# Velvet outbreak! Need help!



## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

So, to my surprise, shock, sadness, madness, and many other things, I noticed my male betta, rex, has velvet. I have been dumping his water in my main 15 gal as he is in a floating container. Before I noticed, I move my male betta, thunder, to my 5 gal. He was in a floating container also in the 15 gal. There was some water left on the outside of the bowl. Now I just spread velvet to my 5 gal too! Idk how long he's had it, and I currently have fry that share some equipment. That means, ALL my tanks are likely to have had exposure. If that's not bad enough, the male betta I was going to enter in my club's show was in velvety water. Doesn't that suck... Now here's the question, does malachite green treat velvet? Also, will salt help? Does anyone know what else will help? There's another question also, read this article, and please tell me if I should still use malachite green. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/malachitegreen.htm


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

btw, some of my breeding stock is in the tank. I have another question, would flubendazole be good to treat my fish with?


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

now i know i am not ever going to move to california..the place is infested with velvet...in almost 40 years i have never had it....


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

The gun laws are horrendous too! And the politicians! I'm looking at getting flubenvet. It has flubendazole in it.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

no velvet for me either. Good luck with it. Tell us what works.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

never had it either, hopes someone will be ablle to help you.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

I probably got it cause I let the water change go a couple days past schedule, and had so much light on. I read velvet photosynthesizes, so I turned the light off, and shaded the tank. Btw, two more fish are showings signs of velvet. One is getting spots, and the other one is flashing. Unfortunately, one of them is my prize female.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

That really sucks, I hope it doesn't destroy your whole collection.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

+1. I was just getting ready to sell some of my malaysian trumpet snails.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

I sent an email to a guy who's with wetwebmedia.com. When I met him, he appeared to know a lot about fish.


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## Fishy friend2 (Dec 7, 2011)

Hellow it is not likely to harm any of your fish exept the unhealthy and stressed ones. Diseases such as velvet only effect stressed fish with low immune systems. Go look at the thread in the diseases section that I wrote for treating velvet


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

There was one that was weak from getting stuck in a filter cartridge, and he also was in slightly dirty water with the light on. That's why he got it. Btw, one more fish now has golden spots. Fortunately, my prize female has stopped flashing. I emailed the CEO,(I think that's what he is) and he said that I should not use malachite green. He said methylene blue. He also said my plants and snails could take 60 degree water for a few days. I'm going to be leaving the main tank empty for a few weeks so that the velvet will die off. At least I don't have to recycle the tank and bleach it...


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Change of plans, I'm going to get pure methylene blue tonight! It is way overpriced, but they're the only place that has it. 8.99 is a lot when it sells online for 3.75!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

The "only stressed fish get sick" thing has some truth to it, but its not the whole truth. Fish that are stressed are a lot more susceptible to disease and can get stuff like ich that you'd never realize was existing in your tank at a low level. And fish in bad conditions will almost always come down with something: popeye, fin-rot, etc.

But healthy fish that encounter a foreign disease for the first time can get wiped out. Think Small Pox decimating the native Americans between Columbus and the Mayflower. The newcomers were shocked how sparsely the land was populated. Today's global fish trade can make a habit of this. And low-level meds and UV in systems can produce "superbugs" that are really fast multiplying and hard to wipe out.

The other issue is fish that are line-bred for specific traits in near sterile environments for generations and may have lost some or all of their natural immunity without anyone noticing until they are exposed to other fish. Fish that people tell you to keep alone may fall in this group. Guppies, Bettas, fancy-fin swords, discus, rams. If you get a perfectly healthy fish, take it home and it dies in 2 weeks, it could be your tanks harbor something this fish have no defense against. 

Fish that get stuck to filters, IME, almost always have some sort of illness already.


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## Guest (Aug 29, 2012)

I had a clown loach with velvet. Didn't know it was velvet until it was too late. I used to have 5 clown loaches but two died and I have three since 2007. 

I have no experience with velvet with bettas, but I do know that you treat it with the same medication as you would ich. Hope your bettas get better Betta man.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Got methylene. Plakats are much more hardy. They're the ones that I really really really care about. None of the plakats are showing signs of velvet, but another fish now has it.


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