stillnzcookie Posted January 5, 2013 Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 Hi, we have a dwarf neon rainbowfish which I am 99% certain has a fairly serious case of velvet (have googled numerous sites, and it seems to fit the description/photos exactly). We had some acriflavine in the cupboard, and this seems to be a recommended treatment, so on Friday hubby did a big water change and dosed the tank according to the instructions, did another water change yesterday and re-dosed, and I'm just about to do today's water change and re-dose. The majority of the info I found online suggested a three day treatment, but it doesn't seen to have made much difference yet, so I'm wondering if we need to continue treatment for longer? Having looked at some photos of velvet, I'm now suspicious a number of our harlequin rasboras have also been suffering from it for quite a long time, it's just been harder to notice with their colouration (and the fact that they have seemed pretty healthy - the rainbowfish, on the other hand, is definitely suffering ). We also have one harlequin that looks healthy enough (ie good colour, smooth scales, no visible infections etc), but just seems to be fading away - it doesn't seem to be eating, and the other day it sank to the bottom of the tank and lay on its side for a few seconds before swimming away again. I'll test the water when I do a water change and post the results later. Hubby is supposed to be in charge of the tank, as I have health problems that make it hard for me to do, but he has been pretty lax over the last year (admittedly, he has had a very stressful year). I think I'm going to have to take it over, as it's obvious that the lack of frequent water changes has had a pretty detrimental effect on the whole tank - we've lost several fish to unidentified causes, and have ongoing algae and snail issues. I'm feeling a bit despondent about the whole thing at the moment, but I hope we can bring it back to its former healthy state soon. Tank: 60L, with Java Fern, Ambulia and driftwood Inhabitants: 3 dwarf neon rainbowfish, 6 harlequin rasboras, 3 panda cories Any advice would be appreciated, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 5, 2013 Report Share Posted January 5, 2013 Like whitespot it is not what you see on the fish that you are treating, it is the vegetative form in the water. You need to treat until there are no more showing on the fish and then some. The easiest way to spot velvet is with a torch at night when it is dark. If whitespot looks like salt on the fish, velvet looks like pepper. There can be more resistant forms of velvet and if things are not improving then raising the temperature may encourage the resistant form on the fish to release the weee darlins the acriflavine will get at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillnzcookie Posted January 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 Thanks alanmin. Do I need to do a water change and re-dose every day, or will every couple of days be sufficient? I'll turn the heater up a bit too. Water parameters before today's water change: Ammonia - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - 0 pH - 6 GH - between 0 and 30 KH - 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 6, 2013 Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 Every couple of days should be OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillnzcookie Posted January 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted January 8, 2013 Report Share Posted January 8, 2013 im a bit suspicious of any tank with 0 nitrates before a water change unless its more plants than water Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted January 8, 2013 Report Share Posted January 8, 2013 Or the testing kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillnzcookie Posted January 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2013 F15hguy - that was the third water change in as many days, so probably not surprising. Having said that, we have NEVER had a nitrate reading (we have a test kit and dipping strips and they both always read 0). Why is this a problem? One of the problems we have run into with doing all these water changes is pH fluctuation (our tap water is very soft). It has ranged from 6-8 over the last week. I've added some more coral rock in the hope this will buffer it a bit - is there anything else I can do? It was 8 before today's water change and 6.6 afterwards. I also discovered the water was 29deg - I was going to turn up the heater as alanmin suggested, but our thermometer was broken, so I thought I'd better get a new one first and, assuming it's right, the heater is set to 24, but the water is 29! I'll leave it at that while we're treating, then turn it down a bit, but I've lowered the water level so there's a bit more surface agitation. On the fish front, the cories are more active than they've been in ages, as are the two healthy rainbowfish and most of the harlequins. The sick rainbowfish is still spending quite a bit of time near the bottom of the tank, and is still covered in (presumably) velvet, but it seems to be perking up a bit, is eating well, and has a lot more colour. So I guess we persevere with the treatment and hope it makes a full recovery. The harlequin that has stopped eating, on the other hand, is not doing well. It seems to be getting skinnier every day, and every so often it will sink to the bottom of the tank and lie on its side for a second before swimming away again. I can't see anything visibly wrong with it, for some reason it just won't eat - it swims towards the food with the other fish then swims away again. I bought some freeze-dried bloodworms the other day, and the other fish are going nuts for them, but not the one we want to eat them! Apart from keeping the water as good as we can (which we're doing anyway), I'm not sure what else I can do for it. At what point do you decide that the kindest thing is to euthanase it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted January 9, 2013 Report Share Posted January 9, 2013 the fluctuations in pH are probably your biggest problem that I can see, anything over around 0.5 of a pH can be seriously stressful to the fish (TBH if it has been fluctuation like that for that long im surprised your fish are still around, I would seriously get another test kit to make sure), also high temps can help your fish recover from the velvet, but for too long it can cause more harm than good. the problem with 0 nitrates is that your fish's waste turns into nitrates, even if you do daily water changes you should still have some sort of reading. btw those strip tests are notoriously bad, I normally recommend throwing them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillnzcookie Posted January 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2013 Thanks F15hguy. Yes, pH problems have been the bane of our lives - we have lost several fish to it in the past. A couple of years ago we started adding coral rock to the tank (on the advice of John from Organism), and it certainly helped stabilise it, but the daily water changes this past week have caused problems again. We have been using a pH test kit and the strips, and they always agree in their readings, so they're probably correct, but I know this will be hard on the fish. We bought the test strips because they were the only thing we could find that measures water hardness (we got them when we were having problems a while ago). I wouldn't just rely on them - we have proper test kits as well for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate - but I find they're useful to do a quick check, or to double check any surprising results from the test kits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillnzcookie Posted January 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2013 Good news - the harlequin just ate a bloodworm! I've been feeding twice a day, as the sick rainbowfish had been looking a bit skinny too (she is fattening up again nicely) - with such frequent water changes, I figure it doesn't matter if I overfeed a bit. Fingers crossed things are getting back on track... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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