I think a few tanks have an infestation of velvet. I looked it up and the pictures seem similar but not conclusive.

I think it is called Oodinium pillularis although some write-ups called it something else. The most common treatment seems to call for something with copper in it. I have a large number of shrimp and rooted plants in the tank and I would like to avoid the copper if there is another way, but if not the shrimp and plants will have to be sacrificed. I don’t want to spread the velvet by moving the shrimp to another tank.

I tried the dark tank and salt approach for a week but it seems to have come back.

Any ideas?

Try flubendazole. Charles Harrison can supply it. You can find his contact information under the Find Users menu item to the left. Until you get some keep salt in the water, say 1 tsp. per gallon, to limit exacerbation of the condition.

Barry Cooper

At least two kinds of velvet are in freshwater aquarium tanks, one with chlorophyll and one without. Both are susceptible to copper. In the case of shrimp in the tank, you can't use copper as it will kill them. Velvet is also said to be susceptible to flubendazole, but I have no idea if it would adversely affect shrimp. I suggest you try one shrimp in a container with flubendazole and if it survives, you could use it generally. There is no standard dose. Flubendazole is barely soluble in water, but when it works it works even in small amounts. Simply sprinkle a bit of the powder on the surface of the water and stir it a bit. It takes a good day to dissolve enough to have an effect, but then the velvet (or hydra) is gone within the week. Velvet alone won't kill anything except if there are other stresses, so you've got time to do this slowly. You can speed up the solution of flubendazole by stirring a bit in a glass of hot tap water. It won't all dissolve, but enough will to at least address your patience. Flubendazole probably breaks down eventually and should be used perhaps once every one or two months. A "bit" is maybe an eighth of a teaspoon in a 20 gallon tank. But no matter how little I use, it seems to work.

Thanks for the reply. As luck would have it, I have some flubendazole that I got from Charles a while ago. I'll try it along with the salt.

The last time I tried it at the recommended strength for hydra, the shrimp didn't seem to be effected.