Tank Disaster

[MMAX]

Originally started a thread about my Kole tang with what I thought was white spot. Read what was posted if you want to find out what happened. I recently lost a dragon goby and yesterday my Kole passed on. I'm sad to report my pair of clowns might be next. I have a marine velvet outbreak. I just finished setting up a hospital tank for them but it may be too late. This afternoon I checked on them and they were covered. Hopefully the medication will work but I'm not overly optimistic. So far my lawnmower blenny and zebra darts show no signs but I'll have to get them out and into treatment ASAP. I'm pretty sure the Kole must have brought the disease with him into my tank. From now on everything that goes in will be quarantined first. Is it true that after all the fish are removed the virus will die because there are no hosts? How long does this take? Any other advice would be much appreciated.

[marie]

Originally started a thread about my Kole tang with what I thought was white spot. Read what was posted if you want to find out what happened. I recently lost a dragon goby and yesterday my Kole passed on. I'm sad to report my pair of clowns might be next. I have a marine velvet outbreak. I just finished setting up a hospital tank for them but it may be too late. This afternoon I checked on them and they were covered. Hopefully the medication will work but I'm not overly optimistic. So far my lawnmower blenny and zebra darts show no signs but I'll have to get them out and into treatment ASAP. I'm pretty sure the Kole must have brought the disease with him into my tank. From now on everything that goes in will be quarantined first. Is it true that after all the fish are removed the virus will die because there are no hosts? How long does this take? Any other advice would be much appreciated.


I would leave the display fishless for 8 weeks....6 weeks minimum. Marine velvet is nasty, good luck with it.

[ElGuappo]

i have heard it takes 3 months to rid a tank of ich wihtout fish... no idea about the MV tho.

[bvlester]

to rid tank of MV it can take upto 3 months you can speed the process up a bit by raising the tempto 82 or 84 I forget. but it still taks between 8 and 10 weeks even with raising the temp. inverts are fine in the tank MV needs fish to host on.

Bill

[MMAX]

So after 3 months how do you make sure it's gone? Do you keep doing water changes and regular maintenance while you wait? I read keeping the tank in total darkness will kill it. Total darkness will also kill my corals. What a sh*tty thing to deal with.

[fishytime]

first off sorry for your troubles.....Laurie(fishoholic) said she would post a link to her MV thread later today for ya....best of luck....:sad:

[fishoholic]

I had velvet go though my tanks and it is one of the worst things to see your fish die from, it really puts them through hell before killing them :cry:

I never shut off the lights and I didn't raise the temp, just took all the fish out of the display and QT'd them in a seperate tank and treated them with cuppermine (or however you spell it :redface:). I kept the fish out of the display tank for 8 weeks before putting them back in.

Here's a link to my marine velvet thread, there is a lot of good info in the links I added to that thread and there is also some very disturbing pic.'s of what the velvet did to my fish.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=51938&highlight=marine+velvet+horribleness

[daniella3d]

Velvet is not a virus, it's a parasite dinoflagellate. The only thing that kill it and easy to get and relatively safe is Seachem Cupramine. Never ever put any dechlorinator in the water where you put Cupramine as it would bind with the amine and release very toxic form or copper.

Beside that it's safe.

QT is a must. I have a blue hippo tang in hyposalinity for 3 weeks now to treat ich and each fish I will be getting will go into a minimum 4 week quarantine with hypo or cupramine for 2 weeks, depending on the fish.

Even my corals go to a temporary tank for 4 weeks empty of fish so that if they carry some fish parasites kists they will die.

What medication are you using?

This afternoon I checked on them and they were covered. Hopefully the medication will work but I'm not overly optimistic. So far my lawnmower blenny and zebra darts show no signs but I'll have to get them out and into treatment ASAP.

[daniella3d]

The most resistant ich strain ever recoreded took 71 days to die but that's unusual. Most case is that ich is 100% dead after 60 days, so 8 weeks should be fine for ich.

I don't know for velvet but I would play it safe because this is such a nasty parasites.

i have heard it takes 3 months to rid a tank of ich wihtout fish... no idea about the MV tho.

[jimbo222]

sorry to hear..
keep up the post's with your progress we learn lots from these posts .and what to do when evil strike's
jim

[MMAX]

The only medication I have on hand is Instant Ocean Lifeguard. I have used it before on these same clowns when they had some kind of parasite about 2 years ago. So far, so good. They were stressed as hell when I caught them yesterday but seem not too bad today. Now to take apart my rockwork and get my lawnmower and zebras out.

