# What to do after Velvet?



## pperez25 (Mar 22, 2013)

Hey! 
About a week ago Velvet finished killing most of my fish. I have a 20 gallon that had 1 Betta 7 neon tetras and 3 Ottos. There are only 3 surviving ottos left the rest died.  I'n new to all this so I brought home a neon tetra that was a weird color because I thought it was just injured in the moving process and wanted to treat it sure enough it was Velvet. By the time I realized it they all started to die. It's been about a week since my betta died and my Ottos are doing great I've been treating the tank by using Rid-ich, keeping my tank covered(away from light) and raised the temp to 82. I'm not sure what to do now my ottos were never affected by the Velvet so I'm not sure if the velvet is gone and how long should I wait before I consider getting new fish? Any help would be great I really do not want to put fish in my tank again only to have them die makes me extremely sad. Any help would be great thank you so much!


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## yannis2307 (Apr 23, 2012)

UV sanitizer? i dont know, but i think it could be a good idea...the pros will come in here dont worry, dont spend your money on a sanitizer just because i suggested...


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## weedkiller (Nov 18, 2012)

does rid-ich treat velvet? sounds like your treating ich with the raised temps an all.....
an anti bacterial like melafix and pimafix should treat velvet I think (don't quote me).
a uv light can kill some of the good bacteria from what I understand (again don't quote me).
i add melafix for 3-5 days on adding new fish and use partial water changes and carbon filter bags to remove when done.
the only other treatment i use is stress coat on adding fresh water and aquarium salt as a light dose, my opinion is keep the chems minimal and look after the good bacteria and that will look after your fish better than any chems (again don't quote me).
its what works for me, some will disagree whilst others will agree


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

QT all new fish always! You can get new fish if you put in them QT, but keep them there for 6 weeks while you keep treating the main tank until you are reasonably sure it is clear. Velvet is a "dinoflagellate parasites" , so ich meds are more likely to work than anti-biotics. After 6 weeks in separate tanks without disease sign, put one new fish and one old fish in a third tank and see what they infect each other with.


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## pperez25 (Mar 22, 2013)

Do as anyone have an idea how long Velvet lasts in a tank?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

http://www.fbas.co.uk/Velvetdiag.jpg http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/velvet.htm

If this is accurate, you can kill it in the water or do the "aquarium shell game" like you can with ich. Move the fish to a new container every day and discard infected water and clean the container.

http://theaquariumwiki.com/Velvet

The issue is how long those "cysts" last. The last link says 7 days of fish-free tank will do the trick.


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## pperez25 (Mar 22, 2013)

Thanks ill continue to treat the ottos for another day or so then move them and leave my tank empty for 2 week just be safe thank you!


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