Have you ever had a disease outbreak despite quarantining?

[Gumbies R Us]

One thing a lot of us as reefers do is QT our livestock to prevent diseases. However, have you ever QT'd something but still ended up with a disease outbreak? Was this a user error or something else?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

One thing a lot of us as reefers do is QT our livestock to prevent diseases. However, have you ever QT'd something but still ended up with a disease outbreak? Was this a user error or something else?

I've not lost a marine fish due to flukes or protozoan disease in at least 10 years. The last losses I recall were a group of deep reef fish that I acquired....I had never kept any of those species before, and I was nervous about using my standard quarantine process on them, so I opted for "observation only". The developed ich and my staff missed the first signs, so the infection was pretty far along before I started a treatment. IIRC we lost a couple of fish from that.

We still lose fish, sometimes for unknown reasons, but we had our main saltwater system tested for eDNA and it showed no protozoan parasites, and the only metazoan present for a fluke found on eagle rays (which we also did not quarantine!).