Velvet outbreak!

[neoh]

Hello!

Yeah - quarantine everything. Don't skimp on this step.

Well, I did with my office FOWLR.

Marine valvet outbreak from a powder blue naso tang from a LFS. First it got my copperband, then my elibi, then the yellow tangs.. now my coral beauty, koran and foxface have them, the only three left (plus a goby - but who knows where he is.)

Waterchanges are not going to get anywhere..

Has anyone overcome marine velvet successfully? If you did, how did you manage to do it?

Again - this is a FOWLR tank, I have no problem medicating the whole thing. I just want to know if it's too late for my friends.

[Aquattro]

Might be too late at this point, but chloroquine phosphate would work in treating the tank if you don't have corals. Not sure where you could get some on short notice though..
Vet can give you a prescription, but that's going to take a while. I sold lots to members on the board, maybe one of them has extra that they can offer? When I got it in my tank, my fish lasted about 4 days tops.

[neoh]

I've got them in a QT tank for now and treating with copper, after a fresh water dip and now it's lights out for a few weeks.

We'll see how she goes, but I'm reluctant for their survival.

Copper treatment says not to use a UV - what do you think, to UV or not to UV?

[Alberta-newb]

If I recall correctly, treatments like Cupramine will break down to a more toxic form of copper when exposed to UV. I'm not positive if this is correct but I don't run UV when ever I have meds in the QT.

[neoh]

damn velvet knocked out my entire 90g FOWLR tank in a week.

With these fish now in a QT tank. I have to figure out what to do with this tank.

Should I keep it running? (Skimming) with the UV going, and wait it out - or should I be ditching all the sand, boiling the rocks and scrubbing everything out? Any idea how long velvet can last in a tank?

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by neoh

Any idea how long velvet can last in a tank?

I left mine fishless for 3 months.