Marine velvet -oodinium

[jc118288]

hi,
I have oodinium in my tank, 4 clown fish, an angel and a lipstick tang have it. A chromis and a yellow tail damselfish dont seem to have it. All water levels are right. Have done a freshwater bath, and a treatment of Kent Marine Rx.P., As well as a 100% water change and increased the temperature to 30 degrees. Going to try another commercial treatment that contains malachite green however i have a sea cucumber, anemone, starfish, Heliofungia coral and other smaller corals and colonial anemones. WILL THEY SURVIVE???
I dont want to use copper.
Cheers

[EMS503]

Sorry to hear this, Im not much help in this area. My one time dealing with Velvet's disease was horrible. Nothing I did helped, and lost all my fish in my 75 gal. reef. My personal oppion is once you see velvet on a fish its to late. I just put down my White Cheek Tang as I could not beat back the Ich which showed first the last time. I was'nt taking a chance this time. Hope someone else can help. Good Luck.
John

Be sure what you are treating is oodinium, misdiagnosis can do just as much damage as the parasite itself.

While The RP-x has had some success in the hobby, I would not look to it nor malachite green for the eradication of Amyloodinium. You should also note that increasing the temperature will only increase the frequency in which the parasite can reproduce, not kill it or affect it adversely. Without an effective cure in place, it will only increase the rate in which the fish are infected.

The best treatment in these cases is the tried and true, copper. You should seriously consider setting up a QT and rounding up the fish. It must be done quickly. Once oodinium has a hold, it can kill very fast. The only other effective treatment I have heard of is Acriflavin. Either way a QT in this situation is a must.

Any delay will mean certain death to the fish and any "cure" effective on oodinium will also kill the inverts in the main display.

You must also leave the main tank fishless for a minimum of 4-6 weeks after treatment to eliminate the parasite. If any fish are added back too early, it will just start the cycle anew.

Cheers
Steve

[bkilgore]

We are currently treating our tank for ick with Copper Safe and so far everything is looking good. We have tried with kick ich, greenex and Exodin without any success. It seems to us that Copper is the best option, even thought you have to remove all invertebrates and live rock. To us so far so good, the fish are still swimming and eating regularly. Good luck to you.
Daniela

[HoopsGuru]

The only problem with copper in the main tank is that it will remain in any substrate, etc. left behind and will always be a danger to any invertebrates in the future. It is a great med, but much better used in a bare bottomed QT tank.