Post by jocie1976 on Apr 22, 2015 0:49:55 GMT -5
Velvet is one of the hardest parasites to catch in the early stages because it's not only hard to see but the gold dust that appears donesn't show up until the parasite is fairly established. And it usually takes a flashlight or strong lighting shone on the fish to see. It has got to be one of the most common ailments to affect Bettas. And, it can quickly move through a fish room and infect every fish before you know your fish are even sick. Early discovery and treatment is key to successful treatment and fish recovery. This disease is also known as Rust or Gold Dust disease and it is caused by one of several species of a tiny parasite known as Piscinoodinium.
Life Cycle
Oodinium is a dinoflagellate, a single-celled organism that appears as a pear-shaped golden-brown cell, 125-130 micrometers in length. It is covered by cilia and has two flagella, one of which is much longer than the other. Inside, there is a nucleus, about 12 micrometers in diameter. So it's really really tiny.
The life cycle of this parasite can be broken into four stages. The cycle can be completed in 10--14 days at 73--77°F but lower temperatures will slow that cycle down.
1. The first stage is the feeding stage. The dinoflagellate parasite attaches to fish, then becomes a cyst, which penetrate the skin, blood as well as the soft tissue of the gills. So basically it gets everywhere on the fish. The cysts proceed to destroy cells and feed on the nutrients inside. It grows under the skin until it leaves its host. Infecting the gills is one of the things that make Velvet different than a similar disease called Ick. This cyst stage is highly resistant to chemical treatment. It is not unusual to need several applications of a treatment to completely eliminate the parasite.
2. When the mature parasite leaves the host into the water, it enters the second stage.
3. Once it drops to the bottom of the aquarium or into plants the third stage begins where it enters reproduction. The parasite forms a cyst at this point too, that enables it to survive adverse conditions. This stage is also very resistant to chemical treatment. The cyst actually divides and forms between 34 and 64 new cells where upon the membrane bursts freeing the cells into the aquarium and entering the fourth stage.
4. During this fourth stage the free-swimming organisms are called a dinospore. A dinospore has two flagella, one of which is covered by a body fold and has a reddish eye. Cilia and flagella propel a dinaspore through the water. The dinospores swim about seeking a host and will try to attach to a fish within 70 hours - this is the infectious and treatable stage. They must find a host within 24 hours, or die. Once on a host, dinospores burrow into the epithelial layer of the skin and fins and the life cycles begins all over again.
Piscinoodinium parasites are partly photosynthetic. The organism contains chlorophyll which gives the parasite its typical gold or rust color and enables it to produce its own food. So while they do derive some nutrition from their host aquarium fish, they also need light to survive. Fish are weakened by the damage the freshwater velvet parasites cause to the skin when they burst, because it allows secondary infections to develop and reduces the ability of your fish to maintain a proper balance of salts and water in the body, causing osmotic stress.
Symptoms of Velvet:
To see Velvet on fish you have to look real hard and close, and often a flash light will help you see it. Velvet gets the name Gold Dust Disease because fish with Velvet look like they are coated in a very fine sugar looking powder, that under the flash light, will have a gold color. It's worth noting that velvet may also look like a dull gold sheen on your fish as well.
Clamped fins – may appear almost glued and stiff
Heavier breathing - because the parasite also gets into the gills.
fish will "flash" or glance off objects to dislodged them (basically scratching)
stop eating as the velvet progresses - affected fish often go off food and die.
Parasites that damage the epithelial layer of the skin and fins cause excessive mucous production and disrupt gas exchange in the skin
Treatment:
Since Bettas are prone to this parasite, you need to always be on the lookout for it. If caught early it is very easy to cure. But, if it gets to advanced stages you may not be able to save the fish. Because Velvet is highly contagious and usually far advanced before being diagnosed, it is important to take steps to treat it as soon as possible. Treatment is targeted at the free-swimming stage of the parasite because the other stages are resistant to medication. It should also kill the parasites which have infested the outer layer of the skin and fins, but will fail to kill any parasites that have burrowed into the epithelial layer.
The best time to attack velvet is when the parasite leaves the fish, so raising the temperature helps. That is why it is recommended to create conditions optimal for the parasites’ growth and multiplication and at the same time use the treatment aimed at dealing with them. Increasing the water temperature to 82°F when treatment starts as will speed the process. If you prolong the course of treatment by prolonging the time when medication is administered, you risk poisoning the fish.
