Velvet?

[ARGYGANG]

Would just like to reinforce my diagnosis of marine velvet on this juvi angel. (Not my fish just a diagnosis over the phone for a friend) behavior was described as laying on sand/ rocks heavy breathing and a fine dusting of “powdered sugar mixed with some mucus” from the picture I can tell this is most likely velvet as I’ve dealt with velvet on my Koran angel who looked identical and exhibited same symptoms and appearance. If it is not velvet of course let me know but just trying to help a friend who is new to fish disease.
Was also stated it is bad in morning then he doses reef poly labs and it goes away until night which leaves me to believe it is velvet due to the fast life cycle

 

[vetteguy53081]

Would just like to reinforce my diagnosis of marine velvet on this juvi angel. (Not my fish just a diagnosis over the phone for a friend) behavior was described as laying on sand/ rocks heavy breathing and a fine dusting of “powdered sugar mixed with some mucus” from the picture I can tell this is most likely velvet as I’ve dealt with velvet on my Koran angel who looked identical and exhibited same symptoms and appearance. If it is not velvet of course let me know but just trying to help a friend who is new to fish disease.
Was also stated it is bad in morning then he doses reef poly labs and it goes away until night which leaves me to believe it is velvet due to the fast life cycle

This is a hard pic to work with due to fuzziness and reflections but could be. Some signs you will notice IF velvet are:
- Scratching body against hard objects
- Fish is lethargic
- Loss of appetite and weight loss
- Rapid, labored breathing
- Fins clamped against the body
- rapid breathing and mucus around the gills

Fish with velvet will typically stay at the surface of the water, or remain in a position where a steady flow of water is present in the aquarium. As the disease progresses outwards from the gills, the cysts then become visible on the fins and body.

 

[ARGYGANG]

This is a hard pic to work with due to fuzziness and reflections but could be. Some signs you will notice IF velvet are:
- Scratching body against hard objects
- Fish is lethargic
- Loss of appetite and weight loss
- Rapid, labored breathing
- Fins clamped against the body
- rapid breathing and mucus around the gills

Fish with velvet will typically stay at the surface of the water, or remain in a position where a steady flow of water is present in the aquarium. As the disease progresses outwards from the gills, the cysts then become visible on the fins and body.

Yep seems like it then, was told his sailfin died while this was all going on by swimming so close to the wave maker it got sucked up. Among other things I feel like it’s quite possible this is velvet and due to the amount of fish and size of fish (koran angel bird wrasse hippo tang etc) in his 60 cube that the disease will spread far to fast to treat, since all the fish are stressed 24/7.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yep seems like it then, was told his sailfin died while this was all going on by swimming so close to the wave maker it got sucked up. Among other things I feel like it’s quite possible this is velvet and due to the amount of fish and size of fish (koran angel bird wrasse hippo tang etc) in his 60 cube that the disease will spread far to fast to treat, since all the fish are stressed 24/7.

With velvet, Remove fish from main tank and give them a FW dip or bath and then place them into a QT and treat the fish in the QT with a copper-based medication. Although many over-the-counter remedies contain the general name as ich or ick treatments, carefully read the box to be sure it is specifically designed to target Oodinium. My choice is coppersafe at 2.25-2.5 therapuetic level for a FULL 30 days monitored by a reliable copper test kit (no api brand either). Assure the medication you use states - treats Oodinum

 

[MnFish1]

it looks like velvet. you would want to treat all of your fish in a hospital tank - that said if its CI - it would be less virulent. It would not hurt to follow the protocol for CI/Velvet - for all your fish

 

[ARGYGANG]

it looks like velvet. you would want to treat all of your fish in a hospital tank - that said if its CI - it would be less virulent. It would not hurt to follow the protocol for CI/Velvet - for all your fish

That’s what I was thinking, this is a friends tank who called me this morning and send me that pic asking what was wrong and why his always active fish are now dropping dead left and right and then proceeded to describe to me my exact experience treating velvet quite a few times now (I rescue fish) but the reason I posted this was I was a bit skeptical about what it looks like on a angel, since the only other time ive dealt with a angel with velvet was at the beginning of my hobby experience.

 

[ARGYGANG]

With velvet, Remove fish from main tank and give them a FW dip or bath and then place them into a QT and treat the fish in the QT with a copper-based medication. Although many over-the-counter remedies contain the general name as ich or ick treatments, carefully read the box to be sure it is specifically designed to target Oodinium. My choice is coppersafe at 2.25-2.5 therapuetic level for a FULL 30 days monitored by a reliable copper test kit (no api brand either). Assure the medication you use states - treats Oodinum

Well I tried to give the best advice on it I personally have now seen the fish in person it’s 100% velvet but since his bird wrasse isn’t displaying parasites on its skin and our local petco sold him polyplab medic to treat it with a uv sterilizer and told him to run it for a week (the uv makes the meds ineffective even though reef safe meds are not great to begin with) it’s sad to see this is how 90% of new hobbyist join the hobby and quickly end up leaving it due to money hungry lfs. Thanks for the help though with the diagnosis I’m now confident in my ability to identify disease in marine fish.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Well I tried to give the best advice on it I personally have now seen the fish in person it’s 100% velvet but since his bird wrasse isn’t displaying parasites on its skin and our local petco sold him polyplab medic to treat it with a uv sterilizer and told him to run it for a week (the uv makes the meds ineffective even though reef safe meds are not great to begin with) it’s sad to see this is how 90% of new hobbyist join the hobby and quickly end up leaving it due to money hungry lfs. Thanks for the help though with the diagnosis I’m now confident in my ability to identify disease in marine fish.

Yeah- Medic while ive used it is merely peroxide salts and the UV is good, but only when the free floating parasites pass through the column and tube of the UV unit and not get it off the fish

 

[ARGYGANG]

Yeah- Medic while ive used it is merely peroxide salts and the UV is good, but only when the free floating parasites pass through the column and tube of the UV unit and not get it off the fish

Yeah the uv is gonna help with the velvet but it’ll just prolong the death and probably kill the fish via bacterial infection from the injury’s vs velvet itself

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just an observation - once fish loss has taken place due to an outbreak (or either ich or velvet) UV sterilizers and reef safe medications almost never work to stop further disease loss.

Late stage ich is difficult to tell from velvet in a still photo, video is easier for me, but since the treatment is the same either way, the course would be the same.

Jay