Velvet Fish Disease

as your once brilliantly colored, wide eyed finned friend started looking and acting differently recently? Is his once gorgeous body now dull and covered with a strange, rusty colored film? Was he once very active and now sits lethargically near the bottom of the tank? If so, your little finned friend may be suffering from one of the most common fresh water fish diseased known as velvet.

Velvet is a serious disease and can cause a swift death to your fish. It is also referred to as rust, gold dust disease and Oodinium. It is caused by a tiny parasite called Oodinium. Oodinium is a dinoflagellate and is incredibly prolific. Once the velvet appears on your fish, you should be more concerned about the safety of the rest of the fish in your tank than the survival of the one fish that seems to currently be infected by it.

It is vital that you instantly remove the infected fish from the tank as the Oodinium has a life cycle in which it feeds on a fish until it is ready to drop. After it drops, it divides into dozens of cells which will then disperse throughout all the ornamentation in your tank. Once it does this, it will look for new pray which, in the case of an aquarium, will be all the rest of your fish.

If you do not act fast after discovering this disease your will likely have an entire outbreak in your tank and face the possibility of having to completely start over and any aquarium enthusiast knows just how devastating that would be.

Signs that your Fish is Infected with Velvet

There are a number of indicators that your fish is suffering from this disease. As an aquarium owner, it is incredibly important that you routinely check every single one of your fish for signs of the common fresh water aquarium diseases such as velvet.

You should also have an isolation tank that is already set up and flowing so that you can immediately remove the infected fish from the rest and continue to treat both the infected fish and the original tanks as well.

Signs of velvet include:

o Scratching against objects in the tank

o Lethargy

o Loss of appetite

o Fins clamped

o Rusty colored film

o Peeling

For more information on velvet fish disease, visit the website of your Austin Vet Clinic today.