Marine Velvet

Winschuc · Feb 27, 2017

After consolidating my two tanks, I had a significant velvet outbreak. All fish except 1 fairy wrasse and 1 clown were dead within a day. I'm waiting a few months before adding new livestock, but want to check on a few things first.

Question is - should I attempt to capture and treat the two that show 0 signs of infection or leave them be and not add any other fish for 6+ weeks?

Second question - three fish are assumed deceased, but I'm unable to locate in the rockwork. Will these add to the waiting period before adding more fish - from a velvet perspective?

Truthfully, looking for the bodies will require a full tear apart. At that point I'll just shut down the system (which I want to avoid).

melypr1985 · Feb 27, 2017

Winschuc said:
Question is - should I attempt to capture and treat the two that show 0 signs of infection or leave them be and not add any other fish for 6+ weeks?

Yes, you will want to catch and treat the survivors. They are what you call a-symptomatic carriers. They will allow the parasite to continue it's life cycle and infect any new fish added no matter how long you wait.

Winschuc said:
Second question - three fish are assumed deceased, but I'm unable to locate in the rockwork. Will these add to the waiting period before adding more fish - from a velvet perspective?

After remove the two survivors, if you don't see any signs of the missing fish then I would feel fairly confident that they had died and been consumed by the CUC.

Humblefish · Feb 27, 2017

Winschuc said:
Question is - should I attempt to capture and treat the two that show 0 signs of infection or leave them be and not add any other fish for 6+ weeks?

Yes - because even if they are not showing symptoms, they are likely still carriers capable of infecting other fish.

Winschuc said:
Second question - three fish are assumed deceased, but I'm unable to locate in the rockwork. Will these add to the waiting period before adding more fish - from a velvet perspective?

If they are truly dead, then no. But sometimes a fish you thought was dead turns out to be a survivor (like your wrasse & clown). Also, 3 dead rotting fish can lead to an ammonia spike.