Quarantining Question

[LifeOfAquatics]

Do I need to quarantine fish/corals/inverts from one source? Ok so I have a 5 gallon nano soon to be reef, I plan on getting like one clown and MAYBE (but highly unlikely) one other fish along with some inverts like cleaner shrimp and some simple corals like toadstools. I am planning an upgrade very soon (I have everything I need except a heater and some more rock). Anyway, could a clownfish and maybe one other fish with inverts live in a 5 gallon tank for a short period of time? Also, I plan on getting everything at once (the clown, the inverts, maybe coral and maybe the 2nd fish). Since I am getting them all from the same place and all at once, can I just put them all straight into my tank without quarantining? After this batch, I will definitely quarantine, just since is the first batch I don’t think it is necessary. What do you think?

 

[RobB'z Reef]

If you don't quarantine your first batch and they introduce what you're trying to avoid putting into your tank in the first place, your second batch quarantine effort may be for naught. Quarantine is of course a personal choice, but it you are going to do it at all I would quarantine literally everything or don't do it at all.

 

[LifeOfAquatics]

If you don't quarantine your first batch and they introduce what you're trying to avoid putting into your tank in the first place, your second batch quarantine effort may be for naught. Quarantine is of course a personal choice, but it you are going to do it at all I would quarantine literally everything or don't do it at all.

Just curious, how long should I quarantine fish, inverts, and corals for? And should I dose anything or should I just monitor them to make sure they are eating and are healthy?

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I guess I was just speaking to the fish. Some quarantine corals but I think the risk is pretty low there. Inverts somewhere in between. I haven't quarantined either of them typically. With those two you can't medicate for anything like ich or velvet which is mostly what you're trying to eradicate for the most part. If you want to qt those they'll have to go in a dedicated tank separate from your fish and wait 76 days (some will say less, 76 is typically thrown around but I think it can be less).

As for the fish you can medicate with chelated or ionic copper, I recommend chelated like copper power for 30 days at medicate levels. The other method is tank transfer which is labor intensive but requires no medications beyond an optional use of hydrogen peroxide (hybrid tank transfer) and you can get that done in 13 days. For that matter you could tank transfer your inverts just like the fish if your risk tolerance is super low.

Doing nothing other than a 30 day observation is also an option but you're rolling the dice a bit more with the fish assuming something will crop up in that time period without proactively medicating.

 

[DeniseAndy]

If you want to set up a clean tank, and you are filling a 5g, look into @Biota_Marine . They are captive bred and have a variety of animals that will work in the system. Fish, inverts, corals. Then, no need to qt anything. I would even suggest starting with live rock from a trusted supplier or cure it for a couple months then begin the tank. JMO

I will be starting my traveling tank back soon and it will be almost completely biota animals. Except what I contribute from home. Super excited to get it going again. It is a 6g.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Quarantining a fish allows the fish to de-stress and for you to have the fish adjust to your parameters, your food while providing it a safe place for it to thrive away from more aggressive and established tank mates who can out compete it for food. Putting a fish directly into your display puts the fish into more stress after being netted at store or from shipment and added stress events leads to the reason why we quarantine our fish.
A fish’s immune system should be able to fight off more infections and diseases, however the shock of transportation compromises your fish’s immune system leaving it vulnerable to any disease that gets shipped with it. Some of these diseases when they break out can be so deadly, they can wipe our your tank within days. So what are these deadly diseases? Well, I will tell you right now it’s not ich. Ich is child’s play compared to these three below and they are becoming more and more common in the fish supply chain:
= Brooklynella (Brook)
- Marine Velvet
- Uronema

Best of all is that quarantining is cheap and easy to set up . there are many methods of quarantinINg such as :
Copper
Copper power
Ruby rally Pro
General Cure
Prazi
Chloroquine Phosphate
Hyposalinity
Tank transfer method

Whichever method you choose, be sure to monitor QT regularly and if copper - HAVE A GOOD COPPER TEST KIT

 

[LifeOfAquatics]

I guess I was just speaking to the fish. Some quarantine corals but I think the risk is pretty low there. Inverts somewhere in between. I haven't quarantined either of them typically. With those two you can't medicate for anything like ich or velvet which is mostly what you're trying to eradicate for the most part. If you want to qt those they'll have to go in a dedicated tank separate from your fish and wait 76 days (some will say less, 76 is typically thrown around but I think it can be less).

As for the fish you can medicate with chelated or ionic copper, I recommend chelated like copper power for 30 days at medicate levels. The other method is tank transfer which is labor intensive but requires no medications beyond an optional use of hydrogen peroxide (hybrid tank transfer) and you can get that done in 13 days. For that matter you could tank transfer your inverts just like the fish if your risk tolerance is super low.