[lukep]

I had ich attack my aquarium really bad not to long ago. It got to the point with a clown where it was do or die, it was completely covered. I had no option because the ich medicine wasnt working and it was to late at night to get something else. So I figured what should I do? The thing will be dead by morning anyway. So I went looking in the house for a cure. So I freshwater dipped him with two small drops of mouthwash in a cup. The next day he was perfectly clean. He needed two more dips over a week period and I won. He is still alive. I guess it makes sense, its antibacterial......

[marie]

....... So I went looking in the house for a cure. So I freshwater dipped him with two small drops of mouthwash in a cup.

0.0 You dipped your fish in mouthwash???.....I'm not sure I would of been that brave even if the fish was dying

*edit*You do know ich is a parasite not a bacteria right?

[daniella3d]

well not really make sense since ich is not a bacteria and when the ich kist is deep in the skin it is safe from medication.

I would be skeptical if the ich is cured, probably just a recess?

The next day he was perfectly clean. He needed two more dips over a week period and I won. He is still alive. I guess it makes sense, its antibacterial......

Lifeguard contain N-Halamine desinfectant. Interesting, let us know if it works. I really doubt that it will cure marine velvet though.

[lukep]

All I know is that was 3 months ago and I have not had it in my tank since and the clown is perfectly alive and happy. And before the dip he was white as snow and breathing very heavily. So now I make this dip for all my fish before placing them in my aquarium, no ich and no deaths in three months. Either way bacteria/parasite the ich didnt make it through the dip alive. I have tried freshwater dips in past and not had any great results. I am not saying its the way, but as a last resort maybe.....

[MMAX]

Thanks for all the info Laurie, I remember reading some of it when it happened to you. I guess one positive thing I can take from all this is that I only had 8 fish in my tank. So far 3 are dead (Kole, dragon and orange spot gobies). The clowns are hanging in there, the male looks real good but the female is still sick. They are both eating well so I'm hoping they'll pull through. Dismantled all my rockwork in my display and put most of the rock into the sump, also brought my 20gal back up to specs. Caught the lawnmower and one zebra dart tonight and put them into the 20. The bigger of the two darts is hiding in an old coral skeleton I think, so I'm not sure how I'll get him. He probably won't come out for a couple of days now. Anyways, that's where I'm at now.

[daniella3d]

The ick is deeply enkisted in the skin and even a fresh water dip won't kill it. It is only susceptible when in free swimming. so a fresh water dip won't kill ich from your fish, it only appear to be.

All I know is that was 3 months ago and I have not had it in my tank since and the clown is perfectly alive and happy. And before the dip he was white as snow and breathing very heavily. So now I make this dip for all my fish before placing them in my aquarium, no ich and no deaths in three months. Either way bacteria/parasite the ich didnt make it through the dip alive. I have tried freshwater dips in past and not had any great results. I am not saying its the way, but as a last resort maybe.....

[MMAX]

Finally caught the zebra last night so my 100gal is now fishless. I'm happy to report that my 2 clowns have made a full recovery.These guys are troopers and have been through alot. Would have been sad to loose them as I have had them for a long time. I'll keep them in my 2.5gal hospital tank for a little while yet just to make sure they're good. I guess I can rebuild the rockwork in my display and begin the long wait now.

[Wayne]

Congradulations! Glad to see things are on an upward swing :lol:

[MMAX]

I guess it's time to re-open this thread. It's been just under 3 months since my velvet outbreak and my 100 gal has been fishless for this time period (just under 3 months meaning a matter of about a week). The survivors have been doing great in my 20 gal. A week ago during a water change I took a couple of gallons of water from my display and added it to my quarentine...so far so good and everyone's well. Do I chance it and place at least my clowns back into the main tank? From what I've read in here it probably won't be a gamble and everything should be ok. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[daniella3d]

3 months fishless should be ok, especialy if you did a test and added water from the main tank to the QT and everyone is ok.

Just to be on the safe side, you can wait another 2 weeks for a total of 21 days to see if the clown develop another outbreak but I would really doubt it.

How long does this stuff survive?? I read 8 weeks would do it?


From what I've read in here it probably won't be a gamble and everything should be ok. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[MMAX]

So here's the finished product...again. Water change today, a quick clean-up and the 5 fish back in. 3 months fishless was a long time. Here's a few pics.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o122/jgo555/ReefTank098.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o122/jgo555/ReefTank097.jpg

And the zebra darts hiding and nowhere in sight like usual.

A couple of FTS pics for good measure

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o122/jgo555/ReefTank100.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o122/jgo555/ReefTank099.jpg