marine velvet/oodinium?

[salty27]

From reading other posts in researching my topic, I think my cherry grouper may have marine velvet/oodinium. He has been scraping one side of his body against the rocks in the aquarium, yet doesn't have any white spots or visible signs of illness. His appetite is also normal. The other fish in the aquarium seem to be doing fine too.
I did notice that ph was a bit off (nothing too drastic) so I just did a 1/3 water change with a touch of ph buffer to bring back to normal level. If it is marine velvet/oodinium, how can it be treated?

[quarryshark]

If your fish have velvet, you will need to get ALL of the to a qt tank for treatment. This will need to be done quickly, once velvet hits its advanced stages, it is a quick killer. I lost 3 fish within 24 hours to it early this year.
Cupramine (and the sechem test kit) is the med of choice for this disease and the main will need to be left void of fish for a 8 week period (leave inverts in the main, they are not hosts for this parasite).
Here is more info
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...loodinium.html
Hit us with specific questions.

[austinsdad]

I believe velvet happens when water conditions are less than desired. Mine broke out when my salinity and nitrates were not soo good. How have yours been over the recent period? How old is the tank and how long have the fish been in there? New additions? Grouper in particular.

Look for fine white dusting on the pec fins, That's where I think you'd see it first. But work fast if you think it is velvet. As Shark said, it kills fast. In SW fish, it starts in the gills and spreads to the body, so when/if you see it, it is already late.

Good luck.

[salty27]

Thanks for the info! The salinity is at 1.021 and nitrates have never been above 20. All other readings, with the exception of a minor drop in Ph (which is now good) have been consistent. The tank is about a year old, and the grouper was added about 2 months ago. There are no visible spots or marks anywhere on its body. The only other tank mates at this time are a medium sized trigger and footlong snowflake, and they are all acting normal (with the exception of the occasional scratching by the grouper) and all have their color and appetites.
Hopefully, I am mistaken and it isn't velvet but just a reaction to the drop of Ph, but I will quarantine the grouper to play it safe. I'll keep it posted!

[quarryshark]

Since he has been there for 2 months and if there were not any other additions recently, then I doubt if its velvet. Agree, it may just be a reaction to the low PH.
Keep us posted.