Clownfish with velvet/ red mark on head

Garyf7257 · Sep 2, 2017

hi. I currently have a black and white clownfish in QT being treated with copper bc he has velvet. I am also using kanaplex on his food to treat for bacterial infections which he is eating plenty of. Today I noticed a red mark on his head on the white bar. What is this mark? I believe it could be bacterial infection. If so, should I be treating with anything else besides the kanaplex and copper. Any help would be appreciated. I have a photo below pointing to the red mark.

GHsaltie · Sep 2, 2017

How long have you been feeding the kanaplex? Have you double checked to make sure your copper levels are above therapeutic?
@Humblefish @melypr1985 @ngoodermuth

Garyf7257 · Sep 2, 2017

Yes I've bee feeding kanaplex for about 2 days and the cupermine is at .4

GHsaltie · Sep 2, 2017

Sometimes it can take longer for a medication to start working when it is fed rather than being dosed into the water. You can dose the kanaplex directly to the QT, it would be a good idea to stick a powerhead in there up at the surface for more oxygen though. However I want to wait until someone else pops in because I'm not certain what it is.

melypr1985 · Sep 2, 2017

Agreed. Antibiotics are already slow acting when dosed in the water directly... they are even slower when fed. It will take much longer than 2 days to see results. I would also suggest dosing it in the water. give it ten consecutive days before stopping.

4FordFamily · Sep 2, 2017

melypr1985 said:
Agreed. Antibiotics are already slow acting when dosed in the water directly... they are even slower when fed. It will take much longer than 2 days to see results. I would also suggest dosing it in the water. give it ten consecutive days before stopping.

Also agree.

Humblefish · Sep 2, 2017

^^ In addition to dosing Kanaplex directly into the water, I would also dose Metroplex just to cover the possibility of this being brook.

Garyf7257 · Sep 3, 2017

Thanks for all the input I really appreciate it!
It's been 3 days since my tank got wiped out from velvet and my clown is still pretty covered in dust. I'm still keeping copper at therapeutic level and feeding kanaplex and also doing FW dips every 2 days. Is the dust ever going to start to go away. He looks the same as he did on Thursday when I took him out of my DT. Does the parasite have to drop off of him to die?

Humblefish · Sep 3, 2017

Garyf7257 said:
Thanks for all the input I really appreciate it!
It's been 3 days since my tank got wiped out from velvet and my clown is still pretty covered in dust. I'm still keeping copper at therapeutic level and feeding kanaplex and also doing FW dips every 2 days. Is the dust ever going to start to go away. He looks the same as he did on Thursday when I took him out of my DT. Does the parasite have to drop off of him to die?

With velvet, the dust can last up to 4 days before disappearing. This means the trophonts have all dropped off the fish and the presence of therapeutic copper is what's protecting him from reinfection.

Garyf7257 · Sep 5, 2017

How long does he have to stay in the copper for?

4FordFamily · Sep 5, 2017

Garyf7257 said:
How long does he have to stay in the copper for?

30 full days, unless you have another completely sterile QT ready to go.

Garyf7257 · Sep 7, 2017

So if I have another ten gallon tank ready to go I can take him out and stop the copper?

GHsaltie · Sep 7, 2017

You keep the copper at therapeutic for 10 days and then transfer to a new tank at least 10ft away.

4FordFamily · Sep 7, 2017

Garyf7257 said:
So if I have another ten gallon tank ready to go I can take him out and stop the copper?

If you've tested daily and you trust your test kit and you haven't cross contaminated anything after 10-15 days you can transfer to another QT, theoretically.

I don't do this as I cannot pull it off without error. I know how many hundreds of ways it can mess up, and I feel like I know what I am doing..