ich. It's very rare that velvet will just go away and come back.

You can also look closely at the spots. Ich tends to look scatter and sparse, where as velvet will be tiny spots almost forming a coating throughout the entire body of the fish. As always, if you can provide a photo, there we can try to diagnose.

 

[Empress]

I was hoping to understand the difference between BROOK and Velvet, not ich and velvet. But thanks pga for your reply.

Anybody know how to tell the difference between Brook and Velvet when they both look very much the same?

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

This thread may have your answer @Empress: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brook-or-velvet.219254/

- C. Smith

 

[Deinonych]

Brooklynella symptoms are typically heavy sloughing of the slime coat - typically in whitish clumps or streamers trailing off the fish. Brooklynella infected fish often show brittle looking fins.

Velvet looks like a fine "powdered sugar" dusting that looks like a golden sheen when the fish is viewed head on. Fish with velvet will also often pipe (gasp at the surface) or swim in front of a powerhead to fight the heavy gill infection. They are also likely to avoid light.

Both are extremely virulent and treatment should be performed as quickly as possible to avoid mortality.

 

[4FordFamily]

I might also add that velvet looks to most untrained eyes as a very bad ich infestation and there are strains that don't show any spots but attack the gills leading to quick death, swimming in to powerheads, lethargy, hiding from light, loss of appetite, breathing heavily, being cryptic in general, blotches of white or discolorong (particularly in Angels) which I assume is from gill damage (not getting enough oxygen), etc.

I've never seen the gold sheen in any velvet case, although I don't dispute its existence it may be my lighting in my tanks and qt. I've rarely ever seen the velvety appearance on a fish and when I do it's often 1-3 hours or less from death at that point.

 

[saltyhog]

So is this Brook?

 

[Humblefish]

Brooklynella symptoms are typically heavy sloughing of the slime coat - typically in whitish clumps or streamers trailing off the fish. Brooklynella infected fish often show brittle looking fins.

Velvet looks like a fine "powdered sugar" dusting that looks like a golden sheen when the fish is viewed head on. Fish with velvet will also often pipe (gasp at the surface) or swim in front of a powerhead to fight the heavy gill infection. They are also likely to avoid light.

Both are extremely virulent and treatment should be performed as quickly as possible to avoid mortality.

I might also add that velvet looks to most untrained eyes as a very bad ich infestation and there are strains that don't show any spots but attack the gills leading to quick death, swimming in to powerheads, lethargy, hiding from light, loss of appetite, breathing heavily, being cryptic in general, blotches of white or discolorong (particularly in Angels) which I assume is from gill damage (not getting enough oxygen), etc.

I've never seen the gold sheen in any velvet case, although I don't dispute its existence it may be my lighting in my tanks and qt. I've rarely ever seen the velvety appearance on a fish and when I do it's often 1-3 hours or less from death at that point.

^^This

@saltyhog That could be brook or possibly a bacterial infection. I would treat with this combo of medications to address the possibility of both: Metroplex, Kanaplex & Furan-2.

 

[Empress]

Thanks everybody for your replies. Your feedback helps immensely.[emoji4]

 

[saltyhog]

^^This

@saltyhog That could be brook or possibly a bacterial infection. I would treat with this combo of medications to address the possibility of both: Metroplex, Kanaplex & Furan-2.

This picture was from when I first started in the hobby. That yellow fin fairy was dead within 24 hours of that picture. I did treat with antibiotics to no avail. Always figured it was Brook.