Claude Rhone
New Member
In the past we mostly had corals with just a few fish. (3 fish in a 90 gal). And we have had s variety of setups over the years. Currently have a 20 gallon cube with built in filtration and lighting. It has a royal gramma, 5 or more years old. We recently added a file fish (5 weeks ?), and all is well.
We have not previously used a quarantine system. Just have been lucky I guess.
All of the above is just a little history, the problem begins below.
We had a fishless 50 gallon cube that pretty much degraded to live rock and sand, and algae. We decided to break it down, and in the process could not bring ourselves to just throw the rock and sand away. So we scrubbed the rock and set up a new 60 gallon. We transferred some frags into it (a couple of leathers and some green polyps). Added cleanup crew (snails and crabs), in tank refugium with copepods and sea lettuce, reef octopus hang on skimmer, water parameters good. Stocked the tank with a variety of small fish. Now I have learned the hard way, why it is necessary to quarantine fish. Pretty sure we have Brook, and quite possibly other parasites in the tank, as we also observed some white stringy poop.
Currently surviving are a pair of Bangais, a striped blenny, and a scooter blenny.
The 50 gallon cube has been cleaned out, and is fixing to be the new home for the cichlids living in a 20 gallon. The 20 gallon will become a hospital tank, and in the future a quarantine tank for salt water. I should be able to make the transfers today.
A big question is how am I going to be able to keep the scooter alive in quarantine for 8 weeks. It doesn't eat frozen foods, it just constantly patrols the rock in search of pods and such. I am afraid that quarantine will be a death sentence for this species.
I understand that the tank has to go 8 weeks fishless to eradicate the parasites. And then anything entering the tank has to go through a quarantine process.
We have not previously used a quarantine system. Just have been lucky I guess.
All of the above is just a little history, the problem begins below.
We had a fishless 50 gallon cube that pretty much degraded to live rock and sand, and algae. We decided to break it down, and in the process could not bring ourselves to just throw the rock and sand away. So we scrubbed the rock and set up a new 60 gallon. We transferred some frags into it (a couple of leathers and some green polyps). Added cleanup crew (snails and crabs), in tank refugium with copepods and sea lettuce, reef octopus hang on skimmer, water parameters good. Stocked the tank with a variety of small fish. Now I have learned the hard way, why it is necessary to quarantine fish. Pretty sure we have Brook, and quite possibly other parasites in the tank, as we also observed some white stringy poop.
Currently surviving are a pair of Bangais, a striped blenny, and a scooter blenny.
The 50 gallon cube has been cleaned out, and is fixing to be the new home for the cichlids living in a 20 gallon. The 20 gallon will become a hospital tank, and in the future a quarantine tank for salt water. I should be able to make the transfers today.
A big question is how am I going to be able to keep the scooter alive in quarantine for 8 weeks. It doesn't eat frozen foods, it just constantly patrols the rock in search of pods and such. I am afraid that quarantine will be a death sentence for this species.
I understand that the tank has to go 8 weeks fishless to eradicate the parasites. And then anything entering the tank has to go through a quarantine process.
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