Quarantining Brittle Stars?

[Sharkbait19]

Hi,
I got some new inverts that were in a tank with some fish, and I plan to keep them in isolation for 76 days. However, one of them is a brittle star, and I’m getting mixed info on whether echinoderms need to be quarantined. A lot of what I’ve read seems to indicate that ich cannot attach to them, and a simple rinse should take care of it. Is this true?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Bump

 

[WalkerLoves_TheOcean]

Sorry - I am not sure. I will bump this for you.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Thanks. I actually wound up moving it straight to the DT, because it was starting to die in the quarantine tank. It’s now doing much better. Hopefully I made a good call and didn’t possibly infect my tank.

 

[WalkerLoves_TheOcean]

Thanks. I actually wound up moving it straight to the DT, because it was starting to die in the quarantine tank. It’s now doing much better. Hopefully I made a good call and didn’t possibly infect my tank.

No problem. I did some research, and it seems that they can carry ich. None of the fish you got has ich that you are aware of right?

 

[Sharkbait19]

No problem. I did some research, and it seems that they can carry ich. None of the fish you got has ich that you are aware of right?

None of my fish at the moment have ich, and none appeared to have any at the store either. Quarantining the inverts was more precautionary than anything else, so I’m not terribly concerned about the possibility of it bringing in any disease.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Just to throw in my two cents here - a lot of critters live in (literally) or on echinoderms; while a thorough rinsing should theoretically remove any on the outside, there's always the off chance it won't (it could miss something, something could be holding on too tightly, could be blocked from the direct flow and be able to stay on, etc.), and there's always a small chance that something is inside the echinoderm/somewhere a rinse won't remove it.

So, while the odds of them bringing in fish disease are incredibly low, they're not zero, even when rinsed. As Jay Hemdal has said, "anything "wet" can transfer some disease propagules," so - from a biosecurity standpoint - the safest route is a full QT of anything coming into a tank.

I've only heard of a handful of cases where something other than a fish brought in disease, so you're probably fine, but there's always a chance you could join the ranks of the unlucky few who did have disease brought in by inverts, corals, etc.