I think my Cory Catfish has Velvet

Hey guys!

One of my green Cory catfish isn’t looking too hot. His fins are clamped and his over all appearance looks blurry. Like I can’t se the details in the scales like I can the others. It’s like trying through glasses that have a finger print. I don’t see any gold flecks but the blurry appearance makes me think velvet and there’s white fuzz. I’ve had some salt in the tank a couple weeks ago (10 gallon and I put enough salt in there for 6 gallons to be mindful of the Cory’s sensitivity) because of some fin rot in my guppies and I’ve gone a half water change since then. All my other Cory’s look fine.

For medications I have: ich-x, prazipro, api em erythromycin, and api super ich cure, and melafix. If it comes down to it would ichx be the best?

In the pictures you can see the fuzz. I’m taking him out rn and putting him in my isolation tank. I included a picture of one of the healthy Cory’s for comparison

Update: took a flash picture in the dark bc the internet said that’s the best way to see the gold flecks. He’s got gold dust. It’s velvet. Do I need to treat the entire tank?

Okay panic at the disco. How easy is it to spread? The tank with the sick Cory is my juvenile guppy tank and I don’t typically rinse my fingers between feeding tanks and I moved over some big enough guppy fry a couple weeks ago. Is the slight water on my fingers enough to contaminate my other tanks??

I’m gonna remove the little man for now and put him in my QT tank and see what y’all think and start extreme treatment in the morning. Doing water change in the juvenile tank now

You know this is velvet. How?

itiwhetu said:

You know this is velvet. How?

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I’m not 100% certain but from my current knowledge that is my best guess.

1. Lethargic
2. Clamped fins
3. Not eating
4. Covered in a thin white fuzz
5. When I took the picture with the flash it appears that fuzz had a goldish tint.
6. When I first starting keeping fish 11 months ago, I accidentally bought a fish sick with ich before I knew what ich was, and those white spots looked much more defined and weren’t fuzzy at all. They were easily counted, hence, why I think this is velvet.
7. The fuzz isn’t clumped together so I don’t thinks it’s the cotton wools disease

I don’t know of any other fish sicknesses that cause a fuzzy fish, but if there are please inform me!

I just posted a zoomed in picture to hopefully show the small white fuzz better.

What are your water parameters, pH etc.

Not sure, I’ll need to go get a test. I checked a month or so ago and is was 0 ammonia and nitrate with a ph if 7.5 and I’ve done two 50% water changes since.

biofish said:

Not sure, I’ll need to go get a test. I checked a month or so ago and is was 0 ammonia and nitrate with a ph if 7.5 and I’ve done two 50% water changes since.

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pH could be the problem or Nitrates. these fish like acid tanks, just slightly but acid.

I am going to stick my neck out here

Cories do not tolerate salt at all. If you salted the entire aquarium rather than remove the afflicted Guppies to a QT and salt bathe them in a QT, there will be residue of salt on the substrate of the aquarium. Cories are substrate shifters, any amount of salt residue will stick to them and could cause issues with their slimecoat, thus initiating irritation. Salt does not fully evaporate in an aquarium, residue hangs about til manually shifted by water changes and substrate hoovering.

When was the last time you thoroughly hoovered the substate?
How often have you done water changes since stopping the salt?

Velvet on a Cory, not likely!

I've seen velvet on Corys, although it isn't usually their problem because of their armour plating. It tends to settle around their heads. It is probably one of the similar skin parasites - we lump them together as velvet but they can differ.

The best way to cultivate these parasites is overfeeding and not changing water, so look at your regime.

Velvet is tough. It spreads like dumb ideas, so your whole tank has it. First, lights off, as some of these parasite photosynthesize. We're in the dark for fighting them, so it's only just to keep them in the dark too. I wouldn't salt Corys. A copper based med (always risky) will handle most of these things, and I have cleared related parasites with methelyne blue. It doesn't work on velvet but did on a similar parasite I brought in by mistake a few years ago. Acriflavene, if you can get it, is an old treatment, and formalin in malachite green ich meds will slay some of these creatures.

It's a tough problem to isolate, even if you see the fish live. In photos, yikes. Water changes siphoned from the bottom, darkness and a med. melafix is useless. Check the ingredients on the ich meds.

DON"T MOVE HER TO QT. The parasite is in the tank, and it is hard to eradicate. You'll just infect the other tank. Your nets etc will need a 5% bleach soak at the end of it all. This is not a disease, but a parasitic creature that gets around.

On this, we have to trust your eye and your research though. I can tell you how I've fought it in the past, but you have to make the decisions as the person who sees the symptoms.

wasmewasntit said:

I am going to stick my neck out here

Cories do not tolerate salt at all. If you salted the entire aquarium rather than remove the afflicted Guppies to a QT and salt bathe them in a QT, there will be residue of salt on the substrate of the aquarium. Cories are substrate shifters, any amount of salt residue will stick to them and could cause issues with their slimecoat, thus initiating irritation. Salt does not fully evaporate in an aquarium, residue hangs about til manually shifted by water changes and substrate hoovering.

When was the last time you thoroughly hoovered the substate?
How often have you done water changes since stopping the salt?

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I believe I’ve done two 50% changes on this tank since the salt but it’s has been a hot second since I’ve vacuumed the substrate. I’ll do that and that’ll make 3 50% water changes.

GaryE said:

I've seen velvet on Corys, although it isn't usually their problem because of their armour plating. It tends to settle around their heads. It is probably one of the similar skin parasites - we lump them together as velvet but they can differ.