Sick fish can be treated either in a separate hospital tank or in a main tank. However it is highly recommended to treat the entire tank as velvet is so contagious.
Things to consider are plants, snails and biological filtration. If you are treating a filtered tank or barrack system, discontinue carbon filtration during treatment. Be aware that many of these medicines can damage other plants and invertebrates that may be living in your tank as well as destroy biological filtration.
***Because Oödinium is dependent on light, dimming the aquarium lights aids in eliminating the infestation. It's even suggested strongly that when treating for velvet you throw a towel over the tank to stop any light from getting in and only removing the towel to feed and check on your fish. While velvet doesn't affect invertebrates such as shrimp and snails it can hitch a ride on them so if you have an outbreak they will need to be quarantined for a suggested 30 days or so if you don't want to risk loosing them to many of the treatments that are toxic to them.***
Salt Treatment:
First note that this method has been met with mixed results. IF velvet is caught in the later stages I strongly recommend using medication and your first course of treatment.
Salt is frequently recommended for treating a myriad of fish diseases, especially those involving external protozoa and fungi.
You want sodium chloride (NaCl) that is iodine free such as Aquarium salt (is the most widely used form because it does not contain the iodine or anti-caking agents that table salt does), canning salt , sea salt or kosher salt. Generally the dose is 2 - 3 teaspoons of salt per gallon added slowly over a period of about a quarter to teaspoon a gallon per hour. So if you were adding 1 teaspoon per gallon then it is recommended that it take 4 hours to add. Keep a close eye on your fish and perform an immediate water change if they show any additional signs of stress (beyond what the velvet is already causing). However bettas don't tend to react badly to salt as a short term treatment so there shouldn't be a problem.
The salt bath should be maintained for approximately 10 days, or for at least 3 days (and even up to a week) after any visible signs of velvet can be detected. Do not discontinue treatment when the gold dust coating goes away. If you use a higher dosage of salt, watch the duration more closely.
***It is highly recommended that the the heat in the tank be turned up to 82 degrees F as this speeds up the life cycle of velvet. Never Combine salt and medication – the combination is toxic.***
What Else Should I Do?
Water change every couple of days can be performed during the salt treatment and is recommended as it can help remove a lot of the free floating velvet (but is not necessary unless nitrates are creeping up to an undesirable level). Be sure to salt the replacement water accordingly to maintain salinity. Remember to match the temperature of the water to the water in the tank. Gravel vacuuming is also helpful to remove as many velvet as possible before they can release offspring. Again, this is not absolutely necessary since the salt should destroy the free-swimming velvet parasites upon their release.
***A note about salt: Salt can harm or kill invertebrates such as shrimp or snails and scaleless fish such as many species of cat fish may be sensitive to it.***
Medical Treatments:
There are many products available for treating velvet. Whatever you choose, be sure to:
1. Read the label thoroughly for dosage information, special instructions, and warnings related to your own health and that of your plants, invertebrates, and scaleless or sensitive species of fish.
2. Perform a water change and vacuum the gravel before medicating. Most meds are less effective with excessive dissolved organics (nitrates) present and you’re often instructed not to change any water during treatment.
3. Remove the carbon from your filter as it will remove the drugs from the water.
4. Maintain good surface agitation and water movement. This is always important, but it is absolutely critical when raising your water temperature and administering meds – both of which reduce the oxygen content of the water and can kill your fish if care is not taken. For that reason, it is not advisable to raise the temperature more than 2 degrees above normal when using any of the following velvet treatment products.
5. Continue treatment for the duration advised. Because of the lifecycle of the parasite it is critical that you continue treatment for a minimum of 3 days after any visible signs of velvet can be detected. Do not discontinue treatment when the spots go away. If the instructions advise you to retreat, do so.
Copper-based medications are commonly recommended for treating velvet. Some brand names include CopperSafe by Mardel, General Cure by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Seachem Cupramine, and Aquari-Sol. Look for the active ingredient “copper sulfate” or “soluble copper salts.” Copper does not stain and is highly recommended by many aquarists. It does have drawbacks, however. It causes oxygen concentration to drop, it is toxic to snails and invertebrates, it may not be tolerated well by scaleless fish and plants, and like any chemical, it can certainly be toxic to your fish especially if dosed incorrectly. Apparently the toxicity increases as total alkalinity (KH) decreases. This would suggest that copper-based meds may be better suited for use with African rift lake cichlids than with softwater fish from low pH/KH conditions. But beware; if you should have a drop in your pH while using copper your fish could perish.
