[hozmosis]

Right now I have my betta in a hospital tank and I'm treating him for velvet. I just have a few questions about the process since I want to do it right!

His normal tank is 5.5 gallons. How long will the velvet persist in the tank without him in it? Should I treat the empty tank with darkness and aquarium salt (tying not to kill my biofilter)? Or should I completely restart by scrubbing everything down and re-cycle the tank while he's in the hospital tank?
I certainly don't mind doing this, I just want to make sure he doesn't get sick again after his treatment.

Also, will doing water changes for the hospital tank mess with the medication? I know I will be doing them to control the ammonia since the medication would kill any beneficial bacteria, but how often?

Thanks for any help, trying to do the best thing for my little guy!

 

[haveyouhadyourteayet]

What medication are you using?

 

[hozmosis]

I'm using Quick Cure. I was skeptical at first, but after just one day of treatment I noticed his gold spots decreasing

 

[haveyouhadyourteayet]

What brand is that? What are the ingredients?

 

[hozmosis]

The brand is called AP. The ingredients are formalin and malachite green

 

[haveyouhadyourteayet]

Cool! I wasn't finding any google hits for an actual med without the brand name
That should be a good medication. It looks like just drops, so I would do your standard water changes, but just pre-treat the water before you add it in.
Always defer to the directions on the package, though.

 

[hozmosis]

Alright thank you!

Any suggestion for killing the parasite in the main tank? Would it be worth it to get new gravel and wash everything and re-cycle the tank?

 

[haveyouhadyourteayet]

Oh sorry duh. I think treating the tank with a pretty high dose of meds, and keeping it dark for as long as he's being treated should knock anything out.

 

[hozmosis]

The only thing is I'm trying to avoid using the medication in his regular tank so my biofilter isn't harmed, also this medication has a tendency to stain any plants or gravel

 

[lilnaugrim]

Can you show pictures? I'd like to make sure that it is actually Velvet since a lot of people mistake the iridescence for velvet. You don't want to treat a Betta who isn't sick.

 

[hozmosis]

I gave him the first treatment last night. This morning, to be honest, he barely even looks like he has any of the gold on him that he did before. I definitely know he didn't have this coloring before because it came on as faint grey/white dots that almost resembled bubbles but under a flashlight were small gold dots that were concentrated on his head, fins, and lining the area above his pelvic and anal fin. I also have a lot of pictures of him from a few weeks ago that don't show any of it.
If I took the picture now he would not show the amount of spots he had before

 

[lilnaugrim]

So does it look like this:



Or this?

 

[hozmosis]

The first picture resembles his gold spots that were concentrated on his head, except there were a lot more than in the picture.
The third picture resembles what he almost looked like without a light on him, except less severe than it looks in the picture.

Good news- today his gold spots that were above his pelvic/anal fins are definitely decreasing as well as those that were on his head!