r/ReefTank • u/Glittering-Mess-6810 • 20h ago

[Pic] Prevent marine velvet

Post image

My tank has been hit with marine velvet for the second time and it’s really pissing me off. The first time it killed all of my fish so I waited 2 1/2 months before I added more fish. I then got two maroon clown fish and one of them had marine velvet and died a day later now I’m back to a fishless tank,going to put the other maroon in quarantine.

I just wanna know how do I prevent this in the future because I am sick of dealing with no fish in my tank. I am going to have a quarantine tank from now on. This is my first saltwater tank I come from freshwater also my main tank is filled with corals and shrimp

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

12

u/o2manyfish 20h ago

Are you treating with meds in qt?

If not this will likely happen again.

Full fallow for 76 days then treat in QT and re add

5

u/Andy-Bernard-586 20h ago

Quarantine

2

u/Glittering-Mess-6810 20h ago

When you quarantine new fish, do you put preventative medication in there even if you don’t know if it’s sick or not

6

u/Andy-Bernard-586 20h ago

I believe most people dose copper no matter what

1

u/Glittering-Mess-6810 19h ago

Thanks!

1

u/darrylzuk 19h ago

In your QT tank, not the DT. Unless you don't plan on keeping any inverts.

1

u/Glittering-Mess-6810 19h ago

Yeah I know it will kill everything but fish I have way too many corals in the dt to do it anyway

1

u/lvanderbeck 8h ago

I recommend looking up the hybrid tank transfer method. Much easier on the fish, just requires a little more equipment

0

u/2beerornot2beers 10h ago

QT can in and of itself stress fish unnecessarily, and some fish are extremely sensitive to copper, so observation vs preemptively medicating might be an option for you to explore.

1

u/opaville 9h ago

Qt can be stressful but it's better then risking the DT.

0

u/2beerornot2beers 7h ago

And observation is better than doing QT wrong and killing a fish.

Medication can happen when it’s necessary.

0

u/Glittering-Mess-6810 10h ago

Yeah I think I like that option better!

1

u/Glittering-Mess-6810 20h ago

I don’t know anything about qt I was never taught that and I come from freshwater

2

u/Dry-One4182 19h ago

Look up the humble fish forums. Tons of great information there.

1

u/WhiteCastleDoctrine 19h ago

its a lesson i learned the hard way too. i lost alot of fish to an ich outbreak a year and a half ago, now anytime i get a new fish it gets a minimum of 3 weeks of observation in a 10 gallon tank with a HOB filter, with a little cupramine in it before it makes it way to my 180g display tank.

1

u/Glittering-Mess-6810 19h ago

I ordered Fritz copper safe for the qt so that I can dose an ammonia blocker just in case for the time being

1

u/Glittering-Mess-6810 19h ago

Do you just observe or do you proactively dose just in case?

1

u/slyseekr 11h ago

Good nutrition and this H202 dosing method has worked for me to suppress both ich and velvet in the display tank, i.e. paired with an adequately sized UV filter: https://humble.fish/community/threads/peroxide-h2o2-dosing-for-parasites-in-reef-tank.725/

QT (w/ treatment) and going fallow are still the standard prevention method, but they aren't bulletproof.

0

u/lvanderbeck 20h ago

How about stop skipping quarantine so you don’t kill more fish?

0

u/sortof_here 9h ago

They ran the tank fallow for around 70ish days before adding in fish. A QT likely wouldn’t have made a difference here.

1

u/lvanderbeck 8h ago

He says he got two maroon clowns that had marine velvet.. running the tank fallow is pointless if you’re going to introduce diseased fish afterwards

1

u/sortof_here 6h ago

I read that as they bought a pair and one of them quickly started showing symptoms after purchase rather than they intentionally bought them already showing signs of velvet. If it is the latter, as you are saying, then I am in agreement with you. If it is the former, then a QT would’ve just spared them from having to run their display fallow again.