Treating Velvet with Plants in Tank????

[WhiteShadow]

Hey all so I am pretty sure I have velvet in my tank. Bright light revealed patches of copper colored areas on all fishes( tiger barbs and BNPlecos) in tank and they are flashing all the time.  I know that covering the tank and blocking all light is helpful to eradicate velvet but how long can the plants be in total darkness.  I have some plants in the tank Anubis and Java Ferns.. I am using cupramine and raising the temp to 85 to treat the tank and fish. I have added air stones to the tank to keep the O2 levels boosted.  Do i need to keep the tank covered in order to beat the velvet or will the meds and raised temps be enough?? All other tank parameters are in excellent range no ammonia, nitrates and minimal nitrites.  Is there anything I am not doing that I should be doing? This is my first battle with velvet.

Edited March 8, 2021 by WhiteShadow

[Keeg]

Hello there, so far it sounds like you have taken strong action against the parasites which is great. As far as I know, Anubias and java ferns can tolerate no light for around 4 days. I think the raised temp and meds would be sufficient, but maybe tone down/ turn off the lights for awhile. When I had an outbreak awhile ago, I took out the few plants and treated them separately, I did this so that when I didn't have the lights on, sunlight didn't reach the plants either (plus the parasites can't live that long without a host, 7-10 days with high temps and low light, I did 14 to be safe). As for things you can help the fish, do not add salt, people will say salt can help fish with velvet, while that is true, plecos and barbs will not cope well with that treatment. Make sure you have removed any carbon from your filtration as that will remove the meds, and to finish the treatment fully. Just because it isn't on the fish, doesn't mean it isn't in the substrate. When all is done, do a deep substrate cleaning to remove the dead parasites from the water. If you go with a total blackout, 4 days should be the max in my opinion, Anubias and java fern are basically bomb proof though so you can probably get away with longer. Good luck!