Day 19 of going fallow to treat white spot from my PBT. The pods in my DS think its awesome! Lol
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Humble...just want to tell you that my fallow period seemed to work well to eradicate the velvet on my Kole and potentially on the ff (who never showed it)...after the 6 week period, everyone went back to the 65 after a major wc...almost a week now...wish me more luck...Thanks...Going Fallow
The reason to go fallow (fishless) is to eliminate a fish disease from your DT (display tank). Going fallow works because you are denying the disease a fish host to feed on, essentially starving it to death.
In order to go fallow you must remove ALL fish from your DT. If just one fish is left behind, even a “disease resistant” species, then going fallow is for naught because the disease will continue its life cycle. Corals/inverts can be left in the DT, as those are not capable of hosting - although some are capable of “housing” the encysted stage of certain parasites for a period of time (see “Fallow Periods” below). It is important to continue to feed your corals/inverts while going fallow, and also put a pinch of flake or pellet food into the DT every 2-3 days to feed nitrifying bacteria in the absence of fish poop. Continue to do everything normally with your tank while going fallow; although you may wish to go lights out if you are running a fish only system (just don’t forget to feed that bacteria!)
Fallow Periods - Below is the general consensus fallow periods for all diseases that require it. In most cases, it is the longest known time period that the encysted stage can survive on corals, inverts, rocks, substrate without a fish host to feed on. The fallow period starts when the last fish is removed from the tank.
During the fallow period, the fish must be quarantined and treated for whatever disease(s) are afflicting them (see links below). Successful treatment is imperative to avoid disease(s) from being reintroduced into the DT:
- Black ich (turbellarian worms) - 4 weeks
- Brooklynella aka “Clownfish disease” or “Brook” - 6 weeks
- Gill Flukes (worms) - 4 weeks
- Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) - 76 days
- Uronema marinum - No fallow period, as it does not require a fish host to survive. It is an opportunistic parasite that strikes when a fish’s immune system has been compromised. Uronema mainly affects damsels (especially chromis) and clownfish.
- Velvet (Amyloodinium) - 6 weeks
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-diagnosis/189284-fish-diseases-101-a.html
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fi...is/189658-treatment-options-my-two-cents.html
Quarantining all future livestock purchases is also very important to avoid having to go fallow again in the future: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-diagnosis/189815-how-quarantine.html
After the fallow period has ended, you can return your fish to the DT. I recommend doing it one fish at a time, spread out over a couple of weeks. This will give your bacterial levels time to adjust to the added fish bio-load, and avoid a potential mini-cycle/ammonia spike. I also prefer to add back smaller fish first, so they are established ahead of the larger, more aggressive ones.
Do be sure to closely monitor your ammonia levels while adding fish back. I advocate using a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge for constant monitoring:
Edit: You can also use a FW black molly to test if your fallow period has been successful: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fallow-periods-going-fishless.190324/page-2#post-2855190
Humble...just want to tell you that my fallow period seemed to work well to eradicate the velvet on my Kole and potentially on the ff (who never showed it)...after the 6 week period, everyone went back to the 65 after a major wc...almost a week now...wish me more luck...Thanks...
Hi! Im a little confused so I hope you can help me out here. A fallow period refers to leaving the display without fish to starve out a parasite such as velvet. So, I'm wondering how a fallow period eradicated velvet from a fish? Did you treat the fish in a QT then return said fish to the display after the fallow period? I'm sorry, I probably misunderstood your post and wanted to clarify in case I missed something.
Exactly what I did...copper for weeks...thanks to you as well and say "hi" to Lauren...Hi! Im a little confused so I hope you can help me out here. A fallow period refers to leaving the display without fish to starve out a parasite such as velvet. So, I'm wondering how a fallow period eradicated velvet from a fish? Did you treat the fish in a QT then return said fish to the display after the fallow period? I'm sorry, I probably misunderstood your post and wanted to clarify in case I missed something.
Exactly what I did...copper for weeks...thanks to you as well and say "hi" to Lauren...
Even under identical incubation conditions tomonts vary considerably in the time required to form theronts (Nigrelli and Ruggieri, 1966; Colorni, 1992; Burgess and Matthews, 1994a; Diggles and Lester, 1996b). Thus, theront excystment is very asynchronous, occurring between 3 and 72 days and peaking at 6 ± 2 days (Colorni, 1992). This differs significantly from I. multifiliis, where the theront excystment takes only 18-24 h at 23C (Dickerson and Dawe, 1995).
The reason for asynchronous excystment is unclear. There is no relationship between the tomont size and excystment time (Nigrelli and Ruggieri, 1966; Colorni, 1992; Diggles and Lester, 1996a,b). In fact, a large and a small tomont may produce theronts at the same time, even though the smaller tomont undergoes fewer divisions. When tomites do not form until at least 2 weeks, a mass of endoplasm remains undifferentiated and fewer live theronts are produced (Colorni, 1992). Whatever the cause, asynchronous excystment prevents simultaneous exhaustion of all tomonts, facilitates theront dispersal in time and appears so advantageous to C. irritans that the phenomenon should be interpreted as a strategy for survival (Colorni, 1985).
The Australian trophonts stayed on the fish longer, tomonts took longer to excyst and the theronts were larger when fish were infected at 20C compared to 25C (Diggles and Lester, 1996a).
What do you think about dosing ammonia during the fallow period every few days to feed the nitrifying bacteriaHadn't considered No3 and Po4 levels dropping drastically during a fallow period. Thanks @jsiker for the heads up!
I think you may have misunderstood me , when the DT tank is fallow for 76 days there's nothing for the nitrifying bacteria to eat so when you add back the fish from qt you may have an ammonia spike. So during the fallow period dose ammonia to the DT so the nitrifying bacteria don't die off. Dose thank make sense?The ammonia alert is what you use? Never had luck with them.....maybe I'll need to try them again! Maybe I've been using them wrong or they were old.. Thanks for the post for them!
Fishless tanks are one of the hardest things to have and for 76+ days it seems impossible...but the benefits outweigh the lack of movement in the tank
Thanks as alway @Humblefish for the posting this!
So during the fallow period dose ammonia to the DT so the nitrifying bacteria don't die off. Dose thank make sense?
I think you quoted me by accident...I think you may have misunderstood me , when the DT tank is fallow for 76 days there's nothing for the nitrifying bacteria to eat so when you add back the fish from qt you may have an ammonia spike. So during the fallow period dose ammonia to the DT so the nitrifying bacteria don't die off. Dose thank make sense?
I am a week and a half into a fallow period. I apologize if this was covered and I missed it , but if the DT tank must sit fallow for 76 days then should the QT stay at therapeutic levels of copper for 76 days?
OK, ThanksNo. the copper levels stay there for 30 days. Observation and feeding happens for the rest of the time.