Quarantine for non-fishes?

[connpatd]

I recently introduced a Pacific Blue Tang into my display tank without first quarantining it.

Needless to say, I learned a valuable lesson when my tank broke out with Ick.

I'm in the process of quarantining all of my fish (PBT, two clowns, a wrasse, and a goby) and I have a few questions:

--Do existing snails need to be quarantined as well?
--What about adding new snails?
--What types of things would I look for when quaratining?

--Do existing crabs need to be quarantined as well?
--What about adding new crabs?
--What types of things would I look for when quaratining?

--Do existing shrimps need to be quarantined as well?
--What about adding new shrimps?
--What types of things would I look for when quaratining?

--Will my Diamond Goby be ok during in the QT without sand to sift through?

--I am thinking of buying a couple of Sea Stars and maybe a Nudibranch or two as well. Do these need to be quarantined?
--What am I looking for during QT?


Thanks!!!!

[chatyak]

I woudln't get the nudibranch.

[connpatd]

Hmmm, why not? I was thinking of a Green Lettuce Nudi and/or a Purple Nudi. I don't think either are poisonous.

Is there some reason why they are a bad idea?

Appreciate the 411.

[cmejaf30]

Ich needs fish to survive. Fish and fish only. Your inverts do not host ich, therefore, w/o fish your display should be ich free in 4-6 weeks...I'd lean toward a good 5 weeks...six is extreme and you would probably be safe after 4.5-5. Your goby should be fine...i've heard a lot of people say that they feed off of food that floats to the bottom...when an animal gets hungry, it will find food. What type of method are you using to treat the ich? Did you already move ALL livestock to a QT tank? Let me know the method you are using. I'm QTing my entire tank right now and it's working great (using a hypo treatment) so let me know and I'll tell ya wat i did...i'm on the thrid week and it's working great!!

[AquaReeferMan]

You will need to keep the fish in QT for 6-8 weeks. I would keep your display tank fishless for 6-8 weeks as well. Here are 2 awesome links to fully understand the life cycle of ich and procedures on eradicating it from your system.

Part 1
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

Part 2
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

[szwab]

a good article on quarantining.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php

as for the nudis. and stars they are normally specific in diet and do not have a good long term track record in an unestablished tank (assuming your tank is less than a year old)

[connpatd]

After my Tang first showed signs of Ick I tried to capture my fish but had no luck.

Instead of pulling out all of my 200 LBS of rock to net them I got lazy and tried "Quick Cure" (formalin/malachite green) for 3 weeks in the display.

The Ick appeared to go away and the treatment did not appear to have any negative affect on anything in the tank.

I thought I pretty well licked the problem.

Last weekend I moved into my new house and of course this gave me a great opportunity to pull out the rock from the Display Tank and net the fish.

Just to be safe, I put them into a QT at the new house and immediately I saw that the Ick had returned.

I guess everyone is correct, it may look like the Ick has gone away, but it hasn't.

Anyway, I have all my fish (PB Tang, 2 Clowns, 1 wrasse, and one Goby) in a QT tank with no sand or gravel. The other fish are all calling the PBT names. I don't think they are very happy with him right now.

I am in the process of reducing the salinity. I began with 1.025 on Saturday and I got down to about 1.021 by last night. I plan to drop down to 1.09 per an article I read.

I haven't decided if I want/need to do a Copper Treatment or if the hyposalinity will do the job by itself. Any ideas/comments?

Anyway, the display is now set back up and has only a bunch of various snails in it, along with 3 small hermits and a Boxer Crab and Coral Banded Shrimp, both of which disappeared many months ago and were happily rediscovered during the move.

I'd love to get some stars and nudi's now, but if they need to be QT'd then I'll need to hold off until the fish are done with Quarantine in about 5 or 6 weeks.

What do you think? Comments welcome.

[cmejaf30]

Do the hypo...i'm not one to support ingesting toxic amounts of copper to a system. Copper is very finicky...you need to test levels daily. Too much and you're going to have a very expensive die-off in your tank. Too little and it's wasted effort. If you've already started the hypo, stick wit that. It's a great system and it's easier on the fish (physiologically). Be careful about the 1.009. I know the article said to go down that low but that is THE bottom end and i wouldn't recommend going that low. I'm at 1.011-1.012 right now and everything is working great (no signs of disease and fish are feeding and swimming GREAT). As long as you are below 1.015 you should be doing the trick. Just stay away from Cu or any other treatment while you're in hypo..stick to that and you should be good. Good luck with the PBT...they don't call them and the Hippo Tang "Queens of Ich" for no reason! :)

[connpatd]

Hmmm, Let me know how your hypo continues at 1.011-1.012.

It will be a few more days before I get to that point. If your still seeing no Ick I'll stop at that level as well.

:)

Anyway, do you know if new crabs, shrimp, and stars need to be QT'd ?

[harryk]

Leave your tank fallow (no fish) for 6 weeks at a minimum but it might take as long as 3 months. I had the same situation after 6 weeks fallow and treating the fish in QT Ich was still in my tank. Only by leaving it fallow for 3+ months do i have an Ich free tank. Ich can't live with out its fish host. All the other inverts in your tank will be fine. Oh and DO NOT EVER medicate your display tank

thanks
Harry

[cmejaf30]

connpatd: SG is still at 1.011 and still no signs of ich. Fish are swimming and feeding great. The only thing that I've noticed is that my ammonia levels have been a little outta whack. I've had to do water changes (about 4 gallons outta my 29) every other day to keep things in check. I make sure my mix is well-aerated, pH balanced, and SG of 1.011-1.012 before I add new water back to the tank. You may run into the same thing. Just remember that when you do a hypo treatment it's best to test for everything every day. Good luck!