How to Quarantine

[Sheldon Sebastian]

Thank you for your response, I haven’t started the tank yet, so I can still opt to cycle fresh...sounds like that may be a better option?

 

[HotRocks]

Humblefish,
Amazing write up...I am new to the reefing hobby and have an amazing lfs in town that is willing to ‘quarentine’ the fish first in their individual tanks and then their display tanks for a 4-6 weeks. I started my tank with water from their display tanks and my salinity is a perfect match to their tanks. Is it reasonable to have them ‘quarantine’ the fish for a month after I purchase them, then temperature acclimate and release once I get them home? Or do you think I should still go through the QT process at home?

Do they treat the fish in any way, or just monitor them?

 

[Josh Kraft]

Thank you for your response, I haven’t started the tank yet, so I can still opt to cycle fresh...sounds like that may be a better option?

You would need to sterilize the tank, and anything in it. If you have a sand bottom, it would be no good. I suppose you could try to dry it fully to kill anything, but that's risky.

 

[HotRocks]

Thank you for your response, I haven’t started the tank yet, so I can still opt to cycle fresh...sounds like that may be a better option?

Using their water is not a huge deal. You could transfer free swimmers if their tanks have parasites. Are you adding any live rock/sand or coral?

Using fresh may be alot less of a hassle for you.

I personally would choose to still QT the fish, unless you know exactly what their treatment process is and can verify it's done properly.

 

[Sheldon Sebastian]

Do they treat the fish in any way, or just monitor them?

I’m not sure, I will find out the next time I am there...would that change your thoughts at all on the matter

Using their water is not a huge deal. You could transfer free swimmers if their tanks have parasites. Are you adding any live rock/sand or coral?

Using fresh may be alot less of a hassle for you.

I personally would choose to still QT the fish, unless you know exactly what their treatment process is and can verify it's done properly.

 

[Josh Kraft]

Oh, I just read that you didn't start the tank yet.

 

[Sheldon Sebastian]

I plan to use dry rock, live sand and yes I’ll be adding coral

 

[Humblefish]

Humblefish,
Amazing write up...I am new to the reefing hobby and have an amazing lfs in town that is willing to ‘quarentine’ the fish first in their individual tanks and then their display tanks for a 4-6 weeks. I started my tank with water from their display tanks and my salinity is a perfect match to their tanks. Is it reasonable to have them ‘quarantine’ the fish for a month after I purchase them, then temperature acclimate and release once I get them home? Or do you think I should still go through the QT process at home?

Without knowing any details about their quarantine procedures, it’s impossible for me to provide a recommendation. You also must decide for yourself whether or not you trust them to implement their QT protocol without mistakes. Most LFS have fish constantly coming & going, so any QTd specimens would need to be isolated from the rest of the fish and moved by batches into a separate system. Not saying it can’t be done, but it is difficult to execute properly.

 

[pluikens]

Just started my first QT of fish. I picked up two tangs I ordered from my LFS on Friday, a yellow eye kole and a tomini. They were eating frozen foods at the LFS and quickly ate pellets once I got them in my QT. First Prazi treatment started Saturday night but I have a question about the second Prazi dose for option A in the original post. I plan to do a 25% WC on Friday and redose Prazi. When adding the second dose, is it the same volume as the original dose even though I only did a 25% WC?

A picture of my QT with the tangs hiding. I have the QT in my home office so I can keep an eye on them. The kole is out most of the time I'm looking but the tomini spends more time in his PVC cave unless he's eating.

 

[Humblefish]

When adding the second dose, is it the same volume as the original dose even though I only did a 25% WC?

Yes; dose the same amount as the first dose.

 

[Fitzty]

Hi Humble or any others with experience on QT overcrowding.
I have a 240 with a decent stock list and two ick magnets. If it wasn’t for them I might be able to manage the ick but think they are allowing quite a few survivors each life cycle. I tried feeding with medicated food and some of my corals really took it on the chin. I am going to remove for QT and go fallow. I am worried about crowding. I have a 4 inch powder blue, 5 or 6 inch fat blue hippo that need a bit more room than the others. Also 2 clowns, 2 leopard wrasse, 2 bengai, a kole tang, lawnmower, 2 goby a coral beauty and flame angel. What would you use to qt? I have room in my garage and extra heaters but only 10 and 20 gallon tanks. Tubs? Brutes? Thinking about long hypo salinity with shorter time in copper.
Thanks,

 

[Fitzty]

Not that it will be easy to catch anything...

