# help with velvet



## tony070792 (Feb 28, 2008)

Had a bout with odinium 2 weeks ago and put infected fish in QT.
I used copper based product in QT and "No sick Fish" VELVET in the reef tank. All was fine I thought and reintroduced cured Foxface. Now 2 newly purchased fish are infected. What causes this/ what am I doing wrong?


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Did you purchase the new fish AFTER you began treating for odinium? Or did you already have the new fish? How did you diagnose the disease?

When dealing with Odinium or Cryptocaryon you have to be much more patient with treatment. A minimum of 6 weeks without signs of infection is needed to claim success. I usually recommend 3 months without purchasing new livestock. Both are very "sticky" diseases that are difficult to remove from your system entirely. Given that they are both deadly killers of marine fish, waiting 3 months is simply the smart thing to do.

Even more important that ridding your aquarium of the disease is figuring out why it appeared to begin with and finding a preventative for future infections. Do you utilize a quarantine tank? Does your LFS hold fish for future purchase? What is the size of your display tank? What are the inhabitants? What diet is being fed? What type of filtration are you using? What are the exact water readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and alkalinity? How long has your aquarium been set up? What are your maintenance habits?

Without the answers to all of these questions we can not identify the cause or recommend a permanent solution.


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## tony070792 (Feb 28, 2008)

I purchased the new fish after the odinium.
I didn't wait the period you recommend.
I am now using a qt for the visibly affected fish.
I feed them a mix of frozen foods in cubes from lfs.
I have a wet dry with a UV and a protein skimmer.
I usually change water 5 gallons weekly. The tank size is 65 gallons and has been running for about 3 months.
All levels are at 0 and ph is steady at 8.
Should I remove all fish from reef tank even if they all aren't showing signs. I am putting Velvet in reef tank and keeping UV and protein skimmer active.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

If i had your aquarium...

I would remove all the fish from the display aquarium for 8 weeks. I would apply a hyposalinity treatment in the QT (assuming you can maintain water quality). Hyposalinity is a lowering of the salinity below normal levels found in a marine aquarium. Most experts suggest 1.018 to 1.019.

Many advanced hobbyists consider hyposalinity to be the only effective treatment. Here is an excellent article on the subject:
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

You will have no need to mediate in the display tank. Without a host to attach to, the parasites will die naturally. Also, the use of a UV sterilizer on your display tank will help in this process.


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