QT Fish from Prior Tank??

[orangestorm]

Hi there!

I’m upgrading my tank from a 15 gallon to a 60 gallon and have a question im hoping someone can answer.

Should I QT my clownfish and yellow clown goby before they enter into my new tank?

The yellow clown goby was “quarantined” by my LFS, and I got the clowns from ORA when they were babies.

I’ve had them for nine months and I haven’t had any issues with them. They seem completely healthy.

I know the possibility exists that they could be carrying Ich or velvet, but I want to know how many of you would QT your fish in this situation.

Please help!

 

[mcarroll]

Hi there!

I’m upgrading my tank from a 15 gallon to a 60 gallon and have a question im hoping someone can answer.

Should I QT my clownfish and yellow clown goby before they enter into my new tank?

The yellow clown goby was “quarantined” by my LFS, and I got the clowns from ORA when they were babies.

I’ve had them for nine months and I haven’t had any issues with them. They seem completely healthy.

I know the possibility exists that they could be carrying Ich or velvet, but I want to know how many of you would QT your fish in this situation.

Please help!

The traditional QT period is 40 days to know if there's going to be a breakout of something – you're WAY past that.

The main reason for QT is actually for recovery from shipping stress....sometimes this stress results in a breakdown of the fishes immunity and when that happens there can be an outbreak of something. It's important to watch for, as you know.

But....!

If there's that much stress in your upgade at home, something went seriously wrong.

You should not have to do anything other than **carefully* move your livestock to the new tank. If you can do it without removing them from the water (ie do not use a net to catch them; use a solid container) you can eliminate almost 100% of the stress on them. (It should still be VERY low stress compared to shipping and handling even if you have to use a net tho.)

 

[Piotrek]

When I was upgrading, I didn't QT my fish from the old tank. Acclimation, on the other hand, is a must. Standard procedure that works for me. I acclimate by adding water from the new tank to the bucket with the fish over a period of 45mins. Try to distribute the dosage evenly, every 15min or more often, to match the salinity of the new tank after 45mins, at which point I transfer.

 

[mcarroll]

Hm....acclimation should not ordinarily be necessary for this kind of move either, @orangestorm.

In case you weren't already going to, make sure to save as close to 100% of your old water as you can, and make up the rest of the new tank's volume with new saltwater. (Filter it through a fine-mesh filter sock if the old water is dirty....ideally something like 5 micron.)

Acclimation is mainly for coping with ammonia buildup during long shipping intervals (ie from overseas)...less so, but also for differences in salinity. But you will match the new water's salinity to the old water's. For bonus points, you can temperature match the new water, but if the water is at least room temperature that's not typically needed either. (Your heaters from the old tank will be available and already set to the correct temperature tho, for what it's worth.)

During an in-house move there should be no chance for ammonia to build up and no difference in salinity from source to destination...thus no need for acclimation.

There's a good "sticky thread" in the fish section (or maybe it's one of @Jay Hemdal's articles?) that runs through all this in good detail if you want more background.

 

[Piotrek]

Hm....acclimation should not ordinarily be necessary for this kind of move either, @orangestorm.

In case you weren't already going to, make sure to save as close to 100% of your old water as you can, and make up the rest of the new tank's volume with new saltwater. (Filter it through a fine-mesh filter sock if the old water is dirty....ideally something like 5 micron.)

Acclimation is mainly for coping with ammonia buildup during long shipping intervals (ie from overseas)...less so, but also for differences in salinity. But you will match the new water's salinity to the old water's. For bonus points, you can temperature match the new water, but if the water is at least room temperature that's not typically needed either. (Your heaters from the old tank will be available and already set to the correct temperature tho, for what it's worth.)

During an in-house move there should be no chance for ammonia to build up and no difference in salinity from source to destination...thus no need for acclimation.

There's a good "sticky thread" in the fish section (or maybe it's one of @Jay Hemdal's articles?) that runs through all this in good detail if you want more background.

Are you saying that even if the new tank is let's say 3months old there is no need for acclimation? Even if match temperature and salinity, other water parameters will most likely not be inline.
I did move some freshwater fish in the past without acclimation between tanks in my house with no issue, I admit.
I might be mistaken, but I thought it would be beneficial for the fish to introduce it slowly to the water in the new tank. Are you saying that in such a case (moving between tanks in own house) acclimation doesn't help at all. Or is it even worsening the situation by introducing stress due to temporary containment?

