need serious help treating velvet asap
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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disisgustavo
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:11 am
need serious help treating velvet asap
so my south american puffers are/have been crawling with velvet (i had thought it was ich till today!) for about 2-3 weeks now and we have been trying to treat it with this med called paracide green for about a week or 2 now. the chemical treatment we have been using though says it is "an excellent broad spectrum remedy used to treat excessive slime formation, external fungal infections, Ich or other white spot disease and other external protozoa and flukes," will it work for velvet or is there any specialized medications i can use? we went to the fish store today and bought some aquarium salt, how much should i add? we are about to do a big water change and want to add in some salt. the one south american puffer who has it really bad looks like the fins that are right next to his gills are stuck to his side and he cant really swim and is just bobbin around mostly at the top of the tank. they are both also red around the gills and the tail, here are a few pics:
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Pandora114
- Green Spotted Puffer
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- My Puffers: C. travancoricus RIP both of you little guys. Tank will be a F8 after GSP goes full marine
T. nigroviridis Named Pepsi - Location: Comox Valley, BC, Canada
- Contact:
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Phaedrus
- Former Staff Member
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Here is a thread that discusses velvet and treatment. Check it out:http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... ght=velvet
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disisgustavo
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:11 am
My f8's have ich and I have been looking all over the net I found this site it helps you figure out what they have and then has charts on how to treat the different things and it is for puffers. you can’t get through Google you need to type in the address. Good Luck
http://puffernet.tripod.com/pathology.html
http://puffernet.tripod.com/pathology.html
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
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disisgustavo
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:11 am
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disisgustavo
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:11 am
yes i did, i went to the store today and saw thatthey had some of the mardel maracide and we bought some, it looks exactly like this: 
i have a quick question about it though, it contains Malachite green, and i have heard that this stuff kills beneficial bacteria, is that true? also the store told us we should take out the carbon pad in our filter, i was wondering if i should put it in some tank water and keep it or just replace it? is there a lot of bacteria in there or are they located mostly in another part of the filter? also should i half the dosage, are puffers sensitive to this stuff?
i have a quick question about it though, it contains Malachite green, and i have heard that this stuff kills beneficial bacteria, is that true? also the store told us we should take out the carbon pad in our filter, i was wondering if i should put it in some tank water and keep it or just replace it? is there a lot of bacteria in there or are they located mostly in another part of the filter? also should i half the dosage, are puffers sensitive to this stuff?
It won't hurt to remove your carbon while you are treating them and the meds will not work if you leave it in. I haven't had trouble with the meds killing my good bacteria in the past when I used it in my community tank I only use them when I think there is no other way. Did you read the part about giving them 1/2 the regular dosage? My f8 are doing better tonight one has been doing better all day one just started picking up tonight and they have had the meds 2 times I'm using quick cure because that’s what I had on hand and it has the malachite green in it to. But I have used the Mardel products before on my other fish and they worked great. Let us know how they get on.
I just went back and read on it and it says that Maracide does not hurt your good bacteria but keeping a check on your water parameters is still a good idea
I just went back and read on it and it says that Maracide does not hurt your good bacteria but keeping a check on your water parameters is still a good idea
Last edited by shaddy on Sun Oct 08, 2006 1:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
Disisgustavo -
First off, I am by no means an expert at fish keeping (a beginner at best). I have however used cupramine to treat marine velvet on my porcupine puffer. It worked wonders and saved my puffers life. From the research I did when my puffer got sick, copper is pretty much the way to go to treat velvet. I'm not sure if this is true on freshwater velvet though (I only researched saltwater - and had plenty of help from people on this forum). You might want to consider it though or at least look into it.
With most puffers, these treatments can be dangerous. When I used the cupramine, I kept his doses fairly low - slightly above half the recommended treatment level. My puffer didn't seem to have any problems handling the copper, but he did look really bad after the first 24 hours (worse than when I quarantined him). Fortunately, he started showing signs of improvement within a couple of days and is now fully healed.
Do you have a quarantine tank? I would recommend moving your puffers into quarantine before trying any meds. I would also recommend adding some airstones into the water.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope your puffers get well soon.
Dan
First off, I am by no means an expert at fish keeping (a beginner at best). I have however used cupramine to treat marine velvet on my porcupine puffer. It worked wonders and saved my puffers life. From the research I did when my puffer got sick, copper is pretty much the way to go to treat velvet. I'm not sure if this is true on freshwater velvet though (I only researched saltwater - and had plenty of help from people on this forum). You might want to consider it though or at least look into it.
With most puffers, these treatments can be dangerous. When I used the cupramine, I kept his doses fairly low - slightly above half the recommended treatment level. My puffer didn't seem to have any problems handling the copper, but he did look really bad after the first 24 hours (worse than when I quarantined him). Fortunately, he started showing signs of improvement within a couple of days and is now fully healed.
Do you have a quarantine tank? I would recommend moving your puffers into quarantine before trying any meds. I would also recommend adding some airstones into the water.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope your puffers get well soon.
Dan
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
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A modestus
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C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
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burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
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It is also best to QT the fish treated & not use copper in your main tank. Are any other fish affected? An anti-parasitic shouldn't kill off bacteria.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Correction: Maracide can be used effectively with the filter in place. Mardel will confirm this. It should actually say it on the bottle. I have used Maracide for bad cases Ich and Velvet and have had good results.
I have never used this on puffers though because I believe that it may be to harsh on them and cause much stress. I would go with the temperature change and addition of salt. This would be far less stressful and maybe just as effective.
I have not known maracide to hinder or damage the biological filter in any way. I have not documented an instance at work (the LFS) or at home where the water parameters or biological filter has changed.
I have never used this on puffers though because I believe that it may be to harsh on them and cause much stress. I would go with the temperature change and addition of salt. This would be far less stressful and maybe just as effective.
I have not known maracide to hinder or damage the biological filter in any way. I have not documented an instance at work (the LFS) or at home where the water parameters or biological filter has changed.
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disisgustavo
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:11 am
well i added half the dosage of maricide last night after a huge water change and this morning our worst fear came true when i woke up and noticed the puffer dead 
poor little guy, and the worst part is i coulda prolly saved him if i started the right kind of treatment earlier hopefully my other guy pulls through, he is not nearly as bad as the other one was and this one has been eating and swimming around and whatnot.
poor little guy, and the worst part is i coulda prolly saved him if i started the right kind of treatment earlier hopefully my other guy pulls through, he is not nearly as bad as the other one was and this one has been eating and swimming around and whatnot.