velvet treatment advice needed......

[jtbadco]

Here's the deal. I have a 120 gal reef and the fish got velvet.

I ripped apart the whole tank and quarantined all the fish, however my six line wrasse hid somewhere in the LR and is now back in the DT.

I have been unable to catch it with a fish trap and whenever I go into the tank he disappears into the rock somewhere.

The other fish have all responded to the cupramine treatment and are recovering nicely. They have been in QT for a week.

The six line wrasse shows no visible signs or symptoms of the disease at all.

Even if I rip the tank apart again, there is no guarantee I will find the wrasse because he is hiding within the LR.

I am going to also try some really small hooks baited with salmon eggs.

My question....if I am unable to catch him and he is still symptom free after the 4 weeks of treatment, will it be safe to return the other fish to the tank?

I would appreciate any thoughts or advice.
Thanx
Blaine

[Aquattro]

No, it's possible for a fish to be a carrier and not show symptoms. Apparently if they've had it, they're more resistant to showing signs. I had the same problem, I had a goby left that I just figured I'd let die, but after a month, he was still swimming around. The fish hook trick finally got him out, into the treatment tank, and he jumped the next day. Stoopid fish..

[jtbadco]

well hopefully the fish hooks work for me too.

[Aquattro]

Hopefully. I've drained my tank twice to catch fish, not fun :)

[FWC]

No, get him out. I made the mistake of leaving my goby in the tank after everything else died of velvet because he didn't show any signs of having it, however once I started to add more fish into the tank after a fallow with him still in the tank, the velvet re-appeared.

Far better to be safe then sorry, get the little guy outta there.

[MMAX]

I had the exact same problem with a pair of Zebra darts. They had a specific hiding spot in an old coral skeleton. I picked it up and rolled it over and over until they finally swam out, removed the rock and netted the fish. These guys also showed no signs of velvet but the tank has to remain fishless for the disease to die off. Some will say 8 weeks but I went another month just to be sure. 12 weeks fishless and all was well.