About 2 days ago my main male Rainbowfish wasn’t himself, his fins were close to his body he was swimming on spot towards a corner of the tank I could instantly tell something was off. He wasn’t showing off to all the females and keeping the other males in check and he was very bleached out something was definitely wrong. I threw in food he showed interest but didn’t go up and eat, On closer inspection I noticed it’s barely visible (at the time) but when he’s looking towards you on his sides was a slim white/clear film, after these symptoms and a bit of research online I came to the conclusion that it has to be either Columnaris or velvet. I went to the LFS and picked up Red Sea Rally did a dose on the main display turned down temperature and gave the male a saltwater dip, today he looks worse very washed out and the film was alot more noticeable you can just barely see it now when looking at his sides. The only new things to the tank are 3 clouded archerfish who were in quarantine for a couple days but since nothing looked wrong with them, and they were eating every time I offered food I put them into the main tank. The tank is 75 gallons, pH 7.5, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, nitrate 5, and temp was around 80 but over 2 days dropped down to 76. Currently there are 11 rainbows (only 2 inches right now bought them as fry and am growing them up to get a good male to female ratio), Small three beacon pleco, 3 clouded archers, 4 bristlenose, and 1 sunshine pleco (Holding onto for a friend until the weekend), and a small panda Garra. He looks a lot worse today and I’m not sure what to do any suggestions?.
Help! Rainbowfish with Velvet
- Thread starter CrunchyLobster123
- Start date
It is important if it is velvet or columnaris for the treatment. Though it could be other skin parasites as well, you would need to examine a scrape under a microscope. However if it is velvet put him in a quarantine tank with 19 grams of salt per gallon/5 grams of salt per liter. If it is used to soft water, do it over a period of 2 days. Raise the temperature to like 84 degrees.
Salt will kill the velvet. (but he has to stay in the hospital tank with the salt for at least a week) The raised temperature speeds up their life cycle. Don't know what is in Red Sea Rally...
Pretty much any med/treatment one would use for ich can be used for velvet (this would include salt). However, there is another med which I have used and which is pretty mild in terms of how fish handle it: Flubendazole. Here is a not too long paper you can read. Do not let the title fool you because it covers several other common fish diseases, hexamita, wasting disease and velvet. The part about velvet is below. You can decide if this is something you want to try. If so Dr. Harrison sells several meds I keep in my fish med kit.
Eradicating Hydra and Other Pests with Flubendazole
From: Journal of the American Killifish Association September/October 2003
Vol.36, No. 5
By Charles Harrison, Ph.D.
With the continued thought that Flubendazole not only killed the hydra and was effective against the protozoa Hexamita, I anticipated that this drug could also be effective against the other two common protozoan pests in the aquarium hobby, Oodinium (velvet) and
Ichthyophthirius (ich). I didn't have a chance to treat either disease until the first part of December 2002. I had neglected a tank of Epiplatys lamottei and to my dismay a coating of velvet enveloped each fish. I had purchased these fish about nine months earlier. While I did not
observe a velvet infection when I purchased these fish, from what I know about this disease, it would appear that these fish were probably infected with the parasite before I got them. It was only my neglect that allowed the parasite to flourish. I treated the tank with Flubendazole in the usual manner, beginning with a complete change of water, then I added 1/4 teaspoon of Flubendazole (5% powder) to the tank, bubbling and stirring it to dissolve it. I reported my results in “KillieTalk” in December 2002, to many unbelieving eyes. The parasite dewormer seemed to eliminate the velvet infection in my fish.
While none of the experiments mentioned in this article were performed under scientifically controlled conditions, I believe the results certainly warrant such an investigation.
JAKA Article on Flubendazole and resources
Buy Flubendazole Here
Effective treatment for Hydra, Intestinal Parasites including Hexamita, Gill Flukes and Camallanus>PDF
The long URL link above also contains dosing instructions. The med is not very water soluble, so it offers two ways to help with that. I use the vodka method as it gives me an excuse to keep a bottle of Stolchnaya in the freezer.
Eradicating Hydra and Other Pests with Flubendazole
From: Journal of the American Killifish Association September/October 2003
Vol.36, No. 5
By Charles Harrison, Ph.D.
With the continued thought that Flubendazole not only killed the hydra and was effective against the protozoa Hexamita, I anticipated that this drug could also be effective against the other two common protozoan pests in the aquarium hobby, Oodinium (velvet) and
Ichthyophthirius (ich). I didn't have a chance to treat either disease until the first part of December 2002. I had neglected a tank of Epiplatys lamottei and to my dismay a coating of velvet enveloped each fish. I had purchased these fish about nine months earlier. While I did not
observe a velvet infection when I purchased these fish, from what I know about this disease, it would appear that these fish were probably infected with the parasite before I got them. It was only my neglect that allowed the parasite to flourish. I treated the tank with Flubendazole in the usual manner, beginning with a complete change of water, then I added 1/4 teaspoon of Flubendazole (5% powder) to the tank, bubbling and stirring it to dissolve it. I reported my results in “KillieTalk” in December 2002, to many unbelieving eyes. The parasite dewormer seemed to eliminate the velvet infection in my fish.
While none of the experiments mentioned in this article were performed under scientifically controlled conditions, I believe the results certainly warrant such an investigation.
JAKA Article on Flubendazole and resources
Buy Flubendazole Here
Effective treatment for Hydra, Intestinal Parasites including Hexamita, Gill Flukes and Camallanus>PDF
The long URL link above also contains dosing instructions. The med is not very water soluble, so it offers two ways to help with that. I use the vodka method as it gives me an excuse to keep a bottle of Stolchnaya in the freezer.
