So my same oranda has once again caught velvet. Considering this is the third run in the last 6 months, I'm expecting something may be wrong with the upkeep of my tank.

If anyone's interested, I found this site helpful :

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/oodinium


I'll be treating with acriflavine again, but am wondering for an honest opinion on my aquarium care. I have 3 goldfish (common, oranda and fantail) in a 20 gallon aquarium. So, I'm overstocked. They range from 1.5 inches to 6 inches. I do a water change once a week. My water parameters are stable. I was keeping the temperature at 20 degrees celcius. Is it possible that the general condition of my tank -- it being a cool water tank, as well as over-populated -- actually makes it more susceptible to velvet?

Last week, after noticing some symptoms, I slowly raised the temperature to 23 and added salt. After that they seemed to go away until today. It's only affecting one fish, same as before. I'm not able to quarantine, as my snails are in my only other tank. I'll start another treatment tonight and see what happens.

Black eyed Suzie wrote:

It's only affecting one fish, same as before.

The first time it had actually infected the entire tank, the oranda being the worst case. The second and third time, however, it's only the oranda that's showing any symptoms.

How much water do you change weekly? You will need a larger tank for those fish though. Velvet is a tough one to treat. It was for me anyway. I purchased a fish from a chain pet store and a couple days after getting it home I noticed velvet. I treated for a couple of days but the fish didn't make it. The velvet spread way too fast IME.

Your best bet is to change the water as frequently as possible to help clean up your water (may be clean but levels were not listed). The most important number is your NitrAtes if your tank is established. Try to keep the level at least under 20ppm if possible. Your actual tank parameters would help too.

I tried treating with salt but I'm guessing the velvet (at least in my case) may take a more serious approach with the meds to make it go away. Saint or Wyite would be better suited to answer this question as I do not have a lot of experience treating these diseases with meds. Hopefully one or both of them will chime in.

Generally, I do a 25% water change every week. Right now, nitrates are actually at 20ppm, ammonia between 0 and 0.6ppm and my pH is 8.5.

I've blacked out the tank for the moment, i'm also treating with salt. I'm hesitant to add the acriflavine, since the water's been tainted with it for the past six months; it may not be as effective anymore. Ideally I'd like to use cupramine, but it's proving a little hard to find in my area.

The symptoms are not advanced and seem stable, but are not improving either.

I'm actually surprized the nitrates are that low at the stocking level you mention. I would try to up the water changes and see if the nitrates change. Double the frequency and see if they drop more. Stress can play a big role in the frequency and duration of fish diseases. I'm sorry I'm not qualified to talk about the meds. I would just say to follow the instructions. For now though I would continue with the salt until all signs of the disease are gone for a couple of weeks.

How much salt are you adding?

Also after converting the celsius to F it seems your temp might be too low. I usually keep mine at least at 84 to 85deg F (29C) when treating but I do understand these are cold water fish. Not sure that temp will kill the disease though.

One thing I do see that may be causing your oranda issues is the common goldie that's in there. Who's what size?

From my experiences with them common goldies are better kept with comets, wakin, shubunkin or even koi than any of the egg/ball goldie varieties. They're much faster and can out eat the fancies. Also, while not schooling fish, they seem to like to hang out in a group, and a few times I've seen fancies get (not in an aggressive way mind you) shoved around some.

dirtydawg10 wrote:

I'm actually surprized the nitrates are that low at the stocking level you mention.

The live plants help.

saint_felony wrote:

One thing I do see that may be causing your oranda issues is the common goldie that's in there. Who's what size?

The common is 6 inches. Had I known about those issues, I never would have stocked them in the same tank. There's no aggression between them, but come feeding time the common gets excited and bangs the other two around a bit. As far as actual eating goes, it seems like they all get their fair share.

I can definitely see, however, the extra stress level of having a fast swimmer mixed in with the fancies. It totally makes sense that it would cause weakness in other areas.

The velvet seems to have subsided, but we're not out of the woods yet. I find each time it leaves an imprint on the fish; sucks the life right out of them