Didn't go fallow after outbreak - thoughts?

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TL/DR: What is the likelihood that parasites can survive, feed, and reproduce by hosting on asymptomatic fish over 9 months after an outbreak?

Hi, new member here. I'd like to get some opinions on my situation. I started a 150g tank in September of last year, and all was good for the first 3 months. At the beginning of January my fish started dropping one by one, almost certainly by a parasite. Between the guys at my LFS and members of another forum, we determined it was likely either velvet or brooklynella. Based on the fishes' behavior and symptoms I'm leaning towards velvet as the culprit. I set up an emergency hospital tank and managed to get 3 fish in there and treated before they became symptomatic, but they ended up dying anyway.

All but 2 of my fish died from the outbreak - one blue sapphire damsel (out of 3) and one blue-green chromis survived and never showed any symptoms or unusual behavior. My husband and I tried numerous methods to trap them in order to move them to the hospital tank and let the DT go fallow, but short of tearing down the tank it wasn't happening. We added nothing (including inverts & coral) for 7 months, then started very slowly adding fish again. All have been fine so far, but now I've been reading and wondering if it was a horribly unwise decision to add these fish since we didn't actually go fallow. What is the likelihood that the parasites were able to survive, feed, and reproduce on one or both of the original fish over the course of 7 (now 9) months?
 

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TL/DR: What is the likelihood that parasites can survive, feed, and reproduce by hosting on asymptomatic fish over 9 months after an outbreak?

Hi, new member here. I'd like to get some opinions on my situation. I started a 150g tank in September of last year, and all was good for the first 3 months. At the beginning of January my fish started dropping one by one, almost certainly by a parasite. Between the guys at my LFS and members of another forum, we determined it was likely either velvet or brooklynella. Based on the fishes' behavior and symptoms I'm leaning towards velvet as the culprit. I set up an emergency hospital tank and managed to get 3 fish in there and treated before they became symptomatic, but they ended up dying anyway.

All but 2 of my fish died from the outbreak - one blue sapphire damsel (out of 3) and one blue-green chromis survived and never showed any symptoms or unusual behavior. My husband and I tried numerous methods to trap them in order to move them to the hospital tank and let the DT go fallow, but short of tearing down the tank it wasn't happening. We added nothing (including inverts & coral) for 7 months, then started very slowly adding fish again. All have been fine so far, but now I've been reading and wondering if it was a horribly unwise decision to add these fish since we didn't actually go fallow. What is the likelihood that the parasites were able to survive, feed, and reproduce on one or both of the original fish over the course of 7 (now 9) months?
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If there were fish present, there is a high likelyhood that the parasite survived. The fish may not be showing symptoms yet, but as long as there was a food source (the fish) the parasite is likely still present in your system.
 

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Welcome to R2R!!

If it were velvet or Brook, they would both still be present in the system if fish were never completely removed. Some fish are very resistant to external parasites. Depending on the fish you are adding, they may tolerate whatever it was for a while.
 

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Welcome to the forum!

As a counterpoint opinion, none of the common parasites have a long-term cyst stage as part of their life cycle, so if whatever you had didn't happen to be capable of living and reproducing on those two remaining fish, for whatever reason, it may well be gone. The more important factor now imo is whether you're properly quarantining your new additions before adding them to the dt. If not then problems are bound to recur whether or not the initial infectious agent remains.
 
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Welcome to R2R!
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If there were fish present, there is a high likelyhood that the parasite survived. The fish may not be showing symptoms yet, but as long as there was a food source (the fish) the parasite is likely still present in your system.

Thank you for the warm welcome and reply.
 

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Hi . Yes you may have parasites 8n your tank. I have them in both mine also. Get your fish strong and healthy. Feed black worms and white worms and lots of fresh sea food and sea weed. You fish can become immune. Good luck
 

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Did you use the “low tide” method to try to catch the damsels? I’ve caught a variety of fish—including my crafty Wrasse in a 90 gallon filled with rockwork— doing that. Works every time. As for Marine Velvet, which I’ve encountered three times now— personally, I could never sleep without getting every last fish out of the DT and treated.
 
