Marine Velvet.

Hello Everyone,

On March 10, 2013 my 55 gallon display tank crashed with marine velvet. I'm still confused whether it was velvet or ich but my guess would be velvet due to the little spots on the fish. My question to you all is how long should I keep my display tank fishless for? Next week, it would be a month since a fish has swam in the display. I've heard several numbers and estimates and would love some feedback. I would like to say a month would be good but I don't want to risk it without some knowledge from others. For all of you who have gone through this, please share with me your experiences. How long did you leave your display tank fishless? And when you added your fish back into the display tank under that certain amount of days, did you see any symptoms on your fish or did they develop the velvet again? Would love any feedback from anyone!

Thank You

 

I've always read 8 weeks fishless to get rid of ich. I would think it would be similar for velvet. I'm so sorry to hear about your crash ....a long time ago, I had a velvet outbreak and actually had two fish make it.....I did a lot of water changes and filter changes and such before I added any more fish back into the tank and did so gradually. Did not have another outbreak but I'm not sure if velvet is the same as ich in that it lays fallow in the tank until it finds something to attach to......perhaps others can chime in here.....

Marine velvet is different than ich. Spots are usually indicative of ich. The velvet (I diagnosed perhaps incorrectly) was more of a graying of the fish with a whitish film on the fish and not so much spots.

 

I agree,white spots I would believe to be ich,velvet more like a white coating.I think 8-12 weeks fallow is what is usually recomended but I'm not sure as luckily I haven't had to deal with either in quite a few years.It would be good to research both ich and velvet to choose the bestway to go at this point.

 

Same here. I recently had an outbreak and am going on 4 weeks now fishless. I am doing extra water changes and plan on putting fish in the DT in another 3 or 4 weeks. Its a pain in the butt.

A local fish store said that they have had 3 cases of velvet reported in the last month all from another store. I was one of them.

I feel your pain but give it some more time. Take this next few weeks to QT your new fish.

 

I just got done dealing with my 5 year old Black and White clown having Marine Velvet !!! Super scarey, luckily I put her in my 5g Pico (QT when need be) before she infected her Onyx Percula mate or my 5 year old Yellow Watchmen

it took every bit of reefing knowledge I had to help it pull through with no medications BUT its now been two weeks and she is spot free !!!!

sorry to hear about all your losses but I would wait at least 5-6 weeks just to be safe...then add only one fish for another few weeks and see how he does IMO

 

I think you might be mistaking Ich for Marine Velvet. Velvet will look like a powder dusting on the fish. Ich has the little white specs. Velvet is way more lethal than ich.

 

What i've always wondered is why 8 weeks fishless? If the "ich" parasite does not have a host it dies..so if your fish don't get any sign of ich for 8 weeks you should be ich free. Sorry, OT but I just wanted to share a thought.

 

Definitely sounds like ich and not velvet. I've had velvet wreak havoc on my tanks twice in my aquarium history. Unfortunately the last time I couldn't get all the surviving fish out for treatment. As a result I spent two grand on a HUGE uv sterilizer. Haven't had an issue since.

 

True, but it doesn't die immediately and the life cycle of ich is 6 or 8 weeks (been along time since I've really looked into it but know it is one or the other) so anything before that could put you at risk of passing it onto your new fish still.

 

regardless ich or velvet.....leave tank empty for 8 weeks better safe then sorry