Dead L191 please help me figure out why...
- Thread starter koltsixx
- Start date
hmm maybe this pleco has coloration that just happen to look a lot like velvet? What is telling me it's velvet, is that it's more of a 'gold dust' then white spots. It looks identical to my farlowella cat with velvet...here's a pic to show what velvet looks like.
Sourced from http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/velvet.htm.Velvet/Oödinium is a dinoflagellate, a creature classified by some as a protozoan and by others as algae because it contains Chlorophyll. Oödinium doesn't care how it's classified; it's an equal opportunity parasite that strikes fresh and saltwater fish.
In freshwater fish Velvet is caused by either Oödinium pilularis or Oödinium limneticum. In marine fish Oödinium ocellatum causes the dreaded Coral Fish Disease. All three species have symptoms and lifecycles similar to the well known parasite, Ich.
Oödinium finds a fish and adheres to it using flagellum, then forms rod pseudopodia which penetrate the skin and soft tissues of the gills. The pseudopods destroy the cells and feed on the nutrients inside. After feeding and maturing, the parasite drops off the fish and divides into dozens of cells that are released into the water to seek hosts. They must find a host within 24 hours, or die.
Thanx bro! I'm sorry for your loss too especially considering how much size your Rhom put on him before he died, must've been a impressive looking specimen. As for recouping some money it's gonna be a no go. Figures I can find every receipt from Petland except that one. I've got receipts from 3 months back but can't find the one from 2 days ago, just my luck. It really does hurt when you try your best to keep everything optimal for them. Still I did make a mistake I didn't quarantine him. I had a Hoogaboomorum come down with ick and he was being treated in my quarantine tank. I should've waited till he was better and then quarantined the Pleco. Who knows maybe I would've noticed it faster in quarantine.
It's true the salt doesn't do anything to kill the parasite, but I thought it still helps with gill function doesn't it?
There are a lot of commercial products you can pick up from your LFS, just be careful over dosing with Copper can kill fish faster than the Velvet. Best way to tell if it's Velvet is to turn off the lights in your room and the tank and when you shine a flashlight on the fish if you get a golden reflection(concentrate on the gills) it's Velvet. If not then it's probably ick which is pretty easy to cure.
If you look closely on this one you can see the white spots, thats what mine looks like.
I've seen a number of royal pleco's and other ones in my LFS' and a few of them looked velvety. I had just assumed that was by design.
Your not the only one bro! I can tell you this much I'm going to be a whole lot more careful next time and give everything in a LFS tank a good looking over before buying as well as quarantining the fish first.
If you have it now this way is too late, but this is why on all my tanks I run a U.V on them. Been down that road years ago. If I remember right copper safe is a effective way of treating velvet. It will be rough on some of your fish and kill almost all inverts so read instructions carefully.
Thanx bro! I got to ask though are you saying those U.V. filters can eliminate the risk of Velvet cause if you are I'll run out and buy another one. I had one but thought it was predominately to stop algae. Then again as the article I read said Velvet is tentatively classified as algae by some.
Thanx J! I appreciate it.
Thanx bro, it does totally suck plus I hate treating my tank it seems like time crawls when your treating your tank.
