Treating Velvet in a Freshwater goldfish tank.?

Here is some of the info I found on identifying and treating velvet. This is the site if you want more:

http://www.aboutfishonline.com/articles/velvet.htm...

Symptoms of velvet are similar to an ich infestation. You'll see small whitish spots on the fish, however, with velvet the spots will be much smaller and will not be completely white. In fact, the spots will be more yellowish in color. As with ich, the fish may act ill, with fins held close to the body, and you will often see the fish glancing off of rocks and other surfaces, presumably to dislodge the parasite, as they are irritating to the fish. If the gills are affected the fish will exhibit rapid respiration or gasp for air at the tank's surface.

Fortunately, there are effective treatments for velvet. Copper sulfate seems to be the best treatment. You can use products with acriflavine in them, but these typically have unwanted side effects for the fish. The best product I've found for treating velvet is Coppersafe by Mardel, however, any copper sulfate solution made for aquarium fish should suffice. The only down side to using copper sulfate in your tank is that it kills invertebrates like snails, crayfish, shrimp, etc. (if you have any).

The good thing about treating fish velvet with copper sulfate is that it also kills the ich parasite. Because of this, you don't need to distinguish between the two parasites. Copper sulfate gets rid of all external parasites in fish.

Keep in mind that it is only the free-swimming form of the velvet parasite that is affected by the treatment. In the encysted stage it is not vulnerable to treatment.

If your fish have velvet, darkening your aquarium may help to irradicate the parasite. Adding a small amount of aquarium salt (1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water) may also help.

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Are you sure you had velvet and not red pest?

Velvet is a parasite, red pest is a bacterial infection. If you only had torn fins and red streaks, it may have been red pest. If you had a white dusting on the fish, it was velvet.

Wait a few weeks and make sure your current stock has fully recovered. Make sure to keep those nitrates low. If all goes well, try a new fish.