Hi everyone. I know I'm going to spark some controversy here, but hey aren't those the best threads? I need some help figuring out what to do.
I set up a 500G fish only in January, and things were going great for a few months. I moved my larger tangs over from my reef and had added some really nice angels (after long QT) when all of a sudden the fish started dying. I've had fish die in QT but never dealt with mass disease before so it took me a while to figure out what was happening. I don't have a microscope to confirm but I did a lot of reading on this forum and all the signs pointed to marine velvet. I know there are fish that survived such outbreaks with proper treatment, but things happened so quickly and my tank is so large that treatment was never really an option. So, sadly, I just watched all my fish die. Except for one.
Almost 3 months after the first fish death, my blue regal tang still lives. He is very skittish but otherwise appears healthy. No spots and typical velvet behaviour like hiding from light or swimming into the flow. He was (will explain) eating well and seems to have survived. Except everything I've read says that without treatment it is always fatal, and that some fish can live up to 6 months before they die. She's my wife's favourite fish so my wife is ecstatic, thinks she's some sort of miracle fish but I'm worried that she's a "typhoid mary" and anything I add will quick succumb to velvet.
So now for the controversy. If it is true that there is no cure/recovery without treatment (please someone expert confirm?) then I am essentially waiting for her to die. I've tried catching her but can't, and can't effectively treat a tank that size with enough confidence to add more fish. I stopped feeding her (my wife is ticked) but of course she's a tang and picks at the rocks all day long. I've now turned off the lights to stop algae growth but I know that will take a while. Is there anything else I can do? I spent a lot of money on the tank and it's heartbreaking to see it sitting there without fish and now light. I have a lot of other life in there - snails, urchins, serpent stars and of course dentrifying bacteria - so I don't really want to nuke it.
Am I right that no untreated fish can survive velvet? Is there anything anyone can think of that I haven't tried? Or do I just need to be more patient.
PS. Pictures below from happier days.
PPS. For those wondering how velvet got into the tank after long QT, best I can figure is that I was QT'ing multiple fish at the same time and I guess I wasn't careful enough to prevent water from one (tang that died) from making it's way into another that was near the end of QT.
I set up a 500G fish only in January, and things were going great for a few months. I moved my larger tangs over from my reef and had added some really nice angels (after long QT) when all of a sudden the fish started dying. I've had fish die in QT but never dealt with mass disease before so it took me a while to figure out what was happening. I don't have a microscope to confirm but I did a lot of reading on this forum and all the signs pointed to marine velvet. I know there are fish that survived such outbreaks with proper treatment, but things happened so quickly and my tank is so large that treatment was never really an option. So, sadly, I just watched all my fish die. Except for one.
Almost 3 months after the first fish death, my blue regal tang still lives. He is very skittish but otherwise appears healthy. No spots and typical velvet behaviour like hiding from light or swimming into the flow. He was (will explain) eating well and seems to have survived. Except everything I've read says that without treatment it is always fatal, and that some fish can live up to 6 months before they die. She's my wife's favourite fish so my wife is ecstatic, thinks she's some sort of miracle fish but I'm worried that she's a "typhoid mary" and anything I add will quick succumb to velvet.
So now for the controversy. If it is true that there is no cure/recovery without treatment (please someone expert confirm?) then I am essentially waiting for her to die. I've tried catching her but can't, and can't effectively treat a tank that size with enough confidence to add more fish. I stopped feeding her (my wife is ticked) but of course she's a tang and picks at the rocks all day long. I've now turned off the lights to stop algae growth but I know that will take a while. Is there anything else I can do? I spent a lot of money on the tank and it's heartbreaking to see it sitting there without fish and now light. I have a lot of other life in there - snails, urchins, serpent stars and of course dentrifying bacteria - so I don't really want to nuke it.
Am I right that no untreated fish can survive velvet? Is there anything anyone can think of that I haven't tried? Or do I just need to be more patient.
PS. Pictures below from happier days.
PPS. For those wondering how velvet got into the tank after long QT, best I can figure is that I was QT'ing multiple fish at the same time and I guess I wasn't careful enough to prevent water from one (tang that died) from making it's way into another that was near the end of QT.
