Treating Velvet: Iodide in Salt?

I'm in agreeance with LBF. Go ahead and get some copper meds but be careful if you have any crustacean in the tank as it will kill them. The tank you treat will also never be able to hold crustaceans for the future either, any trace of copper can kill them. But, it will treat your fish successfully.


I've had good luck with SeaChem's Cupramine and with CopperSafe (though it's been a few years since I've used it). Just a tip, if you use SeaChem's Cupramine and you have Seachem's Prime water conditioner, do not use that before or after you use Cupramine. The Prime causes a reaction with the Copper that makes it 5 times more potent. So, use another water conditioner for your water change. If you don't have Prime, then don't worry ;-)


Salt's are good for preventative use but not for curing parasites or bacterial diseases. There are many anecdotal evidences that say salt is a cure-all, but it's just not true. The only thing it does is balance out electrolytes (good) and it can sterilize an open wound which will help prevent infection in the future (also good!). So, it's still useful, just not in the way that many think it is.


Often treating something "holistically" when it needs a real medication is not good. I always suggest trying something little first but if he clearly has Velvet, it's time to break out the big guns. If one is not sure of what disease it may be, that's when you start little and work your way up.


On that note, do you have pictures or another thread that we can help out with? Often times, what looks like Velvet, is only iridescence and isn't actually the parasite.

I'm sorry to hear that Swift. Sometimes these things just happen.

It sounds like it could have been a slime coat infection as well or an irritation to something maybe in the water that took time to irritate him. That's not all that uncommon to see.

You can continue to use that tank. Just dump out your water, rinse your gravel and let it dry out for a few days. Or purchase new gravel if you like. You can use boiling water (please be careful!!!) to sterilize the tank in the sink. Can't just be hot, has to be boiling to actually sterilize anything. Let it dry completely and you should be go to go.

I personally never sterilize my tanks any more unless it's something I know is seriously contagious, then I might, or throw it out if it's cheap enough. It's up to you in the end.

As I did mention before, Salt is a good preventative but do remember that it won't heal anything. If you want to use it at a preventative level then you can use it indefinitely at 1 tsp per 5 gallons. Just remember that salt doesn't evaporate so don't add more unless you're doing a water change and physically take out some water. Just topping off the tank doesn't count as it remains the same and you'd end up overdosing the salt eventually. It's why I recommend the lower dosage of salt, it allows for some mistakes to be made and not be harmful for the fish still if you ever want to fully remove the salt then you've got to do a 100% water change, otherwise you'll never fully get it all out. Though, trace amounts of it isn't going to hurt the fish at all. Aquarium salt is good at helping balance out the fish's electrolytes.