***In case you missed it, copper meds will kill invertebrates. Plus, they can be difficult to remove from a tank. Copper can be absorbed by the silicone and gravel and other porous stuff in a tank like driftwood, and it will continue to leach back out over time, even after you've changed all the water and are running carbon. So, this is best used in a quarantine tank. Copper should also be removed after treatment by replacing the carbon in your filter with new carbon (never the old carbon) or lots of water changes as over a period of time copper will build up in your fish and become toxic***
Malachite Green controls diseases caused by external fungi and parasites on fishes. Use this with caution as Malachite Green is toxic... poisoning your fish, the "good guy" bacteria populations in your system, as well as and hopefully, to a lesser extent, the Velvet you want to be rid of. To take care not to spill or splash because this stuff WILL stain blueish and is a pain to get stains out of clothing, skin and especially aquarium silicone. Malachite Green should be utilized in a separate treatment tank as it is quickly absorbed by detritus, natural gravels and most all plastics. Malachite Green's toxicity is temperature and pH dependent, being more toxic with rising temperature and lower pH. One surprising bit of information is Malachite use is its inactivation (oxidation) with exposure to light. Malachite Green treated systems should have their lights turned off. Rarely is this mentioned with product labels or inserts.
Ariflavin is a messy med. I stains everything it touches yellow and I find it a pain to work with. General consensus on the internet is it can cause infertility issues in fish and my results using the medicine support that. If used make sure treatment in a gl hospital container that can be bleached when done. Use in tanks and with beanies or plexi barracks will give you stains that can not be removed. It can be used at 1 ml Acriflavine (trypaflavine) per litre aquarium water.
The above mentioned medications are several of the treatments available but certainly not all.
Because aquarium fish can acquire some degree of immunity to Piscinoodinium (velvet), healthy aquarium fish may fend off freshwater velvet disease for years without any help from the aquarist. But this also means that anything that weakens the immune system of the aquarium fish can allow velvet disease to suddenly appear in aquaria despite the absence of newly added aquarium livestock. Bullying, poor water quality, the wrong water chemistry, inappropriate water temperature and the wrong diet can all reduce the immune response of aquarium fish, and in turn make problems with freshwater velvet disease more likely.
Preventing Velvet:
It stands to reason that a stressed fish with a weakened immune function is an easy host, but only if the parasite is present in the tank to begin with. That brings us back to how to prevent it, now that we know it is not lurking in every aquarium waiting to strike. Here are few guidelines:
Never buy fish from a tank where any fish show signs of disease and never buy fish from a tank that contains a dead or a diseased fish.
Quarantine new fish for 14-21 days and observe for any signs of illness. Do not take “low dosage” preventative measures against quarantined fish (such as half the recommended medication dosage) as this would only spare the organisms most resistant to medication. If you’re going to treat, do a full treatment just as you would if you were certain the fish was infected.
If you do not quarantine (not everyone has an extra tank set up), after floating the bag and adding small amounts of your tank water to acclimate the new fish, gently empty the bag into a net (working over a bucket) and then place the netted fish in the aquarium. Never add the water from the travel bag to your aquarium as it could contain velvet thermonts or other dangerous organisms. Still, your fish could have trophonts on the gills or on the body which have not swelled enough yet to be visible. You’re gambling with the health of all your fish if you don’t quarantine.
If you keep multiple tanks, use separate nets for each tank and/or let your net dry completely between uses. velvet cannot survive being dried out.
Buy plants only from tanks without fish, or quarantine plants for 5-7 days without fish, or bathe plants in potium permanganate or bleach before putting them in the main tank (unfortunately this can be hard on the plants).
If your tank does become infected, be accurate and thorough with treatment to ensure total eradication. It only takes a single surviving trophont to reproduce and start the whole ugly process again.
Remove to a quarantine tank and treat any fish that begins to show the first signs of velvet.
Maintain excellent water quality and do regular water changes.
