High Tide Aquatics

Velvet Outbreak

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wrestle1952

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I had a breakout of Velvet in my tank @ November. I ran a diatom and UV sterilizer and thought it would get rid of it. I bought new fish at a great Black Friday deal, put them in my tank (after multiple water changes and running the above) and they all died within two weeks of each other. Some of my other fish started to get really sick but a regal (blue) tang survived (getting cleaned and living by the cleaner shrimp.) It's now approaching March and wonder if it's safe. What have some of you done in a similar situation?
 
From my understanding the only way to eradicate velvet from your tank is to take out all the fish, leave it fallow for 6 weeks and in the meantime treat the fish with copper or chloroquine phosphate at therapeutic levels for 30 days or for 14 days followed by a transfer to a new totally sterile tank (is no equipment can be shared with either the display or the first quarantine tank). From what I’ve read on another forum I think some fish can develop an immunity or resistance to velvet for at least short periods of time, which may have happened in your case. But any new fish will likely fall ill and in fact could be bringing new strains of velvet to the tank if you don’t quarantine them.
 
Yup you will have to have the tank with no fish for like 7 weeks from what I was reading... On black Friday you might have also gotten something that was sick...
Not sure what to say since you had that tang in the tank...
Do you quarantine your fish before adding them to the main display?
 
Dang.
Once velvet (or ich) gets into your main tank, yes it is a real pain.

Best is the long fallow period of course. That is the only way to know for sure.
But that requires a long term quarantine tank, which not everyone can set up.
For those, others have had luck waiting 6 months between any visible sickness and adding a new fish.
The theory is it does die out eventually, but I have not seen any scientific studies, so risky.
 
I forgot to mention several of my other fish made it through the out break. A yellow tang, bi-color angel, algae blenny, and a Bangai cardinal (he was in a group of 4 while three others succumbed to the velvet outbreak, a yellow coris wrasse and another bigger wrasse. No I don't have a quarantine tank. No room right now.
 
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