Emergency Treatment for Velvet

Emergency Care

Velvet is a deadly and fast acting disease. If you have Velvet, you must act fast to save what fish you can. The easiest way to identify velvet is if the dots are too numerous to count. As it suffocates fish quickly, they also will be swimming into power heads, and avoiding light. Morbidly, velvet kills so fast, that if your fish are alive 48 hours later, it probably isn’t velvet.

There is no treatment in tanks with coral or inverts that will not kill both. Your only option in these situations is to move the fish to a secondary tank and treat. The tank must then remain fallow for 6 weeks. Dips on fish will help, but the likelihood of survival is much lower without a dedicated hospital/quarantine tank.

Ingredients:

  • Hydrogen Peroxide
  • Chloroquine Phosphate
  • Ruby Reef Rally
  • Aquarium Air Pump
  • Small Scale Capable of Mg Measurements
  • Optional – Methylene Blue

Recipie:

Step 1: Immediate relief

  1. 30 minute Hydrogen Peroxide1 dip Instructions
  2. 90 minute bath using Ruby Reef Rally (Follow directions on bottle and heavily aerate the water with an air pump)

Step 2: Treatment

Chlororquine Phosphate Dosing Guidelines 2

Optional: Bacterial Infection

If the fish is showing signs of a secondary infection , you can administer a second bath using Methylene Blue 3 or other antibiotics.

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References

  1. Montgomery-Brock, D., V. T. Sato, J. A. Brock, and C. S. Tamaru. 2001. The application of hydrogen peroxide as a treatment for the ectoparasite Amyloodinium ocellatum on the Pacific threadfin Polydactylus sexfilisJournal of the World Aquaculture Society 32:250–254.
  2. https://reefs.com/magazine/aquarium-fish-chloroquine-a-new-drug-for-treating-fish-diseases/
  3. https://humble.fish/community/index.php?threads/methylene-blue.23/

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