If you have the unfortunate experience of loosing your fish leave the tank empty for three or four weeks as velvet cannot survive long without a host (your fish). This will kill off any leftover velvet in your tank. Raising the temperature to at leat 82 degrees F or more will also help to speed this cycle up and kill them off faster.
Sources:
bettasource.com/more-betta/disease-id-treatment/velvet/
www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php
(Google pictures used)
Life Cycle
Oodinium is a dinoflagellate, a single-celled organism that appears as a pear-shaped golden-brown cell, 125-130 micrometers in length. It is covered by cilia and has two flagella, one of which is much longer than the other. Inside, there is a nucleus, about 12 micrometers in diameter. So it's really really tiny.
The life cycle of this parasite can be broken into four stages. The cycle can be completed in 10--14 days at 73--77°F but lower temperatures will slow that cycle down.
1. The first stage is the feeding stage. The dinoflagellate parasite attaches to fish, then becomes a cyst, which penetrate the skin, blood as well as the soft tissue of the gills. So basically it gets everywhere on the fish. The cysts proceed to destroy cells and feed on the nutrients inside. It grows under the skin until it leaves its host. Infecting the gills is one of the things that make Velvet different than a similar disease called Ick. This cyst stage is highly resistant to chemical treatment. It is not unusual to need several applications of a treatment to completely eliminate the parasite.
2. When the mature parasite leaves the host into the water, it enters the second stage.
3. Once it drops to the bottom of the aquarium or into plants the third stage begins where it enters reproduction. The parasite forms a cyst at this point too, that enables it to survive adverse conditions. This stage is also very resistant to chemical treatment. The cyst actually divides and forms between 34 and 64 new cells where upon the membrane bursts freeing the cells into the aquarium and entering the fourth stage.
4. During this fourth stage the free-swimming organisms are called a dinospore. A dinospore has two flagella, one of which is covered by a body fold and has a reddish eye. Cilia and flagella propel a dinaspore through the water. The dinospores swim about seeking a host and will try to attach to a fish within 70 hours - this is the infectious and treatable stage. They must find a host within 24 hours, or die. Once on a host, dinospores burrow into the epithelial layer of the skin and fins and the life cycles begins all over again.
Piscinoodinium parasites are partly photosynthetic. The organism contains chlorophyll which gives the parasite its typical gold or rust color and enables it to produce its own food. So while they do derive some nutrition from their host aquarium fish, they also need light to survive. Fish are weakened by the damage the freshwater velvet parasites cause to the skin when they burst, because it allows secondary infections to develop and reduces the ability of your fish to maintain a proper balance of salts and water in the body, causing osmotic stress.
Symptoms of Velvet:
To see Velvet on fish you have to look real hard and close, and often a flash light will help you see it. Velvet gets the name Gold Dust Disease because fish with Velvet look like they are coated in a very fine sugar looking powder, that under the flash light, will have a gold color. It's worth noting that velvet may also look like a dull gold sheen on your fish as well.
Clamped fins – may appear almost glued and stiff
Heavier breathing - because the parasite also gets into the gills.
fish will "flash" or glance off objects to dislodged them (basically scratching)
stop eating as the velvet progresses - affected fish often go off food and die.
Parasites that damage the epithelial layer of the skin and fins cause excessive mucous production and disrupt gas exchange in the skin
Treatment:
Since Bettas are prone to this parasite, you need to always be on the lookout for it. If caught early it is very easy to cure. But, if it gets to advanced stages you may not be able to save the fish. Because Velvet is highly contagious and usually far advanced before being diagnosed, it is important to take steps to treat it as soon as possible. Treatment is targeted at the free-swimming stage of the parasite because the other stages are resistant to medication. It should also kill the parasites which have infested the outer layer of the skin and fins, but will fail to kill any parasites that have burrowed into the epithelial layer.
The best time to attack velvet is when the parasite leaves the fish, so raising the temperature helps. That is why it is recommended to create conditions optimal for the parasites’ growth and multiplication and at the same time use the treatment aimed at dealing with them. Increasing the water temperature to 82°F when treatment starts as will speed the process. If you prolong the course of treatment by prolonging the time when medication is administered, you risk poisoning the fish.
Sick fish can be treated either in a separate hospital tank or in a main tank. However it is highly recommended to treat the entire tank as velvet is so contagious.