 

[HotRocks]

Hi Humble or any others with experience on QT overcrowding.
I have a 240 with a decent stock list and two ick magnets. If it wasn’t for them I might be able to manage the ick but think they are allowing quite a few survivors each life cycle. I tried feeding with medicated food and some of my corals really took it on the chin. I am going to remove for QT and go fallow. I am worried about crowding. I have a 4 inch powder blue, 5 or 6 inch fat blue hippo that need a bit more room than the others. Also 2 clowns, 2 leopard wrasse, 2 bengai, a kole tang, lawnmower, 2 goby a coral beauty and flame angel. What would you use to qt? I have room in my garage and extra heaters but only 10 and 20 gallon tanks. Tubs? Brutes? Thinking about long hypo salinity with shorter time in copper.
Thanks,

You might be able to get away with a 40b. 55 would be ideal so the tangs have swimming room. You could use a big Rubbermaid tote. The problem with a tote for fish QT is it's hard to observe the fish and see problems. That's my .02

 

[Fitzty]

Thanks Hot Rocks. All in the same 40 or 50? I know it’s not ideal but doable? I was thinking about running A few through a copper cycle at a time in another tank.

 

[HotRocks]

Definitely doable. 40 or 55. It may just take frequent water changes to control ammonia and water quality. Just be careful to not overfeed. That will help as well.

 

[JCTReefer]

After being out of the hobby for 9 years, I have been in the process of setting up a new DT.. I've been working on this since Oct 2017. I'm finally at the point to start adding live stock and my first introduction will be a pair of Gladiator/Devinci ocellaris clownfish. I've been eyeballing this bonded pair for a while now, and finally decided to order them. They will arrive on 5-30-18.. I emailed Sustainable Aquatics asking them how they ship their fish and what water parameters they ship at. That way, I could get ahead of the game by preparing my acclimation water to at least match specific gravity before the shipment arrives. And then test and adjust to match Ph of the shipping water. I use 1ml of vinegar to drop Ph by about .3 units. I always get paranoid about Nh4 being converted to Nh3. I've never been fond of drip acclimating with fish. Atmospheric gas exchange alone can increase ph to quickly and convert ammonium to toxic ammonia. Anyways, I also asked them about their Quarantine procedures. Sustainable Aquatics seems to be a very reputable hatchery and they say that their fish are disease free.
I would encourage new hobbyist to read their Acclimation White Papers link at Sustainable Aquatics. I think it's a very good article/study.. Its right along the same lines as Bob Fenner's Guerrilla Acclimation procedures. These are procedures for long transit shipping. Their recommended procedures for shipping short distances is quite a bit different. I was glad to get a quick email back from them regarding my questions.

This was their response.

Hello Jeff,

Thanks for your note! Since you seem familiar with the chemistry/biology of acclimation, I’ve attached our in-house protocol here that we use for long-term shipments where the animals have been packed for 48 hours or more. I think you’ll find we share the same philosophy on that. On short distance shipments, however, we recommend only a short temperature (float) acclimation (without opening the bag) followed by an immediate transfer to the aquarium, as the fish experience minimal stress going directly from the hatchery to your tank in a short period of time.

All fish from the Coral Reef / Sustainable Aquatics are throughout quarantined before being made available for shipment. Many of the fish, including most all of the clownfish, are born right here in East Tennessee at the campus of SA and are guaranteed to be free of any disease/parasites. The shipping water does have pH buffer and ammonia neutralizer and is mixed to 1.020g/L. This water won’t harm your aquarium, even a reef aquarium, but we always recommend to transfer the fish out of this water and to discard it so as not to add excess nutrients to your tank."