 

[mcarroll]

Are you saying that even if the new tank is let's say 3months old there is no need for acclimation? Even if match temperature and salinity, other water parameters will most likely not be inline.

Right. Not all of the parameters matter that much.

Mostly it's salinity since there won't typically be any ammonia in a tank transfer situation. The rock from the old system was already processing the load for the current livestock, so no net change in parameters (eg nutrients) there.

Age of the new system shouldn't be a factor if you're saving the old tank's rock, water, etc. For corals, the new water you're adding should just be like a big, fat water change – that shoujld have the effect of restoring parameters, not making them deviant.

Of course, don't make other big changes at the same time as the move. It wouldn't be the best time to add a bunch of new fish and increase the bio-load, for example. Wait a few months for things to settle before anything like that.

Or is it even worsening the situation by introducing stress due to temporary containment?

The extended acclimation is probably at least a little stressful (depends on the exact way it's done), but mostly just not necessary.

 

[Piotrek]

Right. Not all of the parameters matter that much.

Mostly it's salinity since there won't typically be any ammonia in a tank transfer situation. The rock from the old system was already processing the load for the current livestock, so no net change in parameters (eg nutrients) there.

Age of the new system shouldn't be a factor if you're saving the old tank's rock, water, etc. For corals, the new water you're adding should just be like a big, fat water change – that shoujld have the effect of restoring parameters, not making them deviant.

Of course, don't make other big changes at the same time as the move. It wouldn't be the best time to add a bunch of new fish and increase the bio-load, for example. Wait a few months for things to settle before anything like that.


The extended acclimation is probably at least a little stressful (depends on the exact way it's done), but mostly just not necessary.

Thx for the reply. It does make a lot of sense. I'll confront it with the local community in my city and check what they think.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi there!

I’m upgrading my tank from a 15 gallon to a 60 gallon and have a question im hoping someone can answer.

Should I QT my clownfish and yellow clown goby before they enter into my new tank?

The yellow clown goby was “quarantined” by my LFS, and I got the clowns from ORA when they were babies.

I’ve had them for nine months and I haven’t had any issues with them. They seem completely healthy.

I know the possibility exists that they could be carrying Ich or velvet, but I want to know how many of you would QT your fish in this situation.

Please help!

I wouldn’t consider quarantine needed in this case. Six months is pretty much the limit for the main infective diseases to remain undetected as sub clinical infections.

That said - as discussed, any tank move can be stressful, so steps needs to be taken to minimize the issues (catching the fish carefully, working fast, holding fish properly during the swap, etc).

Quarantine of new fish will be vital of course.

 

[orangestorm]

@mcarroll I was thinking about quarantine from a disease prevention perspective. I was wondering if I should do a QT on fish that hadn’t gone through the ich/velvet/fluke QT treatment in the past.

 

[mcarroll]

@mcarroll I was thinking about quarantine from a disease prevention perspective. I was wondering if I should do a QT on fish that hadn’t gone through the ich/velvet/fluke QT treatment in the past.

I don't think it would be worth doing at this point.

 

[Kooma]

Hi there!

I’m upgrading my tank from a 15 gallon to a 60 gallon and have a question im hoping someone can answer.

Should I QT my clownfish and yellow clown goby before they enter into my new tank?

The yellow clown goby was “quarantined” by my LFS, and I got the clowns from ORA when they were babies.

I’ve had them for nine months and I haven’t had any issues with them. They seem completely healthy.

I know the possibility exists that they could be carrying Ich or velvet, but I want to know how many of you would QT your fish in this situation.

Please help!

So I went through something like this.

I bought a system, fish and rock, and they came with ich. I spent over a month in Qt with them, copper, prazi, you name it. They went into the new display I was setting up.

A few months later I wanted to add my existing fish from my system. I’ve had the clowns for 13 years in that system and a chromis in there in the last year.

The clowns and chromis went through the QT process, I wasn’t going to risk the fallowed out rock and ton of livestock.

I would personally, but only if you plan to continue that for the future. If you aren’t gonna quarantine everything in the future, then there’s no point right now.