Marine Velvet? and treatment

[MuralReef]

I want to give a huge thanks to Chris Capp at Aquatic Art for helping me through the process and giving me advice which saved the majority of my livestock. So at the beginning of the summer I learned a very important lesson the hard way always, always, always QUARANTINE! I knew this but since my tank is at school I have found it difficult to maintain a QT tank at school or home. I will be setting up a QT at home prior to buying any new fish. That being said I wanted to document my experiences successfully treating fish in my tank. I didn't have the resources or desire to pull all of my fish destroying my DT to get them all out and treat them.
The products that I used were Dr. G's anti parasitic food, Seachem's Metronidazole and Focus, garlic extract, Selcon, and New Life Spectrum Thera+ pellets.
Here was the daily feeding routine.
-They would get nori 2-3 times daily that was soaked in garlic.
-Dr. G's would be given 2-3 times daily shutting down power heads to reduce the amount of food lost that might settle on corals.
-I would also give mysid shrimp that was thawed rinsed soaked in Selcon and lightly coated with Metronidazole and then Focus. This mixture would be allowed to soak overnight and if it was too dried out I would add a little Selcon to moisten it up again. This was fed along side the Dr. G's.
-NLS Thera+ would be given in between usually just once a day, but was added to the autofeeder to continue feeding over the weekend.
This was followed most of June and the beginning of July so probably about 3-4 weeks since we went back to normal feedings last week.
What I lost:
1 powder blue tang (possible culprit)
2 Japanese swallowtail angels (other possible culprits)
3 Ocellaris clowns including my female (her boyfriend lived)
1 Tomini Tang
1 Bangaii Cardinal
1 Midas Blenny

What lived:
1 Diamond Goby
1 pair of golden headed sleeper gobies
1 coral beauty
1 Mexican rock wrasse
1 Melanarus wrasse
1 Checker board wrasse
4 green chromis
1 ocellaris clown
1 Hippo tang
1 sailfin tang
1 scopas tang
1 big naso streamer tang

I am not going to lie I did see some of the corals suffer and there was some tissue recession near the tips of some of my SPS that hasn't fully recovered yet, but they are all still alive. I should also mention that with such a heavy feeding regimen that I increased water changes to weekly changes. We treated until there were no signs of any illness and I actually think my tangs in particular look better now than they did before I introduced the sick fish. Might be something to consider while quarantining fish in the future.

 

[zombie]

So at the beginning of the summer I learned a very important lesson the hard way always, always, always QUARANTINE!

Can't be stressed enough. MV sucks so bad.


How long has everything been MV free. I would personally be afraid that its still there, but just not showing signs. Definately let us know if you see it reappear. If this works long term his type of treatment would be a godsend for fish like mandarins and wrasses that dont take well to a copper QT. (Personally lost a mandarin and wheeler goby in QT because they refused to eat once the copper got up to 0.4 ppm)

 

[MuralReef]

As the title says MV? based upon what I read and saw online that was what I concluded, but everyone says it moves fast and furious. My tangs had it for 2 weeks before I started treating since initially I thought it was just Ich. No signs of disease in 2 weeks though.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

Thankfully we have quality knowledgable lfs here like aquatic art and others! Chris Capp is a total bad ***! I'm glad things have settled down for you!!!

 

[SynDen]

Glad to hear you were able to save so many of your fish. Sorry to hear you lost so many though but seems like that feeding regimen really worked out well. Thanks for sharing
Are you still continuing some of that feeding regimen, or gone back to normal feeding now? I'd continue with much of the garlic, selcon and Dr. Tim's for a few more weeks just to be on the safe side

 

[crisc]

Glad it worked out so well! I have used the same feedings to thwart off diseases in the past with good success as well. Like we discussed, not an absolute cure but a help in the process of getting the fish's immune system some help in fighting it off. Sorry to hear about the corals though, but they should recover over time.