Quarantine Practices

[Sacrifice]

Looking to get everyone's opinion and practices with quarantining new fish. Do you keep a tank running or do you just fill a tank with existing tank water, add a hob with rock or media from sump and let it rip? Do you dip the fish in anything, treat the tank or just observe? I know that there are 100's of videos and posts out there but I'm curious what you local guys do.

I finally have the space and extra tanks laying around that I can pull this off so I'm curious what everyone does or do you simply trust the shops that you get them from? For instance does anyone know the quarantine processes of The Corner Reef, Seascape or Gateway?

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

first i use water from my main display to fill the tanks. then i do the rest.
i use at least 2 months of home qt, never straight to the display

 

[Sacrifice]

first i use water from my main display to fill the tanks. then i do the rest.
i use at least 2 months of home qt, never straight to the display

Do you like to treat the tank or fish with anything or just observe them in the QT tank?

 

[DrMMI]

I break down my quarantine tank in between and just keep sponge filters in my sump to seed them with bacteria. When I set up a new quarantine, I just pull some sponge filter out and I have an instantly established system. I still dose some seachem stability for the first week just to be extra safe. Once the fish is eating in a day or two, I start copper.

 

[Brymac1]

I QT every fish before it goes into my display. I worked at fish store for 4 years and I’ve seen how many fish come in with all sorts of parasites or infections. I keep a 20 gallon tank running at all times and treat all fish with copper and prazi for a month before observing them for an additional week. Then they go into the display.

 

[Sacrifice]

I've never treated with copper, what do you guys recommend and is it a one time thing or after each waterchange?

 

[BVF]

Current Quarantine Protocol

2023 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed quarantine process can effectively eliminate these parasites before...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Sacrifice]

Current Quarantine Protocol

2023 Quarantine Procedures Jay Hemdal David Scarborough Protozoans (Cryptocaryon/ich, Amyloodinium/velvet) and Metazoan trematodes/flukes are by far the most common parasites found on newly acquired fish. A carefully managed quarantine process can effectively eliminate these parasites before...

www.reef2reef.com

Thank you for the link. I'll read up on it.

 

[Brymac1]

I've never treated with copper, what do you guys recommend and is it a one time thing or after each waterchange?

I treat with copper power at 2.5 ppm for most fish and 2.0 ppm for more sensitive fish (like angels). I keep it at this for a month. During water changes I dose copper into the new water so it matches the qt tank.

 

[Sacrifice]

I treat with copper power at 2.5 ppm for most fish and 2.0 ppm for more sensitive fish (like angels). I keep it at this for a month. During water changes I dose copper into the new water so it matches the qt tank.

What do you do after that month? Do you move the fish straight to your DT or move to a new QT with no copper?

I read through that article about the QT process by Jay posted above and man people are all over the board in that thread.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

for my method, i do all treatments at stage 1 and my stage 2 is for observation only. most times stage 1 works, but have had flukes get thru so its better to check now than before they go into the big display tank. can always extend qt but cant get them out of the display

 

[mjcoussens]

I started my system with high hopes of following along with Humblefish's methodologies, tank transfer, etc but the supply chain issues at the beginning of the pandemic quickly put an end to that for me. I know I have ich in my system, everyone gets prazi-pro soaked food 1x/day for two weeks whenever a new fish goes in the tank.

 

[DrMMI]

I slowly raise copper levels over 2-3 days to get to 2. Then I do 30 consecutive days of copper, keeping the levels between 2.25-2.5 for coppersafe. After that, I do a 90% water change to get most of the copper out and then two doses of prazipro a week apart. I believe Jay usually recommends a freshwater dip after that to check for any residual flukes but I haven't done that. I try to watch them for an additional two weeks and if they look healthy, they go into the main display.

I have some fish in quarantine right now and my cleaner wrasse has some red sores so I had to stop the copper and am doing antibiotics for now until that's healed.

 

[Maxx]

Everyone has a different process.
I'm not knocking anyone else's process.
The smartest process (to me) is to assume your newly acquired livestock has at least ich if not worse.
Inverts "should" go into a holding tank for at least 30 days. This will prevent ich from transferring to the display. If you suspect (and you should always suspect...just because you're paranoid does NOT mean THEY're not out to get you!), that there might be AEFL/RB's/MEN/Herpes/AID's etc on your inverts....30 days will allow you to observe and treat these issues as they crop up.

Note - Vitamin C and essential oils probably will not have an effect on Herpes/AID's...however, I am not a doctor in real life. Consult your physician for actual useful information regarding Herpes and/or AID's....

With inverts I'm more interested in ensuring I'm not introducing Ich, bubble algae, vermetid snails, majano/aiptasia anemones, flatworms, etc.

With fish I'm concerned with ich, velvet, flukes, and intestinal parasites.

I'll put new additions (fish or inverts) into a QT tank and observe first.
Certain fish such as tangs or rabbits will get a treatment of Prazipro to handle intestinal parasites prophylacticly. Depending on what I see, and the fish involved, I may just drop salinity to 1.008 in the QT tank and hold it there for 30 days. That will handle flukes and ich. Dropping salinity can be done quickly, (less than 24 hours), but raising it should take several days to weeks. It is important to note that 30 days low salinity is required to kill off ich/flukes and raising the salinity to 1.026 should take several days if not weeks.
That will cover alot of what one is likely to find in the hobby.

Obviously, there are some Marine Biologists in this forum and in this hobby and they will likely have ALOT more valid suggestions and information to share regarding this topic...

 

[Sacrifice]

@Maxx Thank you for the reply. Are there any fish or inverts that can't handle the lower salinity? Seems like keeping a QT tank at 1.008 would much easier than meds to most fish, but I'm curious to hear what you all say.

 

[Maxx]

Wow...apologies for the late reply.

Inverts do not handle lower salinity well at all.
That is not recommended at all. Think about it, parasites are invertebrates. We are doing this low salinity treatment in order to kill parasites, it will likely be very hazardous if not fatal to other invertebrates.

IME, fish dont have a problem with lower salinity. However, there's a couple of things to keep in mind:

Fish can tolerate big drops in salinity, however, increases in salinity should be done slowly. I havent had a fish have a problem with dropping salinity from 1.026 down to 1.008 in one setting. But you need to WATCH YOUR pH!!! Low salinity water has a harder time maintaining pH. Doing a slow drip of RO water with either Soda Ash or Kalk to maintain pH isnt a bad idea. The RO drip maintains your lower salinity, and the Kalk/Soda Ash maintains your pH. You also really really really need to be careful of ammonia in a low salinity environment, (1.008). The bacteria that processes fish waste/ammonia doesnt die off in low salinity, it basically goes dormant and doesnt process the ammonia very well, (if at all). Ammonia build up can be lethal to fish, very quickly. Regular water changes and ammonia monitoring are important.

30 days of low salinity (1.008) will kill off ich and should seriously drop the fluke population in the fish. I would also expect that any sort of parasitic isopods would have a tough time surviving 30 days of low salinity (1.008). However, from what I've read, internal parasites such as worms can handle that low salinity for longer than is good for the fish. To eradicate worms, (especially in fish such as tangs and rabbitfish), you will likely need something like Prazipro.

As far as keeping a QT tank at 1.008 regularly....I dont think that makes alot of sense.
It's going to be time consuming to maintain that level of salinity, and when there are no fish present, it doesnt make much sense to spend the time and effort IMO. For fish, just keep mixed salt water on hand, drain and clean the QT, and put away until next time.
For QT'ing inverts you're probably going to want a dedicated tank without fish that will remain running continuously.