velvet-fishless aquarium

[angelcraze]

Hello everyone. So, it's confirmed, I have a velvet outbreak in my 46g heavily planted aquarium. I have removed the 4 fish that were in there to treat them in a hospital tank with ich-x. My question is: Does anyone know how long I would have to keep my planted tank fishless with just inverts (assassin snails and cherry shrimp) to make sure the parasite could not finish it's lifecycle?

I read that the velvet parasite can photosynthesize in the free-swimming stage I think, so I am confused as to whether leaving the tank with no fish will actually kill the parasite off, or if I will have to treat the planted tank also. Does anyone know for sure? It's really hard to find info on the net.

Thanks.

[C. King]

Velvet has a life cycle very similar to ich, so raising the water temp to 82 degrees will help kill it in its free swimming stage. Also, it is sensitive to light, so I would keep the lights off and cover the tank with a dark cover for a few days. Two weeks of high temp should do the trick, but I would go a little longer, just to be sure. Salt is effective, but I am not sure how well the plants and inverts would tolerate that, so I wouldn't use it in the main tank, but I would use salt (aquarium salt, not table salt) in the hospital tank. Copper sulfide is the treatment of choice for the fish, but cannot be used with inverts. In the hosp. tank, increase temp slowly, and keep lights off for a few days, just as in the main tank, along with the treatment you use. (remember to remove carbon from filter while using meds, and always add some extra aeration!) Some "stess coat" will help if the fish begin to lose a bit of their skin. (this sometimes happens, depending on the amount of damage the velvet has done) They will have poor appetites, so if they have a favorite food, bribe them with it.

[angelcraze]

Thank you for your suggestions. I am trying salt and ich-x presently in the hospital tank, I have been for 10 days now, but I under medicated by accident, (found this out after calling hikari; the manufacturer) so I will continue for 7 more days and hope for the best there. I read that copper is the med of choice also, but it scares me, so I am trying formaldehyde, methanol, and malachite green for now. I guess I should have explained more about the blacked out hospital tank. It has a matured sponge filter and approx. 17 gallons of water. It has 250ml of salt added. I change 5 gallons daily, and add 79ml of salt each w/c along with 7.5ml of ich-x. I will keep the platys in here for a few months after another 7 days of medicating with just salt. Hopefully this will do the trick for the hospital tank.

I can raise the temp in the planted tank to 82, I am just worried about blacking out the main planted tank. What will that do to the plants? Agreed, salt would probably not be too good for the plants and inverts, definitely copper is bad, so do you think I can just keep the planted tank fish free for a certain amount of weeks to let the parasite die off?

So far, my platies are doing ok, thank you for your suggestions and concern, your post was helpful.

[TheOldSalt]

Try six weeks if you can.

[angelcraze]

I can do that, thanks.