Rapid Treatment for Possible Velvet

[pletlibo]

Hey guys. So I currently have one clownfish in my 75 gal display, and another clownfish and royal gramma basslet in my 15 gal QT. I have reason to believe, based on deaths in the display, that there may be a parasitic disease (possibly marine velvet or ich) in the display and I'd like to treat the clown and let the tank lay fallow. So I want to move him over to the QT, and begin treating with copper then prazi pro. However, I have some concerns with velvet being a possible disease. I know velvet can be extremely deadly extremely quickly. Right now, the clown in the display is showing no signs or symptoms of the disease. (This is also somewhat preventative, as I never quarantined that particular clown). If he does have it however, I know a stressful event like moving him over to the QT can cause the parasite to take over, and also infect/kill the other fish there. I am taking steps to reduce all moving stress as much as I can, like I will be capturing him in a specimen container and am going to adjust QT parameters to match that of the display so acclimation is not required. I also plan to hang the specimen container in the QT for a couple of hours to get some degree of social acclimation with the clown that is already there, as he is quite a bit bigger (though they are both juveniles). Anyway, I guess my question is would it be advisable to already have the copper in the QT at the proper levels because of the speed that the disease can kill, or will this be more stressful to the fish as I have read that many people recommend bringing the copper level up over a couple of days. Also, is there anything else I can do to minimize stress, because I really don't want all my fish dying!

Thanks!
- Nick

 

[Maritimer]

I would bring the copper up over 48 hours or so _after_ moving the fish - not a good idea to drop a fish into full-strength copper.

You can perform a freshwater dip for the clown as you move him over, which will knock off _some_ of the velvet parasites, and follow that up with a 90min or so Acriflavin bath to help control possible secondary infection.

Fallow period for velvet is 6 weeks; ich is 76 days.

~Bruce