How to quarantine a wrasse.

[DEE’S reef]

For what it's worth, as mentioned you can do copper or TTM. I've ran both Six line and a pink streaked through hybrid TTM.

I always add a rotation or two into the method (extra 6 days), and do some prazi in the last steps and some bendo flakes.

I've also ran a cleaner wrasse and a Blue star leopard through full QT with Copper Power at 2.5 for 30 days and transferred to another tank for 3 rounds of prazi. Both survived just fine.

I just tend to do TTM method for smaller fish since it is easy, either a 5g bucket, or if they are smaller then I have two 2.5g tanks from Petco.

So you do copper for week the switch tanks

 

[Slocke]

Public aquariums typically do NOT use observation-only quarantine. All of the ones I’m familiar with are some version of a proactive quarantine method. Observation only would be reserved for specialty fishes (deep water species) ones not being mixed with other fish (seadragons), or too large to quarantine (whale sharks).

Yes, I would only use amine-chelated copper with wrasse. They are also sensitive to the solvents sometimes used with praziquantel (low oxygen from bacterial degradation is the most likely cause).

Really? That’s not what I’ve heard from the aquarium I have an in with. I believe it was a freshwater dip soon after arrival. A long observational period with periodic checks and tests. Then only treatment when and if problems were found.

 

[Tcook]

I just have a mix of Red Sea and Salifert test kits so I was wondering if the salifert for copper is trustworthy.

Do you already have the Salifert copper test kit? If not what is your aversion with the Hanna? It is quite accurate and quick to use.

 

[winxp_man]

Really? That’s not what I’ve heard from the aquarium I have an in with. I believe it was a freshwater dip soon after arrival. A long observational period with periodic checks and tests. Then only treatment when and if problems were found.

I would say that is lazy mode sadly. Observation is not a good idea. I feel it gives diseases a head start. And if it’s the like of velvet…. Boy o boy your in a deep pile of hurting.

 

[winxp_man]

Do you already have the Salifert copper test kit? If not what is your aversion with the Hanna? It is quite accurate and quick to use.

This right here. No way I would trust my eyes to make the color difference accurately enough to say I feel comfortable to leave my fish in the tank. Hanna or nothing for me and it’s a test that takes 2min tops.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Really? That’s not what I’ve heard from the aquarium I have an in with. I believe it was a freshwater dip soon after arrival. A long observational period with periodic checks and tests. Then only treatment when and if problems were found.

Yes - all of the US public aquariums that I worked for or that I’ve done AZA inspections for (15 or so) have written proactive quarantine protocols. I was also on the steering committee of the Marine Fishes taxon advisory group, and developing quarantine protocols was part of that group’s work. I’ve actually never heard of a public aquarium not having active quarantine except in the exceptions I mentioned. There are some I suppose, but they wouldn’t meet AZA standards. Australia and the EU have different standards, but they are pretty similar.

 

[Kasrift]

So you do copper for week the switch tanks

No, not if I'm doing tank transfer. That is only for larger fish. Leopard wrasses needed more than a 5g sized enclosure. The protocol linked above is 14 days minimum at therapeutic levels and then if you aren't doing a full 30 days you would transfer to another tank for prazi treatment. If you were doing the full 30, afterwards you could use cuprisorb or something to bind and remove the copper and then just do prazi in the same tank. I transferred because I was doing batches of fish.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I just have a mix of Red Sea and Salifert test kits so I was wondering if the salifert for copper is trustworthy.

Salifert is accurate, but you may need to do a 50% dilution and then double your results as I think it only tests to 2 ppm and you need to reach 2.25 ppm. Sorry, I don’t know about the Red Sea test.

 

[Slocke]

Yes - all of the US public aquariums that I worked for or that I’ve done AZA inspections for (15 or so) have written proactive quarantine protocols. I was also on the steering committee of the Marine Fishes taxon advisory group, and developing quarantine protocols was part of that group’s work. I’ve actually never heard of a public aquarium not having active quarantine except in the exceptions I mentioned. There are some I suppose, but they wouldn’t meet AZA standards. Australia and the EU have different standards, but they are pretty similar.

I wasn’t saying that they don’t quarantine. The opposite really, I was talking about what I observed when I toured a large quarantine facility for one of the major aquariums.

I just got the impression that chemical treatments were only used when an issue presented and not on every fish regardless of health like we do. Though other treatment methods like freshwater dips and tank transfers were used on everything where appropriate.

Obviously you'd know better then me though. Sorry if I said something wrong.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I wasn’t saying that they don’t quarantine. The opposite really, I was talking about what I observed when I toured a large quarantine facility for one of the major aquariums.

I just got the impression that chemical treatments were only used when an issue presented and not on every fish regardless of health like we do. Though other treatment methods like freshwater dips and tank transfers were used on everything where appropriate.

