"Racf" wrote in
ink.net:


"Mephistopheles" wrote in
message ink.net...
Some of you may recall I posted several months ago regarding some
puzzling fish deaths in my 165 gallon South American tank. First, my
prize Uaru died. It acted as if it had something stuck in its
throat, but my autopsy did not discover anything. Then a Severum
died, and various small white threads could be seen trailing from its
gills. The best guess then was gill flukes. But I was skeptical of
this explanation since only one fish seemed to be affected at a time.

After reading an article in the American Cichlid Association's recent
edition of "Buntbarsche Bulletin" about a researcher's struggles to
diagnose and treat a disease plaguing his wild caught Julidichromis,
I have deduced that my problem is definitely the dinoflagellate
oodinium, which is commonly known as velvet. Never thought of velvet
because I thought its classic symptom is supposed to be rust-colored
velvety patches. However, after consulting Baensch, I discovered
that it can also appear as bluish-gray patches on the size of the
fish. I purchased four small Uaru several months ago, and one of
them had this patch on its side (and still does). However, as I have
also discovered now, the fish can be affected by this parasite
without ever showing anything on its skin. In my case, the fish were
essentially suffocated by a massive gill infestation.

In any event, I am now treating as for ich -- QuickCure (formalin and
malachite green), raised temperature (around 87 degrees), salt, low
lights. No real progress so far, and looking over old posts this
seems to be a difficult disease to eradicate. Does anyone have any
advice or experiences to share regarding this nasty and sneaky
parasite?

Meph

You should ask Frank....he hangs over at alt.aquaria....I will
crosspost this. I wish Frank would hang on a few other groups
too...like this one...He is fairly good on ailments and treatments....


Racf,

Thanks. Thought your name choice was a variant on the abbreviation for
this group (rafc), but I see from your other post that that is just a
coincidence.

Meph