To Fallow or not to Fallow

[MrDellimore]

Hi all,

I have a fairly new 180G tank setup that I probably stocked way too fast and did not have a QT process. I cycled the tank for two weeks and then added 6 fish about 2 weeks apart. I tried to find a reliable LFS to purchase my fish from, but after 2 months I have had some losses.

1 onyx clown - Alive and Well
1 tailspot blenny - Alive and Well
1 yellow coris wrasse - Alive and Well

1 Royal Gramma
- Died after about 2 weeks. It stopped eating and its tail looked like it had bites. I noticed the Onyx Clown being aggressive towards it

1 smaller ocellaris
- Died after about 30 days. Happened over night and looked healthy the night before actively feeding and swimming. I think it was stress from Onyx clown

1 Solar Wrasse - Died after 2 months. This is the most concerning to me because there was no aggression towards the fish, it was eating and swimming very actively. I woke up one morning and just found it dead. I did add a sea urchin to the tank that died so maybe there was an ammonia spike. When I tested for ammonia the levels were already low again.


With the death of the Solar Wrasse I have pumped the brakes on adding anything to the tank. My concern now is that maybe there was some sort of disease killing these fish. I am pretty new to the hobby, but I haven't seen any signs in their behavior. No white spots, not swimming into flow or rocks, actively eating and swimming.

After researching more and scared from horror stories, I purchased a QT tank for any future additions. Moving forward I plan to be very diligent, but I don't know if i should be going Fallow or not. The three remaining fish seem fine and i feel like pulling them out and putting all 3 in a 20G with copper might stress them our even further. Also the added complexities of maintaining a bioload for 76+ days in a fishless tank is something I would prefer to avoid if i can.

When speaking to my LFS they are way more relaxed about the deaths compared to me who named these fish and really feel bad for not having a proper system. So I am hoping to get more advise on if fallow is needed in my case or if there really could be some disease in my tank with all the fish look healthy. The losses in my tank were all very sudden and I have never seen white spots or signs of disease.

Fallow or not to Fallow?

 

[DeniseAndy]

I chose to go fallow to be safe. I now put all my fish (except known sourced captive bred) into QT and go through a full protocol of drugs. I do not use copper, but other methods.
Personally, if you want other fish, go fallow and then make sure to qt everything.
Some go with the immunity method and you can try that too. I have seen too much death for that method. I hate risking my captive bred babies.

 

[MrDellimore]

Even if there is no sign of disease I should treat the fish and go fallow anyway?

 

[Big G]

Even if there is no sign of disease I should treat the fish and go fallow anyway?

My Current QT Process

UPDATE, 10/9/22: For those looking for quarantine information, our current process is kept updated on the first page of this thread (post any questions at the end of the thread). https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/ Thanks, Jay Hemdal I am frequently...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Cell]

I would not go fallow without a good reason, a few mysterious fish deaths over the course of several mo is not good enough reason unless you had some other visual evidence to confirm a diagnosis.

 

[Williamson’s Reef]

Even if there is no sign of disease I should treat the fish and go fallow anyway?

Yes. It will save what you have for the long haul. And put everything from this point on through Qt.

 

[MrDellimore]

I watched a video with @Humblefish talkinf about how black Molly’s acclimated to sale water would be a good indicator of if there is a parasite in the water.

Being that my fish aren’t showing signs would this be a solid method of determining if I should fallow or is there any other way of determining?

 

[Cell]

Curious what @HotRocks and/or @4FordFamily opinion on this would be.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I think it is up to you. Even if fish show no signs they can be hosts and have latent disease. This happened to me when my fish were stressed from a tank move. Lost almost all of them and had them all for years. with no issues and no new things added. Really sucked.

 

[Shift]

List your pros and cons and see if it's worth the gamble to you.
A pro is you can feel 99% confident your system is clean for now and won't come back to bite you later. Which is great as long as you keep to a strict quarantine process going forward. Which means quarantine everything, fish, inverts, coral. Great in theory but not many people can/will. Everything you add is a gamble and has the potential to introduce bad things. The level of risk mitigation is completely up to personal preference.
If it were me I would personally probably accept the risk, not add anything else for a while and observe. And probably get rid of the onyx clown, banish him to my sump or a nano.

 

[MrDellimore]

I think it is up to you. Even if fish show no signs they can be hosts and have latent disease. This happened to me when my fish were stressed from a tank move. Lost almost all of them and had them all for years. with no issues and no new things added. Really sucked.

Wow sorry you went through that. Thanks for sharing your experience. I didn’t know they can host without any visible signs.

 

[MrDellimore]

List your pros and cons and see if it's worth the gamble to you.
A pro is you can feel 99% confident your system is clean for now and won't come back to bite you later. Which is great as long as you keep to a strict quarantine process going forward. Which means quarantine everything, fish, inverts, coral. Great in theory but not many people can/will. Everything you add is a gamble and has the potential to introduce bad things. The level of risk mitigation is completely up to personal preference.
If it were me I would personally probably accept the risk, not add anything else for a while and observe. And probably get rid of the onyx clown, banish him to my sump or a nano.

Hahahah banishing him is def something I have been considering, but I am a restorative justice type. Maybe onyx will change his ways with new tank mates

Thanks for helping me understand the risks a bit better. There is a lot of research and observation I need to do I guess.

this hobby can be so difficult at times because there are so many different paths and opinions on what is needed or not. I guess part of learning in this hobby is finding my own individual method and learning from others.

 

[Shift]

Changing his ways is unlikely, some fish are just pricks and will keep killing others off, another of the same breed could be a model citizen though. You just never know and is part of the hobby. I understand where you are probably coming from though, I don't like having to give up fish from my display either.
Beautiful fish, would be great in a pair in a nano with a nem.
Whatever you decide I wish you years of success.