Obviously you'd know better then me though. Sorry if I said something wrong.

I just wanted to clarify that “observation” isn’t considered “best practices” by US public aquariums.

 

[MizzouMark]

I just started up my 360 gallon aquarium and have used Jay's procedure on the 62 fish I currently have in the tank. No issues with any of the fish - wrasses, anthias, tangs, blennies, gobies, etc - making it through quarantine. One thing I struggled with early on is efficiently sterilizing and restarting the four QT tanks I'm using to manage the Prazi eating bacteria. I now have that process down.

 

[jonnywink]

Should I observe for a week and then treat with copper powder for a week or 2. And is copper powder the best form of medication for a wrasse.

I observe for a week then if all ok, I do copper power for 30 days at a level around 2.40. I ramp up to this level over a 3-4 day period. Then, two courses of Prazipro with a week between them. Seems to work ok for me.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I observe for a week then if all ok, I do copper power for 30 days at a level around 2.40. I ramp up to this level over a 3-4 day period. Then, two courses of Prazipro with a week between them. Seems to work ok for me.

That works well, but you don’t need to ramp up copper power slowly, that advice is for ionic copper. The risk of a slow ramp up is that diseases can get fired up during that time. I also only observe for 3 days before starting copper.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I just started up my 360 gallon aquarium and have used Jay's procedure on the 62 fish I currently have in the tank. No issues with any of the fish - wrasses, anthias, tangs, blennies, gobies, etc - making it through quarantine. One thing I struggled with early on is efficiently sterilizing and restarting the four QT tanks I'm using to manage the Prazi eating bacteria. I now have that process down.

The prazi eating bacteria is a real hassle. I used to let my QT stay up and cycled until I noticed flukes were getting through. I thought it was “prazi resistant flukes” until the papers came out explaining the issue was actually bacterial degradation of the prazi.

Just an FYI - I’m working on an optional protocol that uses 2 weeks of copper for velvet and 30 days hyposalinity for ich and flukes. The main reason for that is to avoid problems with prazi (the timing between treatments is another issue).

 

[winxp_man]

I observe for a week then if all ok, I do copper power for 30 days at a level around 2.40. I ramp up to this level over a 3-4 day period. Then, two courses of Prazipro with a week between them. Seems to work ok for me.

Here is the issue with observation. If the fish is carrying disease, by the time you see something on it, it might be too late.

Having had the pleasure of meeting Mr Velvet back in Feb-March of 2025, it was instant. Lost a lot of fish sadly! Could have been avoided. Velvet at times can kill a fish before you even truly see what is going on. Fact of out hobby now, is that disease is so prevalent one reason is the amount of fish in confined space. That more than likely the fish might have or be carrying diseases.

So why waste the me week? Ich for example might not even show up for two weeks. So in technicality from what I have experienced personally with diseases is that 2 weeks or what it took for LFS fish to show ich. Had I done QT right away that would have been avoided.

I learned to trust the protocol here. And it works well. But to each their own. I just like to stay ahead of the issue. And one week is not enough observation. I think Jay’s protocol is 42 days of a fish being clear to give the clean bill of health. I don’t have that kind of time in my hands to leave it to observation, and I don’t trust a week of observation.

 

[DEE’S reef]

This right here. No way I would trust my eyes to make the color difference accurately enough to say I feel comfortable to leave my fish in the tank. Hanna or nothing for me and it’s a test that takes 2min tops.

I’m not against Hanna testers but I don’t have any yet I just been doing salifert and Red Sea test for my tanks gathering number and a I have a decent amount of number so I have a base to compare to the Hanna testers.

 

[alabella1]

Public aquariums typically do NOT use observation-only quarantine. All of the ones I’m familiar with are some version of a proactive quarantine method. Observation only would be reserved for specialty fishes (deep water species) ones not being mixed with other fish (seadragons), or too large to quarantine (whale sharks).

Yes, I would only use amine-chelated copper with wrasse. They are also sensitive to the solvents sometimes used with praziquantel (low oxygen from bacterial degradation is the most likely cause).

Yup. I tried my luck 2x with madagascar flashers and both times lost them. One went nuts from prazi. The other from general cure.

 

[mchans]

So this weekend I want to get a 6 line wrasse and I want to quarantine it how should I do so for the best success. The wrasse at my lfs are smaller.

Subscribe to Serious Reef. They have an update quarantine protocol. I’m currently treating a yellow and a Melanarus wrasse. No issues. Takes 14 days once you bring up the copper levels.

 

[DEE’S reef]

Here’s the qt tank I think I might get the wrasse this weekend

 

[DEE’S reef]

So I changed my mind I didn’t get the wrasse because my lfs is getting long nose hawk fish next week and that’s what I’ve been looking for. I also my get a 6 line too next week do you think it would be fine to quarantine both of these together?