The best way to cultivate these parasites is overfeeding and not changing water, so look at your regime.

Velvet is tough. It spreads like dumb ideas, so your whole tank has it. First, lights off, as some of these parasite photosynthesize. We're in the dark for fighting them, so it's only just to keep them in the dark too. I wouldn't salt Corys. A copper based med (always risky) will handle most of these things, and I have cleared related parasites with methelyne blue. It doesn't work on velvet but did on a similar parasite I brought in by mistake a few years ago. Acriflavene, if you can get it, is an old treatment, and formalin in malachite green ich meds will slay some of these creatures.

It's a tough problem to isolate, even if you see the fish live. In photos, yikes. Water changes siphoned from the bottom, darkness and a med. melafix is useless. Check the ingredients on the ich meds.

DON"T MOVE HER TO QT. The parasite is in the tank, and it is hard to eradicate. You'll just infect the other tank. Your nets etc will need a 5% bleach soak at the end of it all. This is not a disease, but a parasitic creature that gets around.

On this, we have to trust your eye and your research though. I can tell you how I've fought it in the past, but you have to make the decisions as the person who sees the symptoms.

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Any recommended medications that contain it?

I’ve got both tanks covered (since I already moved the one to the QT tank last night) by a towel. My sister ended up dosing the QT tank with ichx last night but I convinced her to hold off on the main tank until we got some input. Luckily the QT tank had no salt in it whatsoever so if it was chased by a salt irritation hopefully that will help the lad.

I don’t see any symptoms on the other fish in the tank, but I’m not doubting it’s in the water. Is it okay to start a treatment even if most of the fish look healthy? There was 4 other cories and a heck ton of juvenile guppies.

And yeah. That’s why I put a reduced amount of salt in the tank when I needed to, I didn’t wanna hurt the cories. The fin rot wasn’t bad but I wanted to nip it in the bud before it sprouted to anything. Guess I should’ve isolated the cories instead and given the guppies the full treatment.

But I’ll do another water change today! Vacuum that gravel and swirl the water above the sand.

I’m still confused on which medication to who for sure. I’m looking up what medications allegedly contain the Acriflavene, and I think my api E.M has it. But that’s more of a fungus treatment I think. And my ich x claims to have a safer form of malachite green for scaleless fish.

How does velvet even get into tanks? I’ve never had it before in my tanks. The Cory catfish are my newest addition to that tank but they’ve been in there for about a month, month and a half; got them in the mail. And I QTed them for two weeks before adding them of course. The guppies were bred in my own tanks.

biofish said:

I’m not 100% certain but from my current knowledge that is my best guess.

1. Lethargic
2. Clamped fins
3. Not eating
4. Covered in a thin white fuzz
5. When I took the picture with the flash it appears that fuzz had a goldish tint.
6. When I first starting keeping fish 11 months ago, I accidentally bought a fish sick with ich before I knew what ich was, and those white spots looked much more defined and weren’t fuzzy at all. They were easily counted, hence, why I think this is velvet.
7. The fuzz isn’t clumped together so I don’t thinks it’s the cotton wools disease

I don’t know of any other fish sicknesses that cause a fuzzy fish, but if there are please inform me!

Click to expand...

1) When fish are sick from any disease or water quality issue, they can become lethargic.

2) Clamped fins can be caused by poor water quality or someting in the water irritating the fish, or an external protozoan infection (velvet is an external protozoan), or a bacterial or fungal infection. It's not bacterial or fungal.

3) Fish stop eating when they are sick or if there is a water quality issue. Most fish with velvet will continue to eat.

4)The white film over the body is excess mucous produced by the fish to counter something that is irritating it. This can be caused by poor water quality, something like chemicals/ medication in the water, or external protozoan infections. If the fish has cream, white or grey patches over the body and fins, it is normally an external protozoan infection. If the entire fish is covered in a cream, white or grey film, then it is something in the water.

5) If you photograph a fish using a camera with the flash on, then Velvet will show up as a yellow/ gold sheen over part or all of the body. The pictures do show some gold on the rear part of the fish, which could be velvet.

6) The fish does not have white spot. It does have excess mucous over its body.

7) The white fuzz is excess mucous.

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Vevet can spread slowly and fish might have 1 parasite that can spread over the course of a month before they show any major symptoms.

Fish with Velvet will rub on objects in the tank.
Is the fish rubbing or scratching itsef on things in the tank?

Fish with more advanced stages of velvet will have a yellow/ gold sheen over part or all of their body.

Velvet can be treated with heat (30C/ 86F) for 2-4 weeks, or at least 1 week after all the gold is gone. Or you can use a copper based medication. Do Not use heat and medication because you will probably kill everything in the tank.

Having said this, I would think the fish has other issues and possibly not velvet. It might have velvet but that is not the main issue with the fish. It looks skinny and stressed out. It could have intestinal worms and or gill flukes. And there might be a water quality issue, however the other catfish looks to be in good condition so water quality is unikely to be the cause.

I would deworm the fish and treat them for gill flukes first (Flubendazole does both. Praziquantel will treat tapeworm and gill flukes).
See if you can get the fish to eat. The more food it eats, the more chance it has of fighting off the problem, or at least surviving long enough until we figure out what is wrong. And then maybe add some medication for external protozoan parasites, but that should be a last resort.

See section 3 of the following link for deworming fish.