Doing nothing other than a 30 day observation is also an option but you're rolling the dice a bit more with the fish assuming something will crop up in that time period without proactively medicating.

would half dose cupramine work for 14 days i believe and then the other 16 days just monitoring?

 

[LifeOfAquatics]

I guess I was just speaking to the fish. Some quarantine corals but I think the risk is pretty low there. Inverts somewhere in between. I haven't quarantined either of them typically. With those two you can't medicate for anything like ich or velvet which is mostly what you're trying to eradicate for the most part. If you want to qt those they'll have to go in a dedicated tank separate from your fish and wait 76 days (some will say less, 76 is typically thrown around but I think it can be less).

As for the fish you can medicate with chelated or ionic copper, I recommend chelated like copper power for 30 days at medicate levels. The other method is tank transfer which is labor intensive but requires no medications beyond an optional use of hydrogen peroxide (hybrid tank transfer) and you can get that done in 13 days. For that matter you could tank transfer your inverts just like the fish if your risk tolerance is super low.

Doing nothing other than a 30 day observation is also an option but you're rolling the dice a bit more with the fish assuming something will crop up in that time period without proactively medicating.

would half dose cupramine work for 14 days i believe and then the other 16 days just monitoring?

EDIT: didn't mean to reply twice

 

[LifeOfAquatics]

Quarantining a fish allows the fish to de-stress and for you to have the fish adjust to your parameters, your food while providing it a safe place for it to thrive away from more aggressive and established tank mates who can out compete it for food. Putting a fish directly into your display puts the fish into more stress after being netted at store or from shipment and added stress events leads to the reason why we quarantine our fish.
A fish’s immune system should be able to fight off more infections and diseases, however the shock of transportation compromises your fish’s immune system leaving it vulnerable to any disease that gets shipped with it. Some of these diseases when they break out can be so deadly, they can wipe our your tank within days. So what are these deadly diseases? Well, I will tell you right now it’s not ich. Ich is child’s play compared to these three below and they are becoming more and more common in the fish supply chain:
= Brooklynella (Brook)
- Marine Velvet
- Uronema

Best of all is that quarantining is cheap and easy to set up . there are many methods of quarantinINg such as :
Copper
Copper power
Ruby rally Pro
General Cure
Prazi
Chloroquine Phosphate
Hyposalinity
Tank transfer method

Whichever method you choose, be sure to monitor QT regularly and if copper - HAVE A GOOD COPPER TEST KIT

would half dose cupramine work for 14 days i believe and then the other 16 days just monitoring?

 

[vetteguy53081]

would half dose cupramine work for 14 days i believe and then the other 16 days just monitoring?

Go at least 60% and monitor at least every other day. Over cupramine, I prefer copper power.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

would half dose cupramine work for 14 days i believe and then the other 16 days just monitoring?

That would work, by half dose you mean two weeks right? I've never used ionic so I'm not sure what the dosage should be. It's 2.25-2.5 ppm for copper power. Regardless always dose to fill medicated levels for the entire duration. Going 14 days under that and transferring to a separate clean tank is very much an option.

 

[LifeOfAquatics]

That would work, by half dose you mean two weeks right? I've never used ionic so I'm not sure what the dosage should be. It's 2.25-2.5 ppm for copper power. Regardless always dose to fill medicated levels for the entire duration. Going 14 days under that and transferring to a separate clean tank is very much an option.

no i mean like if the recommended is say 2 ml per week, i would use 1 ml per week. i have used ionic either lol. what do you mean "Regardless always dose to fill medicated levels for the entire duration. Going 14 days under that and transferring to a separate clean tank is very much an option." ?

 

[Surf985]

Not sure if you already tried something, but I think the advice really comes down to this:

Fish are best assumed diseased.
Corals are best assumed to have killer pests.
Inverts (Crabs, Shrimp, etc.) are typically ok, though observation is really best practice.

So...Basically, anyone credible essentially has to say QT, maybe medicate, and dip corals. And that's good advice - most of us don't get to go long before something happens that proves this advice good.

I think you have an interesting question that I don't think got answered though: If they come from the same place, does this logic apply? Yes. Still assume something is plotting to murder your purchases.

In the nano, you really don't likely need to QT extensively for observation purposes. In a large system, you're impacting a much larger ecosystem and many fish. In a nano with just 2, your main concern is really disease (with clowns: brook, ich, velvet, etc.). My advice for a more "practical" approach is probably to get a small QT tank. I had much better success treating all my new fish with prazipro and methylene blue, even if it was just a few days.

For coral, you can usually get a dip packet for pretty cheap (a few dollars, maybe). It's worth it. Even if they're from the same vendor, dip all of them.