How can the velvet disease attack the fish of our aquarium? In general it is a disease that appears in the aquariums where the maintenance conditions are poor: poor water quality, replacements of water not very frequent or abrupt changes of the temperature of the water of the tank.
The parasite can enter to our aquarium through sick new fish or through decorative objects that have cysts of the parasite.
The parasite can be dormant waiting for conditions that are favorable.
It takes advantage of the weakness of the fish to attack them.
The poor conditions of the aquarium stress the fish.
A stressed fish has the defenses low and predisposes it to be attacked by any disease.
In addition to maintaining good water quality is also necessary to observe a period of quarantine before introducing new fish to the community tank.
The decorative objects and the stones or plants that will be introduced into the aquarium, should be cleaned and disinfected to avoid to introduce cysts of the parasite.
As preventive measure they can also be put in a quarantine tank during one or two weeks.
If the disease has been declared in the aquarium, it should be treated as soon as possible, since it is a highly contagious disease and its consequences can be fatal, especially among the offspring.
The medication used to combat the disease, is the salt of copper.
Not all the species of fish tolerate the treatment with copper salts, therefore an alternative method will be used, based on salts of quinine.