Not Fabric...Fatal? Have you ever had a fish with Velvet?

[AlyciaMarie]

In the regular world, velvet is a soft and desirable thing. In our saltwater world...Let's just say that is not the case. There is a whole slew of reefing-related issues that can make your hair stand on end when you think about them, and Velvet is one of those things. This fish-killing parasite can do a lot of damage in not a lot of time.

Have you ever had a fish with Velvet? Share your tips on treating and the outcome of the fish!

 

[revhtree]

I honestly don't think I ever have!

 

[kvansloo]

Never had velvet or ich in 15 years.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

No, thank goodness

 

[BristleWormHater]

Nope

 

[AmazingYocool]

In the regular world, velvet is a soft and desirable thing. In our saltwater world...Let's just say that is not the case. There is a whole slew of reefing-related issues that can make your hair stand on end when you think about them, and Velvet is one of those things. This fish-killing parasite can do a lot of damage in not a lot of time.

Have you ever had a fish with Velvet? Share your tips on treating and the outcome of the fish!

Just recently a boxfish I got straight out of the shipping box gave my entire tank ich and velvet. It killed almost everything including 2 clowns, a talbot damsel, and almost got to my big eye soldier fish (thankfully still alive today).

I will now forever QT my fish for a minimum of 2 weeks with copper, and feed kanaplex and metroplex bound with focus often to prevent this.


For treatment, put affected fish in a QT tank with lots of air. I run a tidal 75 and sponge filter on my 15 gal. Increase tempature to around 80 to help speed up velvet life cycle, and immediatly begin to dose copper. I also like to keep the salinity around 1.020 or as low as 1.018 since the bacteria thrives in salty enviorments, and the fish can tolerate a lower salinity.

Lesson learned is to always QT new fish, especially before putting it with 1000's of dollars of fish. One day, your luck might run out.

 

[JoJosReef]

I have not. But I've gotten mostly pre-QT'd fish until now. I currently have some special wrasses in observation and will start hyposalinity for ich and flukes and skip copper, but that doesn't deal with velvet...

 

[Miami Reef]

@AlyciaMarie

The title is insane!! “Not fabric…fatal”

Velvet fabric. That’s actually diabolical. How do you come up with these puns?!?!

 

[Gill the 3rd]

Yes I have. It wiped out half my tank in a day. Luckily I was able to save some fish by getting them in a hospital tank with copperpower asap. I treated my porcupine puffer and snowflake eel at the same with the hybrid ttm and that worked as well. Most annoying part was keeping my tank fallow and letting my nutrients drop to 0. Had to battle dinos for a little bit.

 

[Scape]

Dealing with velvet can be an emotionally taxing experience due to the rapid decline in fish health and the potential loss of beloved Fish, The cost of treatment and potential loss of expensive fish was a low point and I almost felt like giving up, Experiencing velvet in one of my reef aquariums was both challenging and distressing, but with prompt action and proper treatment and Prevention through quarantine and careful monitoring of water quality was key for me in avoiding any future outbreaks.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I had a parrotfish breakout in velvet in the fowlr a few years ago. I lost that fish, a magnificent foxface, and a bursa trigger. It only took three days, and I suspect they drown from gill infestation. Copper didn’t treat it quickly enough.

 

[mfinn]

I introduced velvet to my tank by adding corals from a tank that had it.
I caught it fairly fast and had a hospital tank set up by the end of the first day and had all the fish moved by 2am the next morning.
Out of 25 fish I lost 6 the first day and 6 more over the next 2 days.

 

[MnFish1]

By the time one realizes that velvet is actively infecting a tank, at least 1 or 2 fish will be dead and the rest likely sick. Now - the treatment would be a copper or chloroquine based product. Many fish with velvet do not survive - thought treatment helps

 

[PharmrJohn]

In the 29g? No. In the 90g? Maybe. It went down hard and fast. Could have been Velvet, but I'm still not sure what exactly happened.

 

[lakai]

Yes, when I started my 300gal in 2019 I had about 13 fish, threw in some cleannup crew and a few days later my achilles was dusted and in 3 days they were all dead besides a clownn and a purple tang.

I treated him in a new tank with chloroquine phosphate while letting my dt go fallow for 3 months.

This was a week after the chloroquine treatment and this guy is still with me today. I adopted a strict quarantine of anything wet and haven't had any out breaks since.

 

[Tamberav]

No, at least not in my display because everything wet gets QT and long observation period before going to the display.

 

[exnisstech]

Yes. Came in on a fish that unbeknown to me was housed in low salinity. I no longer buy fish housed in low salinity as it suppresses but does not prevent disease. I prefer to buy only from tanks that have coral and or inverts.