Post by Bumblebee on Aug 16, 2005 22:27:46 GMT 10
This is a very hard to diagnose illness as it looks almost the same as most bacterial and fungal illnesses, it is more comman in cold-water but still infects a large amount of fish in tropical tanks, targeting fry, juveniles and sick or stressed fish. On darker fish a 'velvety' area will appear on almost any area of the body, this may even resemble a cottany growth. with velvet their may be a greenish/yellow or even rust coloured tinge. the fish will usually shimmy, have laboured breathing (the parasite usually attacks the gills first) and in early stages will scratch itself against plants and ornaments. On lighter coloures fish especially white ones, look for the telltale yellow/rust coloured tinge and a pinkish/redish infected looking area. For treatment remove infected fish to a quarantine tank, raise water temp to 80-82f add salt at 1tsp per 5 gal, 1 tbs if you have salt tolerant fish. Treat fish with a malachite green/acriflavine/methylene blue treatment to controll both the parasite and resulting bacterial infections. Treatment for around 4 days to a week is necessary as the parasite has a long lifecycle, several stages at which it is untreatable. a long treatment ensures all the parasites in the tank have been killed to prevent re-infestation. Main-tank treatment were there appear to be no infected fish can involve adding salt and raising temp for a week to prevent/remove parasites that may be left behind.
