Treating velvet disease

Hi all,

I have just noticed a milky cloudy stuff partially covering the head of a guppy fish, it's also on the body and tail fin of my betta fish. They are also quite lethargic and are sitting on the substrate (especially the guppy).
Though after some googling and youtubing, I'm pretty sure the culprit is velvet disease. Some pics attached below, was tricky to get in focus pic of my betta, he can't sit still

Most of the info I read/watched suggests using medication with formaldehyde and malachite green, or aquarium salts.
I'm going on holidays next Thursday for christmas and new years and am leaving my tanks in my mum's care, but she doesn't know much about fish care.

I would like to knock this on the head before I go, so I have some AquaOne broad spectrum remedy that has malachite green in it and aquarium salts. What I would like to know is:

1. Should I treat the whole tank? (guppies and a betta, couple mystery snails but I can move them to another tank, live plants)
2. Water change before I treat the tank?
3. Is using AquaOne broad spectrum remedy and aquarium salts a good course of treatment? Or would you recommend something better/more effective?

Thank you in advance!

CozyCat said:

Hi all,

I have just noticed a milky cloudy stuff partially covering the head of a guppy fish, it's also on the body and tail fin of my betta fish. They are also quite lethargic and are sitting on the substrate (especially the guppy).
Though after some googling and youtubing, I'm pretty sure the culprit is velvet disease. Some pics attached below, was tricky to get in focus pic of my betta, he can't sit still

Most of the info I read/watched suggests using medication with formaldehyde and malachite green, or aquarium salts.
I'm going on holidays next Thursday for christmas and new years and am leaving my tanks in my mum's care, but she doesn't know much about fish care.

I would like to knock this on the head before I go, so I have some AquaOne broad spectrum remedy that has malachite green in it and aquarium salts. What I would like to know is:

1. Should I treat the whole tank? (guppies and a betta, couple mystery snails but I can move them to another tank, live plants)
2. Water change before I treat the tank?
3. Is using AquaOne broad spectrum remedy and aquarium salts a good course of treatment? Or would you recommend something better/more effective?

View attachment 150117View attachment 150118View attachment 150119View attachment 150120

Thank you in advance!

Click to expand...

not sure about if it is a good treatment but put him in a seperation thing plants dont like salt

It's not velvet. Velvet appears as a yellow or gold sheen over the body and fins. It causes fish to rub on objects for a few weeks before it shows any symptoms.

If you photograph fish at night using a camera with its flash ON, it will show up velvet as a yellow/ gold sheen over part or all of the body.

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The fish have excess mucous (cream white patches on the body and fins).

This is normally caused by poor water quality (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or wrong pH), or an external protozoan infection like Costia, Chilodonella, trichodina, or chemicals (fertiliser, medication) in the water.

Poor water quality and chemicals/ medications normally cause the excess mucous to appear all over the head, body and fins.

External protozoans cause cream, white or grey patches over the head, body and sometimes fins. This is what the fish appear to have.

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You can use salt, Malachite Green or Copper Sulphate to treat the above listed parasites. Salt is the safest, then copper, although it kills shrimp and snails. Then Malachite Green, which is carcinogenic (causes cancer) so should only be used as a last resort.

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WHAT TO DO NOW
Remove carbon from the filter before treating with chemical medications or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working. You do not have to remove carbon if using salt.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

If you are gong on a holiday for a week, just feed them 3-5 times a day leading up to the holiday, then don't bother feeding them while you are away. Your mum won't have to feed the fish while you are away.

If you are going away for a couple of weeks, measure out some small amounts of food and put them in separate containers (zip lock bag or something). Get your mum to add ONE dose of food every 3 days, and no more.

Do big daily water changes and gravel clean the substrate when feeding more often to keep the tank clean.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

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Have the tank light on a timer.

Increase the lighting period by a few hours a day to encourage algae and the fish can graze on this. Reduce the lighting period when you return if algae is growing everywhere.

Clean the filter a few days before you go so it is clean while you are away.

Feed them before you walk out the door for your holiday, and leave them be.

If you add some live plants it can provide them with something to grave on. However, do not add new plants just before you go, in case they introduce a disease. If you are going to add plants, do it at least one week before you leave.

Update on the condition of these two:

The morning after I posted this thread through female guppy had not improved and I decided to euthanase it using clove oil

I went on my holiday last Thursday (Christmas eve) leaving my tanks in my mum's care, I prepared my tanks as best I could. Today (new years eve) I learned that my betta has passed

Not sure why he died, he was improving with the aquarium salt treatment but I guess not.

Thanks all for your suggestions on treating this issue, I guess you learn best through experience.