Quarantine advice

Juice2oh · Oct 20, 2023

Hi all,

I’m about 90% sure my reef aquarium has velvet in it. I’ve had my 75 gallon setup for about 3 years now and added fish sporadically. I have a Tomini tang, 2 clowns, a firefish, a diamond watchman goby, a royal gramma, and just recently added a 6 line wrasse and a tailspot blenny. I didn’t qt the last two like a dummy and now it looks like I have velvet. I have a 13gallon aio to use for qt and was wanting some expert opinions if this would be enough room to qt all of them?

Juice2oh · Oct 20, 2023

Here’s some video of the dudes showing it the most.

YOYOYOReefer · Oct 20, 2023

No get a bigger tank.

Sharkbait19 · Oct 20, 2023

Can you link the videos as YouTube links for viewing? The main symptoms of velvet are fast breathing and swimming into flow, as opposed to any white coating.
13 gallons will not be enough for those fish - I’d look for at least a 40B or potentially split them among smaller tanks for the time (the tang alone will need a lot of space).

Juice2oh · Oct 20, 2023

Sharkbait19 said:
Can you link the videos as YouTube links for viewing? The main symptoms of velvet are fast breathing and swimming into flow, as opposed to any white coating.
13 gallons will not be enough for those fish - I’d look for at least a 40B or potentially split them among smaller tanks for the time (the tang alone will need a lot of space).

Spare time · Oct 20, 2023

You can use a bin from home Depot for a qt

hexcolor reef · Oct 20, 2023

From recent and pst experience, buy all fish at once. Some will make it and others will not. Marine velvet is one of those fish parasites that will ultimately end with losing fish.
It’s luck of draw when buying marine fish as most come straight from the ocean.
Also do a parasite dip for your fish for one hour. If you don’t have a larger tank

Sharkbait19 · Oct 20, 2023

Could you add a longer video? It doesn’t really give enough time to get an accurate respiration rate, but I would say from that alone it doesn’t seem fast enough to be velvet.

Juice2oh · Oct 20, 2023

Sharkbait19 said:
Could you add a longer video? It doesn’t really give enough time to get an accurate respiration rate, but I would say from that alone it doesn’t seem fast enough to be velvet.

Juice2oh · Oct 20, 2023

Juice2oh · Oct 20, 2023

The clowns are looking pretty bad tonight. They look like they’re covered in dust. I’ve also noticed my tail spot blenny scratching its sides a lot.

I’ve also never really noticed this until earlier today, but my tomini look almost like it’s body has a velvet texture to it at certain angles, don’t know if this is related or just never noticed it.

My clowns are definitely looking the worst of them all. Maybe leaning towards brook now? Either way need to get a proper diagnosis and start treatment. I can’t get a bigger qt until tomorrow

Sharkbait19 · Oct 20, 2023

That is definitely fast in those last 2 videos - I would get them into qt and copper as soon as possible.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Oct 20, 2023

@Jay Hemdal

Jay Hemdal · Oct 21, 2023

I agree with @Sharkbait19 - the fish are breathing too fast. There is a slim chance that it is due to some environmental issue, not velvet - you could add an air stone to the tank t see if that helps, but if it is velvet, the fish don't have long, so you would need to get them into a treatment tank with coppersafe. Trouble is, setting up a treatment tank "on the fly" is difficult, and you may run into ammonia issues if you don't sed it with filter material (non-calcium) from your main tank, and/or add bottled bacteria.

Jay

Juice2oh · Oct 21, 2023

Jay Hemdal said:
I agree with @Sharkbait19 - the fish are breathing too fast. There is a slim chance that it is due to some environmental issue, not velvet - you could add an air stone to the tank t see if that helps, but if it is velvet, the fish don't have long, so you would need to get them into a treatment tank with coppersafe. Trouble is, setting up a treatment tank "on the fly" is difficult, and you may run into ammonia issues if you don't sed it with filter material (non-calcium) from your main tank, and/or add bottled bacteria.

Jay

Hey Jay, thanks for the advice. I have a power head that I used to use for my salt water mixing. It has an air fitting on the outlet, so I added an air pump to it. It’s in the tank now. It may be a bit overboard, but it’s all have to work with at the moment.

I never finish anythi · Oct 21, 2023

hexcolor reef said:
From recent and pst experience, buy all fish at once. Some will make it and others will not. Marine velvet is one of those fish parasites that will ultimately end with losing fish.
It’s luck of draw when buying marine fish as most come straight from the ocean.
Also do a parasite dip for your fish for one hour. If you don’t have a larger tank

So if I want 20 fish in my tank buy them all at once ! No that ain't gonna work out sorry .

aaron186 · Oct 21, 2023

You can buy cheap bins from big box or hadware store. You can probably even rinse and return them if you really wanted to

hexcolor reef · Oct 21, 2023

I never finish anythi said:
So if I want 20 fish in my tank buy them all at once ! No that ain't gonna work out sorry .

It’s called realistic expectations and if you can’t draw a line for your self then ultimately you will kill more than 20 fish while in this hobby

hexcolor reef · Oct 21, 2023

Juice2oh said:
The clowns are looking pretty bad tonight. They look like they’re covered in dust. I’ve also noticed my tail spot blenny scratching its sides a lot.

I’ve also never really noticed this until earlier today, but my tomini look almost like it’s body has a velvet texture to it at certain angles, don’t know if this is related or just never noticed it.

My clowns are definitely looking the worst of them all. Maybe leaning towards brook now? Either way need to get a proper diagnosis and start treatment. I can’t get a bigger qt until tomorrow

Do you have a UV sterilizer running?

Juice2oh · Oct 21, 2023

Juice2oh said:
Hey Jay, thanks for the advice. I have a power head that I used to use for my salt water mixing. It has an air fitting on the outlet, so I added an air pump to it. It’s in the tank now. It may be a bit overboard, but it’s all have to work with at the moment.

hexcolor reef said:
Do you have a UV sterilizer running?

I do not. The aeration seems to be helping quite substantially actually tho. It seems like my corals are fuller than they have been in months. The fish are still acting somewhat normal and still scavenging and eating well. You think I’ve just been unintentionally starving my tank of dissolved oxygen?