Things to consider are plants, snails and biological filtration. If you are treating a filtered tank or barrack system, discontinue carbon filtration during treatment. Be aware that many of these medicines can damage other plants and invertebrates that may be living in your tank as well as destroy biological filtration.
***Because Oödinium is dependent on light, dimming the aquarium lights aids in eliminating the infestation. It's even suggested strongly that when treating for velvet you throw a towel over the tank to stop any light from getting in and only removing the towel to feed and check on your fish. While velvet doesn't affect invertebrates such as shrimp and snails it can hitch a ride on them so if you have an outbreak they will need to be quarantined for a suggested 30 days or so if you don't want to risk loosing them to many of the treatments that are toxic to them.***
Salt Treatment:
First note that this method has been met with mixed results. IF velvet is caught in the later stages I strongly recommend using medication and your first course of treatment.
Salt is frequently recommended for treating a myriad of fish diseases, especially those involving external protozoa and fungi.
You want sodium chloride (NaCl) that is iodine free such as Aquarium salt (is the most widely used form because it does not contain the iodine or anti-caking agents that table salt does), canning salt , sea salt or kosher salt. Generally the dose is 2 - 3 teaspoons of salt per gallon added slowly over a period of about a quarter to teaspoon a gallon per hour. So if you were adding 1 teaspoon per gallon then it is recommended that it take 4 hours to add. Keep a close eye on your fish and perform an immediate water change if they show any additional signs of stress (beyond what the velvet is already causing). However bettas don't tend to react badly to salt as a short term treatment so there shouldn't be a problem.
The salt bath should be maintained for approximately 10 days, or for at least 3 days (and even up to a week) after any visible signs of velvet can be detected. Do not discontinue treatment when the gold dust coating goes away. If you use a higher dosage of salt, watch the duration more closely.
***It is highly recommended that the the heat in the tank be turned up to 82 degrees F as this speeds up the life cycle of velvet. Never Combine salt and medication – the combination is toxic.***
What Else Should I Do?
Water change every couple of days can be performed during the salt treatment and is recommended as it can help remove a lot of the free floating velvet (but is not necessary unless nitrates are creeping up to an undesirable level). Be sure to salt the replacement water accordingly to maintain salinity. Remember to match the temperature of the water to the water in the tank. Gravel vacuuming is also helpful to remove as many velvet as possible before they can release offspring. Again, this is not absolutely necessary since the salt should destroy the free-swimming velvet parasites upon their release.
***A note about salt: Salt can harm or kill invertebrates such as shrimp or snails and scaleless fish such as many species of cat fish may be sensitive to it.***
Medical Treatments:
There are many products available for treating velvet. Whatever you choose, be sure to:
1. Read the label thoroughly for dosage information, special instructions, and warnings related to your own health and that of your plants, invertebrates, and scaleless or sensitive species of fish.
2. Perform a water change and vacuum the gravel before medicating. Most meds are less effective with excessive dissolved organics (nitrates) present and you’re often instructed not to change any water during treatment.
3. Remove the carbon from your filter as it will remove the drugs from the water.
4. Maintain good surface agitation and water movement. This is always important, but it is absolutely critical when raising your water temperature and administering meds – both of which reduce the oxygen content of the water and can kill your fish if care is not taken. For that reason, it is not advisable to raise the temperature more than 2 degrees above normal when using any of the following velvet treatment products.
5. Continue treatment for the duration advised. Because of the lifecycle of the parasite it is critical that you continue treatment for a minimum of 3 days after any visible signs of velvet can be detected. Do not discontinue treatment when the spots go away. If the instructions advise you to retreat, do so.
Copper-based medications are commonly recommended for treating velvet. Some brand names include CopperSafe by Mardel, General Cure by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Seachem Cupramine, and Aquari-Sol. Look for the active ingredient “copper sulfate” or “soluble copper salts.” Copper does not stain and is highly recommended by many aquarists. It does have drawbacks, however. It causes oxygen concentration to drop, it is toxic to snails and invertebrates, it may not be tolerated well by scaleless fish and plants, and like any chemical, it can certainly be toxic to your fish especially if dosed incorrectly. Apparently the toxicity increases as total alkalinity (KH) decreases. This would suggest that copper-based meds may be better suited for use with African rift lake cichlids than with softwater fish from low pH/KH conditions. But beware; if you should have a drop in your pH while using copper your fish could perish.
