marine velvet?

[fishbucket]

i need a bit of help. I have a 37 gallon that i bought used and it came with fish in it. one of them is a milk fish which is a florida coastal fish. of course, i didn't take it from the gulf, and now i have a dilemma. He has what appears to be marine velvet. when he started dashing about a month ago, i bought a fire cleaner shrimp and they have developed quite a relationship. well, now the milk fish is quite ill. with bulging eyes and a gold "frost" over his body. I swear i wish i had just taken him to the gulf a month ago and let him go, but hindsite....
anyway, it is a baserock, fish only tank. there is no coral or anemones in there. the other inhabitants are the shrimp and a florida tulip snail, which also came with the tank.
temp-79
sg-1.024
pH-8.3
amm-0
nitrite-<0.25
nitrate<10
wet dry
no skimmer
can i treat the tank and leave the shrimp in it, and what about the huge tulip? i have no other tank to put them in, is it worth the money or should i make a trip to the gulf? awful unfair to let the fish go sick. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Len]

If it is marine velvet, unfortunately I have some bad news. I don't know of any way to successfully treat the tank, including copper. Copper has been shown to be incapable of killing dinospores, and it is toxic to inverts such as your shrimp and snails.

The best thing for you to do is let the tank sit without any fish for 8 weeks with slightly evelated temps (82-85). By the end of this cycle, the Amyloodinium should be eradicated, after which you can start to add fish again (slowly to be safe).

 

[fishbucket]

Len,
thank you so much for your reply. I have put the fish into a QT and i am treating them with copper and maracyn-two just in case he can survive. I will let the tank sit for a month at the higher temp and see if i can clean it up. The tulip snail will be released back to the gulf of mexico tomorrow but I will try to treat the fish first because i feel it irresponsible to release a fish that i know is sick. I didn't mention that I also have a 12 gallon reef tank that I am very protective over. but now, whew, even more so. nothing, but nothing will come near THAT tank without going through a QT first.
Cris