At what age was your reef when you noticed fish disease issues

[brandon429]

team

curious on appearance timing for general fish maladies based on tank age, thanks for your response.

 

[FiveGallonSea]

I spent nearly 2 years with a healthy, happy tank. No anything. No quarantining either.

Then ich happened after I did a blackout on a weekend away November 2019. No matter how many FALLOW periods, quarantine, you name it, I'm always chasing something.

There is no perfect tank.

 

[brandon429]

thank you very much for responding + vote I cant wait till we're up to 100 or so votes if possible.

 

[FishyFishFish]

I'm not exactly sure what you're thought process is with this, but are there not other important related questions to 'qualify' the answers?

e.g. did the diseases just show up, or were they following introduction of new fish? Did something happen to the tank immediately prior or not? Is it the reefer's first tank (in which case could they have missed the early signs of illness) or an experienced reefer's new tank, where they immediately spotted a problem. What correlation in the answers is there between a 18-month-old tank with nothing added for the last 12 months, or a 4-year-old tank with new livestock added last week?

Maybe it's not relevant to your thought process but presumably whilst tank age could be a factor in the appearance of illnesses, there are other related activities that could skew the results.

 

[brandon429]

we can get to those, initially am interested on initial detection times. all factors given, how long had someone been reefing before they had to seek out disease treatments. In my private messages there is a pattern developing as we follow up on started tanks, curious what it is outside in the forum where all the fish disease work exists.

 

[Paul B]

Probably 10 or 15 minutes, tops.

 

[PanchoG]

I didn’t have any fish issues with my first tank for 3 years. But in my second tank I had ich issues during the first year, no mater what I did it came back even after a 3 months fallow period. Eventually the tank matured, my reef has been healthy for 3 years now.

 

[FishyFishFish]

But there is already a disparity in that comment.

‘How long someone has been reefing’ vs ‘How old is the tank’. The answers to that question might be the same but they also might not be.

I don’t know the statistics on how many people shut down and restart tanks, or start second/third tanks, so it might not be relevant.

Also, what is the stocking rate of tanks? i.e. do people add more fish at the beginning and then taper off, or do they keep stocking at a equal rate?

Does the risk of disease rise exponentially with the number of fish or does it remain a linear relationship.

I’m genuinely not trying to be awkward, but if you’re trying to determine whether new reefs are more susceptible to disease then I’m not sure the answer to the question posed will provide much in the way of useable data, no matter what the result.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Considering you can introduce disease and parasites at any point if you dont qt, i dont think the question really matters.

 

[brandon429]

Pauls reef is immune to any disease no matter what we add, so the q is valid. his poll answer would be: no disease at 2 yrs (since 1976) and beyond.

 

[brandon429]

I made my vote just now based on the rate of disease feedback I get from private message and forum post cycled tanks. We turn out about 10 cycled tanks per week, all weeks, so this gives lots of data as months go by and we meet again for algae control, disease etc.

my own tank has no fish, you can't put fish in a reef that weights 9 pounds full running it'd be mean. but I still get to fish reef remotely in thousands of tanks so the vote based on that trend is what I casted.

 

[ChrisOFL]

Over the past 6 years I had one juvenile tomini tang die of ich but I believe I bought it in poor health because the other 4 fish in my tank at the time never developed any symptoms. The tang I replaced it with a few weeks later never developed ich either. Otherwise, I have never had any fish with disease, did have a blenny go blind though. I've owned 3 different tanks, just restarted my tank after moving, currently it is 4.5 months old. First fish in the new tank was a Mimic Tang, followed by two ORA maroon clowns and a cherub angel. Never seen disease in these fish either. I don't QT, everything is bought from WWC or TSA at the store. I don't know if the LFS quality makes a difference for this but I think it can play a role.

 

[brandon429]

Especially with the tang in place thats speaks well for the sourcing for it to not have crypto issues

 

[Storm Trooper Reefer]

Most, including myself did not QT at first. There is something to be said about putting recruits in a detention cell first.

 

[brandon429]

If that’s helping you retain more fish as the months go by glad to know. Thanks tons for vote I know there are different ways folks use to manage. I don’t even keep fish so am learning the ratios others report along their adventure

 

[ChrisOFL]

Especially with the tang in place thats speaks well for the sourcing for it to not have crypto issues

I'm not even sure I believe that tangs are more susceptible to things like ich or other diseases. I just don't think people provide proper nutrition for their tangs and then they get sick from lack of nutrition but we claim it's just because they are more likely to get diseases. The one thing that bothers me in the disease forum is just the lack of interest in fish nutrition or finding the trigger that caused one fish to get sick but everyone else is the DT fine. It's all about throw the entire tank in QT for 76 days with some PVC pipe and 2 or 3 medications with maybe some fresh water dips and tank transfers for fun as well.

 

[brandon429]

Agreed, but critics have the responsibility to make the replacement work example threads, and, using other people’s posts not their own tank.


that is missing here, build some and post em. Grab a post today about a diseased fish, message them you know how to fix it, do, post that proof and their testimony.

without that, qt and fallow will still be winning next year. It’s why the method wins this year, nobody makes proof threads but we have two hundred work threads to analyze easily for fallow and qt, and the retention beats the losses. Tough bar to set. Asking for work threads gets a crickets response, and a post about someone’s perfect reef at home. That doesn’t help the public any. It only works for their tanks but not for anyone’s new reef.

 

[ChrisOFL]

Agreed, but critics have the responsibility to make the replacement work example threads, and, using other people’s posts not their own tank.


that is missing here, build some and post em. Grab a post today from a diseased fish, message them you know how to fix it, do, post that proof and their testimony.

without that, qt and fallow will still be winning next year.

Well I don't believe you can cure a fish that has ich fast enough with food if it's already at the point where it's disease is being caused by a lack of nutrition. In my mind you are at the point of no return and it probably is best to try and medicate the fish while at the same time improving it's nutrition. I'm just saying I think it would be best to promote disease prevention through nutrition rather than sterilization. It's either your fish is fed properly from day 1 or you are likely to get diseases from lack of nutrition in the long run. The problem is I'm never going to prove this to a large group of people, or change any minds, when I'll have 10 people or more saying I'm wrong for every one person who agrees and says nutrition works for them. I could probably name everyone in the forum on one hand who actively promotes nutrition and/or the microbiome as a method for disease prevention.

Speaking of experiments though, I may make a post soon about curing dinos without blackouts or the need for UV skimmers and you can even keep your nutrients bottomed out without worrying they will return.

 

[brandon429]

that is a very good point, about taking too long to boost up natural defenses with strongest possible feed. We know what junk fooding does to humans / dogs on old Roy feed etc (all vets hate that feed #1)

good job on dinos work examples studies it’s our hobby’s top substrate scourge we need lots of work on the matter. Work threads can change procedure in this hobby I’m certain. In 2005 nobody would rinse a sandbed ever. Nowadays pre rinsing and rinsing during moves is the known safe way, = work threads made the paradigm change.

 

[Paul B]

AT WHAT AGE WAS YOUR REEF TANK WHEN YOU NOTICED FISH DISEASE ISSUES​

I think many people are taking this thread much to seriously.