***In case you missed it, copper meds will kill invertebrates. Plus, they can be difficult to remove from a tank. Copper can be absorbed by the silicone and gravel and other porous stuff in a tank like driftwood, and it will continue to leach back out over time, even after you've changed all the water and are running carbon. So, this is best used in a quarantine tank. Copper should also be removed after treatment by replacing the carbon in your filter with new carbon (never the old carbon) or lots of water changes as over a period of time copper will build up in your fish and become toxic***
Malachite Green controls diseases caused by external fungi and parasites on fishes. Use this with caution as Malachite Green is toxic... poisoning your fish, the "good guy" bacteria populations in your system, as well as and hopefully, to a lesser extent, the Velvet you want to be rid of. To take care not to spill or splash because this stuff WILL stain blueish and is a pain to get stains out of clothing, skin and especially aquarium silicone. Malachite Green should be utilized in a separate treatment tank as it is quickly absorbed by detritus, natural gravels and most all plastics. Malachite Green's toxicity is temperature and pH dependent, being more toxic with rising temperature and lower pH. One surprising bit of information is Malachite use is its inactivation (oxidation) with exposure to light. Malachite Green treated systems should have their lights turned off. Rarely is this mentioned with product labels or inserts.
Ariflavin is a messy med. I stains everything it touches yellow and I find it a pain to work with. General consensus on the internet is it can cause infertility issues in fish and my results using the medicine support that. If used make sure treatment in a gl hospital container that can be bleached when done. Use in tanks and with beanies or plexi barracks will give you stains that can not be removed. It can be used at 1 ml Acriflavine (trypaflavine) per litre aquarium water.
The above mentioned medications are several of the treatments available but certainly not all.
Because aquarium fish can acquire some degree of immunity to Piscinoodinium (velvet), healthy aquarium fish may fend off freshwater velvet disease for years without any help from the aquarist. But this also means that anything that weakens the immune system of the aquarium fish can allow velvet disease to suddenly appear in aquaria despite the absence of newly added aquarium livestock. Bullying, poor water quality, the wrong water chemistry, inappropriate water temperature and the wrong diet can all reduce the immune response of aquarium fish, and in turn make problems with freshwater velvet disease more likely.
Preventing Velvet:
It stands to reason that a stressed fish with a weakened immune function is an easy host, but only if the parasite is present in the tank to begin with. That brings us back to how to prevent it, now that we know it is not lurking in every aquarium waiting to strike. Here are few guidelines:
Never buy fish from a tank where any fish show signs of disease and never buy fish from a tank that contains a dead or a diseased fish.
Quarantine new fish for 14-21 days and observe for any signs of illness. Do not take “low dosage” preventative measures against quarantined fish (such as half the recommended medication dosage) as this would only spare the organisms most resistant to medication. If you’re going to treat, do a full treatment just as you would if you were certain the fish was infected.
If you do not quarantine (not everyone has an extra tank set up), after floating the bag and adding small amounts of your tank water to acclimate the new fish, gently empty the bag into a net (working over a bucket) and then place the netted fish in the aquarium. Never add the water from the travel bag to your aquarium as it could contain velvet thermonts or other dangerous organisms. Still, your fish could have trophonts on the gills or on the body which have not swelled enough yet to be visible. You’re gambling with the health of all your fish if you don’t quarantine.
If you keep multiple tanks, use separate nets for each tank and/or let your net dry completely between uses. velvet cannot survive being dried out.
Buy plants only from tanks without fish, or quarantine plants for 5-7 days without fish, or bathe plants in potium permanganate or bleach before putting them in the main tank (unfortunately this can be hard on the plants).
If your tank does become infected, be accurate and thorough with treatment to ensure total eradication. It only takes a single surviving trophont to reproduce and start the whole ugly process again.
Remove to a quarantine tank and treat any fish that begins to show the first signs of velvet.
Maintain excellent water quality and do regular water changes.
If you have the unfortunate experience of loosing your fish leave the tank empty for three or four weeks as velvet cannot survive long without a host (your fish). This will kill off any leftover velvet in your tank. Raising the temperature to at leat 82 degrees F or more will also help to speed this cycle up and kill them off faster.
Sources:
bettasource.com/more-betta/disease-id-treatment/velvet/
www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php
(Google pictures used)
