Marine Velvet, I can't believe its happening to me.

[Skimmerking]

Well I was hoping it wasnt ick, However since last week in my RSM 250 i have lost
10 yr old kole tang
pair of manderins
Labouti wrasse the male
Algae blenny
Midas Blenny
Male Bangii Cardinal.

my 3 Clowns all have it along with the female labouti wrasse

My mystery wrasse, prawn goby,leopard wrasse, dart fish, yellow wrasse does not have any signs. i have been hitting the tank with ick the temp is 78 -79. I know that my temp, i had a couple days where it was at79- 82 in a swing. I'm really hoping that it isnt from that. other then that I have been coming home to dead fish or wasking up in the morning to a fish that has recently passed away.

I'm really not liking seeing my babies that i had in my 240 go from that and now its like I have been killing them. My 10 yr old Kole who i still can't bare to talk about and my Algae Blenny who would jump into my hand and eat too. When ever the handwas in the tank the blenny would nibble on my hand and fingers looking for food. I'm really starting to think sell off all the corals and call it a day and take a break from it all. these smallertanks and having htem upstairs is killing me without a chiller and a OZONE. I guess t hat i have been spoiled all these years with the larger tanks.

Sorry just needed to vent here at work. My family is also very sad where all the fish have been dyiong. Each one has there own fish who they feed and play with.


NOT A GOOD DAY OR WEEK>

[FishyFishy!]

I hear you man. I didn't quarantine a powder blue and there was an outbreak of ick in my tank, and since all of the lost fish have faded a lot before they died i'm wondering if it something worse. I'm monitoring my tank like crazy now.

So far I have lost:

Powder Blue Tang
Pajama Cardinal
Flame Angel
Emperor Angel
Disbar Anthias

And I just noticed that my huge old clown female is fading and has small spots.

[MarkoD]

That really sucks. Too bad skimmers don't pull out parasites

[Coralgurl]

Very sorry for your losses!! Is there anything you can do to stop it or does it just have to run its course?

Hang in there!

[Snappy]

I feel your pain. I introduced two fish into my system last Boxing day and had my fish get sick with velvet within 2-3 days. :twised: It starts off looking similar to ich but then coats them in a whiteish blanket of velvet. I lost over 50 fish including some of my long time faves. It wiped out a lot of fish but there are at least a dozen that I thought were gonners that have recovered completely. That said, I still have another 3 or 4 fish that were really sick and recovered but still have some cloudiness in their eyes that I am possitive is just scarring from when they were sick because I have added other fish since then with no ill effects. I guess they now just have cateracs. Anyway it took about 3 months to run it's course. If they will continue to eat the stronger ones may have a fighting chance to beat it. I am very sorry for your losses and hope it doesn't continue.

[FishyFishy!]

Yeah one of my damsels has the cloudy eyes, and my big clown is starting to get cloudy eyes.... :-(

[Lance]

So sorry to hear this Mike.

[Casey8]

I am very sorry for you Mike :( I had been going through this disease several times in this hobby too. It really sucks when you lost a Kole tang after having it for 10 years.
Very sorry Mike.

[reefgirl189]

I'm really sorry... I hope everything takes a turn for the better. Don't jump ship just yet!

[Aquattro]

I'm really sorry... I hope everything takes a turn for the better.

IME, this doesn't ever take a turn for the better. Your fish die. Usually all of them. After my bout, I will not put a fish in my tank that has not been quarantined and treated. Period.

[MarkoD]

What if you run a uv sterilizer? Maybe you'll be able to save some of the stronger fish

[Aquattro]

What if you run a uv sterilizer? Maybe you'll be able to save some of the stronger fish

I'd say at this point, if it's MV, it's too late.

[Skimmerking]

I'd say at this point, if it's MV, it's too late.
so what about the fish that hasn't been hit and the shrimp too.

[Aquattro]

Mike, when I got hit, all the fish except 1 goby got it. I was able to catch them all and start treatment, but not in time and lost most. I saved a pair of clowns, a yellow tang, a damsel and hmm, that's it. Some fish didn't show signs the same day, but within 3 days, all fish (except the goby) had signs.

If you have a UV, there's certainly no harm throwing it on, but I don't think it's going to help at this point.

[FishyFishy!]

This blows.

But here is a good link I found that has lots of good info on it....and the realisms that we are to face when having this horrible disease.

http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine-fish-care-health-disease-treatment/20348-marine-velvet-myths-facts.html

[MKLKT]

I suffered the same fate as Aquattro about the same time earlier this year. I lost about half my fish. I did a 1 month course Metronidazole/Focus and garlic drops, the remaining fish stabilized although it's tough to give the efficacy. My foxface had clouded eyes (and was blind on one side), dots all over and was listing a bit and has now made a full recovery.

I suspected a sudden drop in temperature at the time is what caused the stress as I hadn't added any fish in many months.

I left the livestock alone for about 3 months before I added anything new; since then it's been another 3 now and have no further issues.

The symptoms of each fish were kinda different so a true diagnosis is tough, all I know is that I feel your pain. It really sucks, the whole family was pretty glum here, too.

[MarkoD]

There has to be a good reason why large and public aquariums use uv sterilizers. Whats the disadvantage of using one? Because it'll kill Copepods?

