Velvet

[K.J.]

When I moved my tank I stirred up a bunch of crap and probably caused the fish to have a heart attack, and I lost one. Everybody was behaving normally so i got another fish, and put it in short quarantine. They looked OK (no visible signs of disease) so I put the new fish in, but now I notice clamped fins and a seemingly gold dust over my male platy's MM pattern. Does it sound like velvet? I haven't taken the water stats yet, honestly a bit afraid to do so, but I will in a minute. Tank has been set up for a while, 3 - 4 months. What medicine is good for treating velvet, widely available and safe for plants? They're eating, but the cories have laboured breathing, can't really see any gold dust since they're shiny anyway. Water is about 80 - 81f.

 

[The-Wolf]

my best advise is here
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=198540

 

[K.J.]

Thanks wolf, will have a read. I have carbon in my filter but it's been used ever since I cycled, should I take it ou when medicating? The bag the carbon is in is not a bio bag, so you can't open it. I also have a bio wheel on there.

EDIT: Still reading it but... it's a planted tank and I've heard copper hurts plants Plus I definately can not turn off lights or the plants will die, considering there's ludwigia in there and you know how red plants can be.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/heal...thprotist.shtml

 

[K.J.]

Test results had ammonia.

Ammona .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

The ammonia makes me think... spike? or mini cycle? This tank is planted, would that explain for the 0 nitrate? I did a 25% water change and cleaned the biowheel and filter cartridge in the tank water, hopefully it was only the sludge on the filter that caused that.

 

[The-Wolf]

I'm sorry that you are more concerned with keeping your plants alive than you are your fish.
good luck with your next lot of fish.

 

[WILDER]

Not to sound harsh but I do agree if the plants die tough.

 

[K.J.]

Alright, I'm just editing out this post now that I have a solution. I can put the fish and their filter into the 55 gallon tank and treat them without disturbing the plants. would it work? the 55 gallon is empty but uncycled.

 

[The-Wolf]

your tank contains velvet, you need to treat the tank of it will reinfect any fish that you put back into it.
I don't understand why you think plants are more important than fish.

 

[Lynda B]

I don't think that's necessarily the case.... if it were me, I'd be interested in saving everything in the tank, too. Of course, the fish would take priority but I would most likely ask if I could use meds that were compatible with both fish and plants. If I couldn't and had to risk the plants, I would. Fish come first. I've never met a plant with personality.

Good luck. Let us know how you made out.

 

[K.J.]

Because, my parent's aren't letting me. Believe me, I would in a second but evidently I've invested "so much money in it I couldn't lose it."
I don't really know what to do. I'm prohibited from buying plant-killing medicines .(though I'm sure someone here is going to call that a lie, it's true, plus my parents spend like 100$ on it for me alone) Is it at all possible the plants would live? I am concerned for my fish very much so, but you have to understand, that I would dose with copper and no light but my parents don't want their money wasted. Because, my parent's basic view is "why spend so much on new plants when you could kill the fish and buy all new ones?"

 

[WILDER]

Even if you moved the plants into a box of water they could still have whitespot on them.

 

[K.J.]

Rats... Basically, no other situation except for kill the plants? Guess I can try to convince my mom ///

 

[WILDER]

Ok, good luck.
But then if they don't have a host they will die if you leave the plants out of the tank for a week.

 

[The-Wolf]

Now I understand your position K.J., or rather that of your parents.

ok as you can't do the best method of dealing with the velvet I shall give you a less successful treatment course
that may or may not work for you.

dose the tank with pure Acriflavin at the rate of 1ml per 30ltr.
do this for 10 days with a 50% water change (via gravel vac) on day 6 (before re-dosing)
lighting and feeding regime can stay the same. remove any carbon or zeolite from filters and turn off any UV sterilisers.
you need to ensure you have a good gas exchange during treatment, so running an air pump is advisable, as acriflavin breaks down O2

this method is not as effective as the copper treatment/darkness method but has around 55% success rate in curing velvet.

I hope that you manage to cure your fish, good luck.