Marine velvet treatment

[ryanrid]

Hi I have recently discovered that I have Marine Velvet, which i originally thought was ich but after 12 days of hypo treatment and still seeing white spots on the fish I knew something was strange, then I noticed the golden colouration on one of the fish typical of velvet.

I am slowly bringing the salinty back to normal range and have cupramine and a salifert test kit. The more delicate fish in the bare bottom hopital tank are golden angel, powder brown tang and fathead anthias. This leads me to going on the lower side of dosage to 0.3-0.5ppm of treatment. I will administer treatment once the salinity level are back to normal (1.022-1.025) and control the PH to 8.1 +-0.1.

How long is treatment required?
how long fallow should the display be till i add fish back to not reinfect?

Thanks
Ryan

 

[user 26995]

See Lee's thread http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/marine-fish-medicine-cabinet-27020/
About 1/3 down the 1st post is info on cupramine.

 

[user 26995]

And welcome to Reef Frontiers. Hope you can get all the info you need here. Hope your fish pull thru.

 

[ryanrid]

Hi thanks for the link and the welcoming message, looks like i need 14 days of FULL treatment but I see no where on fallow times for releasing back into other tanks.

 

[user 26995]

Fallow times are the same as ick I do believe. At least 8 weeks.
You will want to keep the fish in qt for that long after treatment anyway.

 

[ryanrid]

thanks

 

[user 26995]

I also believe that angelfish can be very sensitive to copper. Raise the copper content slowly and keep a good eye on the angelfish.
Cupramine may be easier on them though.
Hopefully Lee will chime in soon and help you out more.

 

[ryanrid]

i noticed it mentioned that angels are more sensitive to copper and to use the lower range of 0.3 -0.5 range.

the tank is a 48x24x12 (filled only to 8in so water volume is 150L or 40gal) and for filtration I will use a eheim canister rated to 250L (65 gal)

 

[leebca]

As stated in my post onf copper, Cupramine can be safely used on any and all marine fishes.

Although Marine Velvet is surely a possible proper diagnosis, it usually kills its host in a couple of days (or less). It's a fast killer.

Use Cupramine at a copper concentration from the proper test kit between 0.3 and 0.5 ppm. A little higher is no problem for any fish, but it works well enough in this range. Just follow the instructions on the medication.

 

[ryanrid]

thanks for the reply, i lost many fish to this (80% from that system) in a period of 3 days.

ALso I have to move duing the treatment period, am i better off starting treatment once moved?

 

[leebca]

Any delay in treatment means more will likely die. I understand your dilemma. Is there no alternative? Can you find someone else to treat them while you move? or return them to an LFS for treatment while you move? Not good alternatives, but better than just 'no treatment.'

 

[seattlereef]

I have a similar situation. I've had all my fish in a hospital tank for the past 3 weeks treating with hypo salinity. All the white spots disappeared after a couple of days but in the last few days my purple tang has what looks like marine velvet and to top it off my trigger fish looks like he got an abrasion on his chin. Since its going to take 6 days to raise my salinity back up I'm thinking of dosing melafix and pimafix for the abrasion before treating with cupamine anyone try this before?

 

[leebca]

I wish people would stop buying Melafix and Primafix for their marine aquariums. Not useful in the long run. Please reat this: http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/melafix-pimafix-how-they-dont-work-64422/

The first stage of a disease treatment is proper diagnosis. Not all spots are Marine Ich. If you can show us up-close photos of the fish, we may be able to tell what this might be.

Marine Velvet, as noted, comes on fast and with devastating results. Switch to Cupramine as you raise the salinity. The copper treatment cures a wider variety of parasites that 'look like' Marine Ich. It also is the cure for Marine Velvet. Good luck!

 

[seattlereef]

Thanks for the advice Lee. I've started raising the salinity. At what level is it safe to add Cupramine? I've started treatment with Furan-2 to help with the abrasion that my trigger has. Here's a couple of pics of the purple tang:

Thanks for the advice and help.

 

[leebca]

Add the Cupramine right away. You don't have to wait for the salinity to go up to use the Cupramine. You should wait for the salinity to go up before you add antibiotics, though.

 

[reeftank]

Hy guys, how fast the parasite starts to die and leave the fish once Copper concentration established? thanks

 

[Herefishyfishy]

With Marine Velvet, by the time the average aquarist has determined it is present, most of the vulnerable fish are badly dying or already dead. The best way to handle MV is to quarantine all new fish and anything wet for that matter.

 

[BARRON]

I know this is an old thread but I've had some experience treating copper sensitive fish with cup ermine to treat MV. The mv killed 2 damsels a coral beauty, flame angel, and a goat fish within days, all that was left in the tank was a 15 year old Stars and Stripes puffer and a 15 yro snowflake eel. I started dosing Cupermine gradually. First at .2 then adding a bit more daily till it was at around .4-5 within 4 days. The velvet started to completely disappear within a 10 days. The eel started breathing hard the first 2 days and then got used to it. After the 14 days treatment I maintained around .2 for another two weeks just to make sure. After that I waited 2 months to add any fish, it was been around 6 months and no signs of velvet, fish is looking healthier than ever. Hope this helps anyone treating fish sensitive to copper. I was told scaleless fish such as the puffer and eel absorb the copper faster and if introduced to fast can be really bad for them.