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Welcome to R2R!!

If it were velvet or Brook, they would both still be present in the system if fish were never completely removed. Some fish are very resistant to external parasites. Depending on the fish you are adding, they may tolerate whatever it was for a while.

Thanks for the welcome and reply!!
 
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Welcome to the forum!

As a counterpoint opinion, none of the common parasites have a long-term cyst stage as part of their life cycle, so if whatever you had didn't happen to be capable of living and reproducing on those two remaining fish, for whatever reason, it may well be gone. The more important factor now imo is whether you're properly quarantining your new additions before adding them to the dt. If not then problems are bound to recur whether or not the initial infectious agent remains.

Thank you for the welcome and reply! I appreciate the counterpoint and obviously hope you are right for the sake of my fish. I'm embarrassed to admit I'm not quarantining yet, which I know is really stupid. To be honest, I feel very intimidated. When we entered the hobby we bought a turnkey package from a LFS which they delivered to our house and installed, and I now realize we are at a huge disadvantage vs. having set it up ourselves because we don't have a clue about setting up a fish tank. Neither of us had set up a tank of any kind prior to the hospital tank, and at that point we were desperate and probably screwed it up. It's just a cheap 10 gallon tank from Walmart, which we filled with water from the infected DT, a sacrificed rock and black sponge for bacteria. I treated with copper, but the three fish that made it into the hospital tank all died anyway which left me wondering if it was the parasite or me who killed them. It's been sitting empty collecting dust since then. Basically, my underlying worry is that new fish would be in bigger danger in a QT set up by a novice vs. an established 150g set up by professionals. I just need to bite the bullet, read the threads on how to QT properly and get moving on it. I know that you are absolutely right that problems are bound to recur if we do not QT. You guys have talked sense into me and I greatly appreciate that!
 
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Hi . Yes you may have parasites 8n your tank. I have them in both mine also. Get your fish strong and healthy. Feed black worms and white worms and lots of fresh sea food and sea weed. You fish can become immune. Good luck

Thank you for the reply. I will look into where to get black & white worms. Are these live worms you are suggesting?
 
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Did you use the “low tide” method to try to catch the damsels? I’ve caught a variety of fish—including my crafty Wrasse in a 90 gallon filled with rockwork— doing that. Works every time. As for Marine Velvet, which I’ve encountered three times now— personally, I could never sleep without getting every last fish out of the DT and treated.

No, I'm not familiar with that method but I am going to research it right now! Thank you for the suggestion. I do have nagging guilt over fish I've lost and the thought of putting more fish in danger, so I need to stop hoping for the best and actually do something about it.
 

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You create as much of a ‘low tide’ as you can by using as many pails / containers / buckets as you can to siphon your water out into; don’t overlook the fact that your rockwork might start to work to your advantage. Many passageways will become dead-ends; others can start to be block by nets, sheets of plastic or pieces of glass—anything you can use as dividers to cut off escape routes for your fish. I have used gallon jugs (weighted with water) to cut off escape routes for the fish. My point is, what seems like a virtual impossibility (netting fish with rocks in the tank) when the water is high, can become vastly easier with only 3, 6, even 8 inches of water left.
 

rkpetersen

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Basically, my underlying worry is that new fish would be in bigger danger in a QT set up by a novice vs. an established 150g set up by professionals. I just need to bite the bullet, read the threads on how to QT properly and get moving on it.

I hear you; quarantine is tricky and can easily send an already stressed fish to its demise. I too was resistant at one point but unfortunately it's pretty necessary these days. Virtually all fish stores are going to have some parasites lurking around in their tanks, no matter how much they clean and medicate them, because of the high turnover of animals from different sources. Online sources aren't generally any safer. And even if a fish looks clean and healthy in the store, they can easily still have some crypto, velvet, flukes, worms, etc onboard.
 
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