# Velvet Disease



## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

My goldfish I think have velvet. It looks like slime patches on their bodies mainly on the top of the head and also on the tips of the fins and tail. I have also noticed that one of them has a slighlt ragged tail.

My levels are
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
pH 8.0
GH 300
KH 200
Phospate 2.5

I have recently just put a few more plants in and also started using and over-dosing with Flourish Excel to help the plants and get rid of the red algae.
Other than that there have been now other changes.

I first noticed this a couple of days ago but it was only small patches and previously had had this and it cleared up. It was about the time I added the new plants did a big water change (40%) and started the Flourish Excel dosing. I dont think the probably is temperature but it tends to be between 23 to 26/27 degrees. At most the difference over the day is 3 degrees. But that is sloly changing in temp and they seem to have been coping fine with that up till now. The fish are acting fine and eating fine and dont seem to have chaned at all except for this slime. Any ideas or suggestions on causes and cures would be very much appreciated.


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## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

Thank you. How did you get all that info? I spent a few hours on the net looking and only ot half of that.

Im not sure if it is Velvet disease. I havnt been able to find any pictures of my fish have yet. It does say it can look cloudy but only when the light is reflected off at a certain angle. Well this is true but I have not seen themscraping themselves against rocks or gravel.

I still cant work out what the cause was. The plants I bought were froman lfs which has a plant only tank so they must have been away form fish atleast 50 hours meaning there was not host and they couldnt survive.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe the flourish excel is doing it to them. Any ides on that theory?

And also are any of those treatments safe for plants and filter bacteria?


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## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

*Update*

Update:

Well the developments are that the slime seems to have reduced on the fish. The water has also gone become milky cloudy. This made me test the water again and I have found that the nitrites are at 0.5ppm (I feel bad coz I must have done the test wrong last time) now I know this could be the cause of the slime and my feelings are that it probably is the problem. 

The questions now are what would cause a nitrite spike or small cycle in the tank? There has been no added fish so it cant be that.
So Im guessing that something must have seriously decreased the size of my bacteria colony. 
My theories are:

the overdose of flourish excel would cause that.
it was the flourish excel anyway, the overdose just made it worse.
the plants I added somehow gave the bacteria a problem.
When I added the plants I did a 40% water change, gave the tank a good scrub and vacuumed half the gravel but did nothing with the filter. I didnt even remove it from the water.

Any ideas?


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## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

Thanks thats alot of good info there.
The only thing it could possible be is Velvet. Its definately not dropsy, had it before and cured it, not Ich its a film not spots, not fungus either. 
I think it just a reaction to the nitrite spike but Im not sure what would have caused this.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Hmmm... patches of slime, eh?

Hey, baby_baby, howsabout looking up _Costia_ and _Chilodonella_ and showing us what you find? So far this stuff you're getting is pretty good, but now let's try to pinpoint Huugs's actual problem.


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## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

Costia was another thing that had crossed my mind but with that aswell as velvet it says the fish scrape on rocks and gravel, are often lathargic and clamp their fins. They are all acting normal and swimming just fine. Along with the cloudiness of the water Im not sure if it is a disease.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Good job.

The addition of the new plants probably led to this problem.
The bigger problem is that all the treatments for these ailments are very bad for plants, so you'll have to treat in a hospital tank, which might be fine for the fish, but does nothing about the beasties still in the main tank. Raising the temp to about 30c while the fish are gone and adding just a little salt or acriflavine will stress the plants, but they 'll probably survive better than the parasites. Continue for about a week, then change 1/2 the water, making sure to do a good cleanup of the gravel and decor in the process. Discontinue carbon filtration during treatment. after it's all fixed, let it run for a day to stabilize and return to normal temperature before returning the fish. 
From then on, quarantine the plants just like you would any new fish. Since plants are so sensitive to the treatments, they are typically not treated for anything before being sold.


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## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

Would that explain the milky water and high nitrites aswell?

The water is actually clearer now and havnt had the chance to test yet but itll be first thing I do tomorow but also the patches of slime are getting much smaller and nearly gone on one.

Where do you fine all that info its amazing? Just like to know for the future.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Yeah, it would explain it, although I'm wondering if I should be worried about where you're getting your plants.

Glad to hear that things are clearing up on their own. you might get lucky this time.


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## Huugs (Apr 25, 2005)

Yea thanks alot both of you. 

I got the plants from one of the lfs s near me. I dont think Ill be getting plants from there anymore not now MyraVan has given me a good online place over here. Seems weird though that adding the plants would spike the nitrite.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Just adding plants wouldn't do it, but the rooting about in the substrate and the rotting of the bruised areas of the plants injured in transport/planting would.


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