Don't Know What To Do *updated With Pics*

[abzorbd]

I'm convinced that my fish have become infected with Velvet. They have periodically been flicking and rubbing on the gravel in my tank. They also have small patches which are a light blue/grey in color. These patches are semi shiny. So i went to my LFS and none of the treatments that they have say anything on them about Velvet or Oodinium. So should I just try one of them? Will the regular treatments for Ick work for Velvet? I'm worried about my fish. I don't want them to die.

I won't be able to get water stats until tomorrow morning. I have to go get a new test kit.

 

[alittlefishy]

I use a medication called ick attack, it also works on velvet, and it is all organic, I recently had my tank come down with velvet, used that stuff that turns your water blue and within two days half of my fish were dead, I put my carbon back in, did a massive water change and let the filters run for the night and the next day I added the ick attack and not a single one of my fish died after that. I would suggest daily water changes, and big ones at that, velvet has spored that live in hte water until they attach to other fish, water changes will help with that.

 

[abzorbd]

So you're saying Ick Attack? (Is that made by Jungle Laboratories) Not the stuff that turns the water blue? And water changes?

 

[alittlefishy]

http/www.novalek.com/kordon/ich_attack/index.htm

that is the stuff I uae, absolutley wonderful I swear by it. And yes water changes I would suggest 50% at least once a day to reduce the amount of free floating spores, and to improve water quality. Fis tend to get sick when they are stressed, either by the addition of a fish that doesnt get along with the community or by low quality water, or even by people tapping on their tank. so I would definently do water changes.

How often do you change their water now?

And what kind of fish do you have and how big is the tank, is there any way you could get some pics up of the infected fish?

oh sorry just noticed you already have the answers to some of my questions on your post.

 

[abzorbd]

I've been changing 30% of the water every 6 days.

My camera isn't that great so I can't get pics that show the velvet. It won't really show up.

 

[alittlefishy]

Thats fine for when they are not sick, but now that they are they need more water changes, have you medicated them with anything yet?

 

[abzorbd]

No not yet. I didn't want to give them the wrong thing and wind up poisoning them. The stores in my area are closed right now too. I'll have to go in the morning and get some meds. Should I do a water change before I add the meds? And then another one a few hours after I add the meds? Sorry for my ignorance. I've never had to medicate my fish before.

 

[alittlefishy]

do a water change, 50%, take out your carbon, add the recommended dosage, and what I like most about this medication is that it is virtually impossible to poison your fish with it as it is all natural and no chemicals, keep your arbon out for the duration of the treatment, do a 50% water change daily at about the same time each day and immediately add the medication, do you have any aquarium salt? do you have a heater and if so what temp are you set at?

 

[abzorbd]

I have two heatrs in my tank. One at either end. I have read that turning up the temp helps to speed up the life cycle of the bacteria. Therefore I have the temp set at 80F right now.

I have two HOB filters that I have been simply rinsing in my old water for some time now so the carbon in the cartridges is already dead. I'll just replace the cartridges after medicating.

As for salts, would that be okay for my cory and my Plecos? I know it won't hurt my mollies at all or my guppies. I don't have a clue about the other fish I have though.

 

[alittlefishy]

the salt will be fine for your other fish, just use the minimum amount recommended and put it in your filters not directly into the tank to insure that your fish dont eat the salt crystals, and I would recommend taking out your filter cartridges completely while medicating to insure that your meds get to your fish and dont just get filtered out.
are your heaters horizontal (side to side) or vertical (up and down) because if they are vertical the rising hot watre will give your heater a false read and may not be getting your tank up to the temp that is needed, do you have a thermometer? And yes 80 degrees is very good it shortens the life span of the bacteria

 

[abzorbd]

The heaters are both vertical but I don't go by the dials on them anyhow. Just in case they were calibrated wrong at the factory or whatnot. I have a thermometer in the middle of the front of the tank, on the inside. That way it doesn't get a false reading from the warmer water emanating from the heaters. Also so that I don't get a false reading from the water coming back into the tank from the filters. I've been keeping fish for about 3 years now and I know most of what I should to have healthy fish. I guess I've been lucky in the past. I've just never had a problem with my fish. Apparently from what I've been reading Ick is pretty common. I've never had it in my 3 years. But of course as soon as I say that though I'm bound to get it soon. lol. I've recently been thinking of setting up a quarentine tank. Now I know I definetly will. I don't want to go through this again. Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it.

 

[alittlefishy]

no prob

 

[abzorbd]

Well I went today and got a new test kit and the water quality was spot on and I also got the Ich Attack. I also got some aquarium salt. I did a 50% water change, put the salt in the filter and added the treatment. I have my fingers crossed.

 

[Tolak]

Pics of the fish would help, velvet looks like really tiny particles of gold dust, on smaller fish it will affect the gills, often you can't see the tiny gold dusting on fry.

This is something I encounter with fry from time to time, and as a preventative in my breeding setup medicate accordingly. Mardel CopperSafe will take care of it. Use a med tank with this med, copper will concentrate in & kill algae, releasing the copper back into the water. Algae eating fish will OD on the copper from eating the algae. As long as it is a clean tank, this is a safe medication. I dose fry tanks at half the dosage for the first week, this is something learned from years of breeding, not something your average aquarist wants to get in the habit of doing.

Do not put salt in a tank with catfish, this will irritate them, being scaleless fish. Very few freshwater fish need salt, and it is needed as a medication in very few cases. There is much documentation on this site to that effect.

80F is too warm for your fish, and bacteria multiply faster in warmer water. It will not shorten the life cycle of bacteria, though with ick it will quicken the life cycle, thus the cure.

If you remove your filter media you will be doing 50% water changes daily, and if you don't have another tank to run the media in your nitrifying bacteria will die, and the tank will have to go through cycling. I would remove any carbon if you are medicating with copper, I med tanks with it leaving the media in & have no problems at all. These are heavily stocked tanks, any problems with the bio filtration would show up within 24 hours.

As long as you have adequate water circulation it doesn't matter what position your heaters are in. I have tanks where they are horizontal, vertical, and diagonal, in many cases just tossed in the tank, if they are submerged they are fine. I'm running Ebo-Jagers, VisiTherms, and a couple oddball submersibles, they all work the same.

I certainly don't want to sound as if I'm shooting anyone down, but when I see a med that doesn't have a proven track record, salt being added that will have more of a negative effect than positive, and misinformation on how heaters function I feel I do have to speak up.

 

[abzorbd]

Well thank you for speaking up. My heaters are still in the same places they were in before. I will do another water change to get some of the salt out for my catfish. I will do another one tomorrow as well. I will try to get some pics also.