With that being said, I'm trying to decide weather or not to skip quarantine. It's a calculated risk for sure! Maybe just quarantine and observe. Possibly run a full 30 day and do copper and prazi... Any thoughts or opinions? Everything else going in the DT will be quarantined for sure. I'm just not sure if it's needed for these clowns. I hate to medicate when it's unnecessary. Thanks for any input.

 

[HotRocks]

I am not familiar with this company, which means nothing. I QT everything myself no matter what. This depends on your tolerance for risk. If they are the first fish hitting your DT, then worse case scenario is if something shows up you have to QT them, and let your DT be fallow. You aren't risking nuking an entire tank full of fish or anything.

I don't see the point in skipping QTing this pair if you plan to properly QT everything else. My main concern would be how many of these diseases are good at hiding their symptoms in some species of fish. Which could potentially be an issue down the road for you.

@Humblefish do you know anything about the above mentioned company?

 

[JCTReefer]

I am not familiar with this company, which means nothing. I QT everything myself no matter what. This depends on your tolerance for risk. If they are the first fish hitting your DT, then worse case scenario is if something shows up you have to QT them, and let your DT be fallow. You aren't risking nuking an entire tank full of fish or anything.

@Humblefish do you know anything about the above mentioned company?

Yeah, I guess worse case scenario I could just pull them and let the the tank go fallow. Sustainable Aquatics is one of the largest Breeders besides ORA specializing in designer clownfish. I've read quite a bit about the company and the quality of livestock they offer. In general clowns are pretty hardy and could always be harboring something without any noticeable signs. Being captive bread and raised makes me slightly more comfortable not quarantining. I'm not sure where outside parasites/ diseases would actually come from in a controlled environment though. I realize a single drop of infected water would be enough for cross contamination. I don't know specific details of their procedures. I know they take their breeding very seriously.

 

[VJV]

Well, if they can guarantee that the systems where the captive bred clowns have no contact with water from other systems, and that the captive bred fish are never put in contact with wild caught ones than I would say you should be safe... as long as you trust what they are telling you.

Now, I do not necessarily agree with some of the things they say, namely:

1- quick acclimation for short distance/time shipped fish vs long for long shipping processes: because of ammonia buildup in the bag during long shipping processes fish are much more likely to die with a long acclimation if they have been in the bag for a long time than not. Drip acclimation is ideal, as long as you are sure the are no Ammonia issues. So the longer the shipping times, the more quickly you need to get the fish out of that water

2- as you said, clowns are very hardy so they can go through a whole QT observation process and not show any signs of disease. As such, observation QT might be a waist of time. I always medicate prophylactically my fish and clowns really have no issues with the medication.

Also, the worse that can happen is not having to go fallow. The worse that can happen is further down the line, after you spent time and money QT and treating further additions, all of a sudden you have an outbreak caused by some sort of stress spike and all of your time and effort (and money) goes down the drain... literally.


Anyway, just my two cents [emoji4]

 

[JCTReefer]

Well, if they can guarantee that the systems where the captive bred clowns have no contact with water from other systems, and that the captive bred fish are never put in contact with wild caught ones than I would say you should be safe... as long as you trust what they are telling you.

Now, I do not necessarily agree with some of the things they say, namely:

1- quick acclimation for short distance/time shipped fish vs long for long shipping processes: because of ammonia buildup in the bag during long shipping processes fish are much more likely to die with a long acclimation if they have been in the bag for a long time than not. Drip acclimation is ideal, as long as you are sure the are no Ammonia issues. So the longer the shipping times, the more quickly you need to get the fish out of that water

2- as you said, clowns are very hardy so they can go through a whole QT observation process and not show any signs of disease. As such, observation QT might be a waist of time. I always medicate prophylactically my fish and clowns really have no issues with the medication.

Also, the worse that can happen is not having to go fallow. The worse that can happen is further down the line, after you spent time and money QT and treating further additions, all of a sudden you have an outbreak caused by some sort of stress spike and all of your time and effort (and money) goes down the drain... literally.


Anyway, just my two cents [emoji4]

All good and valid points! Thank you very much for your two cents! Now, decisions decisions