White Spot
- Thread starter Leta
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help!
HotRocks
Fish Fanatic!
ok, if you can it would be of great help in order to get you a proper diagnosis.
When I see all those clowns first thing that comes to mind is brook.
When you say white spot I think of ich, but if you are losing fish quickly it could be velvet. Take a look at this and see if your fish resemble any of the following pictures.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-disease-index-pictorial-guide.285708/
When I see all those clowns first thing that comes to mind is brook.
When you say white spot I think of ich, but if you are losing fish quickly it could be velvet. Take a look at this and see if your fish resemble any of the following pictures.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-disease-index-pictorial-guide.285708/
Big G
captain dunsel
Without closeup pictures of the fish it's harder for us to lend a hand. You mention losing "lots" of fish already. As @HotRocks has mentioned, when that happens, we usually suspect Velvet. Important things to note: clownfish are often the "last fish standing" in a velvet outbreak due to their heavy mucus coating. In the following treatment plan, and you need to work quickly, time is your enemy. Note that Humblefish has found that an acriflavine bath (the second step) greatly increases the survival rate. Ruby Reef Rally is the easiest acriflavine product to get a hold of.
Posted by @Humblefish
Emergency Treatment for Marine Velvet Disease
I recently acquired 3 fish - Longnose Butterfly, Kole Tang, Naso Tang - with velvet. None showed visible physical symptoms right away, but they all came from a tank where velvet was known to be present so I just patiently waited. Before & after pictures will follow immediately after this write-up.
In short, the Butterflyfish didn’t make it; however the two tangs did. The only difference in their treatment was I used formalin (with Methylene Blue) on the butterfly in a bath solution, whereas the tangs got acriflavine (with NO Methylene Blue). It’s also worth noting that the butterfly & Kole Tang showed symptoms the worst, whereas the Naso only had moderate visible symptoms. Tangs are also generally considered hardier than butterflyfish, so there’s that factor to consider as well. Anyway, here is the treatment I used on them:
The short version:
Posted by @Humblefish
Emergency Treatment for Marine Velvet Disease
I recently acquired 3 fish - Longnose Butterfly, Kole Tang, Naso Tang - with velvet. None showed visible physical symptoms right away, but they all came from a tank where velvet was known to be present so I just patiently waited. Before & after pictures will follow immediately after this write-up.
In short, the Butterflyfish didn’t make it; however the two tangs did. The only difference in their treatment was I used formalin (with Methylene Blue) on the butterfly in a bath solution, whereas the tangs got acriflavine (with NO Methylene Blue). It’s also worth noting that the butterfly & Kole Tang showed symptoms the worst, whereas the Naso only had moderate visible symptoms. Tangs are also generally considered hardier than butterflyfish, so there’s that factor to consider as well. Anyway, here is the treatment I used on them:
The short version:
- 5 minute freshwater dip
- Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:
- Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
- Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)
- After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
- While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
- Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.
