Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum)

seastar · Feb 5, 2016

4FordFamily said:
I wish cp was more readily available

Because it's regulated, does that mean a company can't provide it for us in the United States?

Humblefish · Feb 5, 2016

seastar said:
Because it's regulated, does that mean a company can't provide it for us in the United States?

Not without a prescription. The online sources (including ebay) that sell it are most likely sourcing it from China, and I do not trust the purity of CP coming from there.

4FordFamily · Feb 5, 2016

Humblefish said:
Not without a prescription. The online sources (including ebay) that sell it are most likely sourcing it from China, and I do not trust the purity of CP coming from there.

This. :/

Chknsamich · Feb 8, 2016

Can i use Ruby Reef Rally in place of Acriflavine-MS in baths? if so what is the amount I should be adding per gallon?

Humblefish · Feb 8, 2016

Chknsamich said:
Can i use Ruby Reef Rally in place of Acriflavine-MS in baths? if so what is the amount I should be adding per gallon?

Yes, as Rally contains acriflavine. Dosage for Rally is 1 oz per 10 gals.

Chknsamich · Feb 9, 2016

thanks for the reply Humblefish. one more question. do you have any
experiences with feeding Seachem metroplex/focus while the fish is being treated with chloroquine phosphate? or should i not mix? I was planning on doing that after the bath for these chromis. dropping them in the qt with CP then feeding metro to take care of Uronema as well.

Humblefish · Feb 9, 2016

Chknsamich said:
dropping them in the qt with CP then feeding metro to take care of Uronema as well.

CP treats ich, velvet, brook and uronema.

Chknsamich · Feb 17, 2016

Let's say that my lights(radion x30pro) were to accidentally go on for 2mins in the middle of treatment in my 30gallon that was dosed with 1.2gram of CP would this be enough time to degrade the CP?

Humblefish · Feb 17, 2016

Chknsamich said:
Let's say that my lights(radion x30pro) were to accidentally go on for 2mins in the middle of treatment in my 30gallon that was dosed with 1.2gram of CP would this be enough time to degrade the CP?

You're fine. In fact, here is a quote from a public aquarium employee who posted this in the CP thread:

Reef Fever said:
As far as degradation, we haven't done much testing in that department. We typically do a 30 day treatment. After those 30 days we use carbon and/or water changes to rid the system of CP. None of our QT systems are running UV so I can't offer much help in that aspect unfortunately. I have also heard the possibility that it is light sensitive but we do run lights on each of the systems. the 240 gallon systems run low wattage t5, and our 750's run 400W metal halides with PC bulbs. While running the lights we notice no significant change in the CP levels.

So, maybe the whole CP being light sensitive thing is BS.

Reef Fever · Feb 17, 2016

Humblefish said:
You're fine. In fact, here is a quote from a public aquarium employee who posted this in the CP thread:

So, maybe the whole CP being light sensitive thing is BS.

If I can remember to do it, I will see if we can spare some CP to do a little testing with. I'll make a 10PPM solution and set it directly under light for 7-8 hours and test the level before I leave work. I'm sure in the name of science the curator will allow me to do so

RMAS0934 · Feb 17, 2016

Thanks, Humble Fish! Appreciate all the info!

Humblefish · Feb 17, 2016

Reef Fever said:
If I can remember to do it, I will see if we can spare some CP to do a little testing with. I'll make a 10PPM solution and set it directly under light for 7-8 hours and test the level before I leave work. I'm sure in the name of science the curator will allow me to do so

That would be great! As not being able to use a light has always been considered a downside to using CP. Would be nice to dispel that myth.

Reef Fever · Feb 17, 2016

Humblefish said:
That would be great! As not being able to use a light has always been considered a downside to using CP. Would be nice to dispel that myth.

I will see what I can do. I am thinking a minimum of 3 different solutions. 1 under direct light, 1 under ambient light, and 1 in complete darkness.

Humblefish · Feb 23, 2016

All these threads about velvet lately has reminded me that I have a new patient to show off.

Meet Sally Sailfin.

When I first saw her I thought she just had ich. But after a 5 hr drive home and I got a better look at her in my QT, it became evident she had velvet. So I'm running her thru my Velvet QT protocol (outlined at the beginning of this thread) and she is doing quite well. More pics to follow.

jsbull · Mar 16, 2016

@Humblefish
Thank you so much for the outstanding write-up. I picked up a Copperband last week and only did an in-tank quarantine. It started eating well, so I released it. Almost immediately, it started rubbing on rocks, then stopped eating, spots showed up and I knew I had to get him out of the tank. At the time I thought it was Ick. Then I ran across your post and realized that before I removed him, he was hiding under rocks and swimming into the current. This was on Monday. I flew out on Tuesday for work and before I left Tuesday morning, I noticed my black clown showed signs and wouldn't eat. I freaked out. I couldn't skip my trip, so I called my LFS, Worlds Under Water in NW Arkansas. They were so awesome! I shared your process with them and they went to my house last night, set up a hospital tank, caught all my fish, FW dipped them and put them in the hospital tank treated with copper per your instructions. My wife reports that the black clown ate food this morning, so it clearly helped him out.

If it weren't for your article, my whole tank would be wiped out. I know they aren't out of the woods yet, but my Midas, Melanarus, Coral Beauty, Starry and both Clowns are very grateful for your help, as am I.

Humblefish · Mar 16, 2016

@jsbull I'm glad this information helped you and your fish. Good luck!

4FordFamily · Mar 16, 2016

Wow that's wonderful^. Humble sure is a life saver!

jsbull · Mar 16, 2016

Humblefish said:
@jsbull I'm glad this information helped you and your fish. Good luck!

I'll restate that I really do appreciate your help.

Unfortunately, I just heard from my wife and the treatment killed our Coral Beauty "Carl" and our very favorite fish, "Fatty", our Midas Blenny. Neither had any symptoms when removed from the DT. She says the melanuras looks bad too.

In hindsight, I wish I had treated the sick clown according to these instructions, but left the others in the display tank until I got home.

I'm sure something had to be done with them in the next couple of weeks, but now I feel like I killed two of our favorite fish that weren't sick yet.

Like with dinos, I'm learning not to overreact to issues in saltwater. You can quickly do more damage than good.

Maybe this will help others, maybe it will confuse, but it's a data point at least.

4FordFamily · Mar 17, 2016

Velvet sometimes affects fish without outward spots or symptoms. The other reality is that by the time you see it on the fish, it is often too late.

It may well be ammonia that is killing your fish. If that tank was not fully cycled, daily large water changes will be needed to keep ammonia down or that will end them. Has anyone been doing water changes and replacement medicine dosing?

Humblefish · Mar 17, 2016

@jsbull Sorry to hear you're losing fish!

Unfortunately, velvet can be a pretty fast killer and as mentioned above, visible physical symptoms are not always present. Due to the severity of velvet, you are forced to go from zero to therapeutic within 24 hrs (lesser of two evils). Some fish just cannot handle this. Normally you want to take 4-5 days to get up to full therapeutic with copper.