[Snaz]

Sorry for your losses.

Reading that information page regarding MV a note regarding vaccination intrigues me. While not yet feasible I was wondering how this works... If MV is an external parasite how would a vaccination work? If anyone has further links regarding fish vaccination I would be most appreciative.
http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine-fish-care-health-disease-treatment/20348-marine-velvet-myths-facts.html

Again sorry for your losses SK.

[jorjef]

There has to be a good reason why large and public aquariums use uv sterilizers. Whats the disadvantage of using one? Because it'll kill Copepods?


No disadvantage, it's more for prevention not a cure. There won't be any harm to put it on now just don't expect great results for a cure.

[Aquattro]

No disadvantage, it's more for prevention not a cure. There won't be any harm to put it on now just don't expect great results for a cure.

I also wouldn't run one full time in a reef, as I feel that there's a lot of microscopic food floating round for corals. Other than that, no real disadvantage, just at this point, it's too little too late..

[jorjef]

I also wouldn't run one full time in a reef, as I feel that there's a lot of microscopic food floating round for corals. Other than that, no real disadvantage, just at this point, it's too little too late..

I hear ya, that's why mine sits on the shelf....

[MarkoD]

I understand it's not a cure. But would the benefits of decreasing the chances of an outbreak outweigh the killing of some microscopic foods?

Maybe running it off of a separate, slower pump instead of a return.

There's gotta be a good reason so many large and successful reef tanks run 1 or multiple sterilizers

[Skimmerking]

I hear ya, that's why mine sits on the shelf.... hey man shoot it on the bus for me to use. i dont have one
:cry:

[Skimmerking]

i used to always use Ozone in my beckett skimmer and and always never had any issues with water clarity and ick. However i may go back to either Ozone or UV since i have a smaller tank and things always change rarely fast as I'm seeing.

[Aquattro]

I understand it's not a cure. But would the benefits of decreasing the chances of an outbreak outweigh the killing of some microscopic foods?



From what I observed with MV, no, it wouldn't help. The outbreak has already happened, so adding anything at this point isn't going to prevent an outbreak. If it's MV, the only viable option to save fish is to catch them, put them in a treatment tank and treat aggressively for the pathogen. Or let it run it's course and see what's left on the other side. However, fish can build an immunity to MV, so while you may feel some fish are safe at the end, adding a new fish could set it all off again, with the old but infected immune fish infecting a healthy new fish.

[Skimmerking]

Up date to the mv lost the baby clown.

prawn Goby, mystery Wrasse , yellow wrasse, zebra dart fish, have not been hit with it.

the other clown, female , bangii, female Labouti wrasse are fighting it off pretty good so far.

keeping the temp stable so far still think that a chiller is in hand.

[Leah]

Mike how many fish have you lost in total?

[lee9]

Sorry to hear about your losses. That's awful.

I'm curious to know if you think the underlying cause of this was due to the temperature swings? I have a similar situation. I also have a RSM250 (sumpless though) and now that it's warming up this summer finally the temperature is getting a bit warm. Normally sits a bit warm around 79 - 80. It's warming up to 81 - 82 now though. My fish have stayed healthy so far (knock on wood).

You have a lot of fish in a small space (16 if I counted correctly). Isn't marine velvet similar to other diseases where stress increases the chances of it occuring? You don't think this may have contributed?

The previous comment isn't meant to be rude or anything either I'm still fairly new to this and just appreciate the knowledge of experienced reefers in the learning process.

I hope things turn around for you.

[Leah]

Hmmm! Kinda thinking the same thing here. I started with a 72 gal and the summer heat never affected it in the slightest. No sump either. That is a lot of fish in there. Not sure how big your sump is but I am leaning towards it being due to stress like lee9 said.

[daniella3d]

It was probably more due to introducing something in the tank without quarantine than anything to do with temperature rising.

Temperature cannot create a parasite, it has to come from somewhere and MV does not stay latent for months, it just strike. It would not be on the fish for months without any effect and then poof one day it goes on, it does not work that way, it just strike fast.

It could have come from a coral, from contaminated water, anything that has saltwatre could be contaminated.

If there are no parasite in the tank, then there won't be any outburst of anything. If it's not there, you wont see it, thus the importance of a proper quarantine.

My temperature rise, drop and everything and there is no ick or MV attacking my fish because there are none in my tank. The best defense against parasites is a proper quarantine, at least 4 weeks, better 6 weeks.





Sorry to hear about your losses. That's awful.

I'm curious to know if you think the underlying cause of this was due to the temperature swings? I have a similar situation. I also have a RSM250 (sumpless though) and now that it's warming up this summer finally the temperature is getting a bit warm. Normally sits a bit warm around 79 - 80. It's warming up to 81 - 82 now though. My fish have stayed healthy so far (knock on wood).

You have a lot of fish in a small space (16 if I counted correctly). Isn't marine velvet similar to other diseases where stress increases the chances of it occuring? You don't think this may have contributed?

The previous comment isn't meant to be rude or anything either I'm still fairly new to this and just appreciate the knowledge of experienced reefers in the learning process.

I hope things turn around for you.