Is it imperative that they be dealt with? Is it not possible that maybe they don't have velvet and thus are OK to be left alone and that would be a GoodThing(tm)? Or are we worried that they are carriers?

After Brad's troubles I think he'd be insane to re-introduce with those fish in there especially since he's going to qt a whole bunch of new fish. Might have to drain that thing again Brad...

Hi Brad,

Two options for the mandarin.

Slurper gun or the Philippine method of small harpoon. You could modify a gravel vac and siphon mandarin into it then cover the end. Just remove the siphon hose and stick your finger over where the hose attaches. Move the open end within a few inches of Mandarin and remove your finger from gravel vacuum hose barb. The suction should get the mandarin up into the vac.

You could catch the Mandarin like they do in the Philippines. Attach a needle to a stick and harpoon it through the top fin. ;)

Cheers,
Tim

ps Thats why Mandarins are not cyanide caught... too east to get them with a harpoon or slurper.

They could have built immunity to it and thus still carry it. I really would like the tank empty for 2 months before I add fish back.

The problem is there is so much rock work and hiding places, that even then it might not solve the issue. The first drain, we couldn't even see them.

Tim, the problem with that is I can't get anywhere near the fish, I've arranged the rock to really provide protection from predators (me). I might try the harpoon, but it's likely to go through head, not fin.

the egg crate partitions worked well for me. I'd suggest having a spotter to keep and eye on where the fish are as you assemble the fences though to avoid redos.

Slurper sounds interesting although once INTO the rock I can't imagine the suction being strong enough to get him out.

Mandarins have a very heavy slime coat and are usually pretty disease-resistant; but that's not to say they aren't a carrier. Twas me I'd get the sucker out of there somehow. Good luck Brad.

That's what I thought until the mate died from this :(

About 15 months ago I got what at first I thought was Ich, it was in fact Marine Velvet.

I had not introduced any new fish into my tanks for months prior to this so I am not sure where it came from.

Looking back on this I am still amazed at just how fast it wiped out my fish population. I did not have the ability to set up an isolation tank nor as it turned out did I have the time. I lost 80% of my fish population in 10 days.

After a long discussion with J&L I decided to treat my mixed reef tanks with PROTO MARIN.

All in all it did not cause any problems with my Corals other than a few if them slimmed up.

Of the fish I had left (mostly Tangs and Damsels) any that were showing symptoms of velvet cleared up within a few days.

I am not sure that the PROTO MARIN cleaned up the Velvet or whether the Velvet had just not effected those fish that survived never showed any symptoms of Velvet at all.

I was now faced with the same problem that you are in. Were the remaining fish carriers or were they cured by the PROTO MARIN.

I decided that rather than breaking down my system and rebuilding it (I would likely loosing the majority of my corals) I would let the system run without adding any new fish for 6 months and if the Velvet did not repeat itself I would add some fish after that.

I have since added a few new fish mostly Tangs without any problems. I never lost one coral in this whole ordeal.

Good luck with your decision.

Tom R