How long to go fishless in display: velvet

EyeReef

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#1
Hey guys I made a mistake of adding a few frags from another hobbyists tank a month ago. The next day all my fish showed symptoms and signs of velvet. I quickly pulled them all out and put them in a qt. Unfortunately I was only able to save 3 out of the 6 fish. Its been exactly a month since treatment and the reef being fish-less. In your experience, is it save to reintroduce the fish or should I wait longer. Im heading out of town this week and would rather have the fish in the display.

Thanks in advance!


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#2
Mike, as I understand it, it depends where the velvet was in the lifecycle and I don't think there is any certain way to have known. It could be as short as 3 weeks or as long as six weeks but since you can't be certain, I think the standard recommendation is 6 weeks. When people say they added after 3 and 4 and were fine they could very well be correct but they also got lucky.
 

reefes pieces

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#3
Well if you're going to go fishless then I'd say assume there's ich present as well and go the full 76 day fallow period. It sucks but a good opportunity to clean the slate. Sorry you got hit with Velvet Mike
 

ericta000

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#4
Im going through the same issues and lost more then half of my fish with rest remaining going to qt. Im going for the full 76days with 14 more days to go and hopefully all goes well. I learn my lessons now. Good luck Mike
 
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#5
I was going to give the same advice go the full ICH and do 10-12 week no fish. I would quarantine everything for the same amount of time I am terrified of ICH and velvet from the early days of reefing.
 

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#6
Tough call. It would suck to lose your fish if your QT isn't very stable. BUT you could add your fish back and find a tank full if velvet a day or two before you take off, or worse a nuked tank if it blows up while youre away.

I went fallow and treat all fish in QT now. I accept the fact I probably still have ich since I don't QT frags but see no signs. Sorry to hear you got bombed by some frags, that's horrible! Curious, did they survive a coral dip? If so what kind?
 

EyeReef

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Tough call. It would suck to lose your fish if your QT isn't very stable. BUT you could add your fish back and find a tank full if velvet a day or two before you take off, or worse a nuked tank if it blows up while youre away.

I went fallow and treat all fish in QT now. I accept the fact I probably still have ich since I don't QT frags but see no signs. Sorry to hear you got bombed by some frags, that's horrible! Curious, did they survive a coral dip? If so what kind?
Thanks guys. Im am going to go at least another 2 weeks. The water quality has been somewhat stable. Unfortunately I thought the frags were from a diseased/pest free tank and did not dip. Lesson learned. Im curious if I did dip, would this have taken care off the flukes/ich/velvet


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#8
Thanks guys. Im am going to go at least another 2 weeks. The water quality has been somewhat stable. Unfortunately I thought the frags were from a diseased/pest free tank and did not dip. Lesson learned. Im curious if I did dip, would this have taken care off the flukes/ich/velvet


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Not ICh in its dormant state nothing can destroy those buggers or eggs from AEFW or eggs of flatworms. Therefore you would have to quarantine. Always quarantine regardless if its your best friend or your wifes tank. Better safe then sorry.
 
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#9
I went through it last year. I had to leave 2 unaffected fish in the tank, a Mandarin and 6 Line. I ended up going almost 4 months to be safe. had I not left the 2 in, I still would've went 3 months. I did weekly water changes and vacuumed sand during the process. I talked to Bob Fenner about it giving the circumstances. The main thing he said, that I totally agreed with, is that it is near impossible to eradicate parasites from an enclosed system, so the longer you can keep the fish healthy in QT, the better.
 

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