Treat my "healthy" fish before moving them to new system?

[MaryL]

Hey all. Long time lurker/first time poster here.

I've recently moved and have 9 fish in a holding tank waiting for delivery of a new custom 225g. All these guys have been with me for about a year and have always looked perfectly healthy. Everyone has been through multiple rounds of Prazi and General Cure, but nothing for Ich or Velvet (except the Yellow Tang, who had velvet when I got him and was treated with Ick Shield in QT).

I want my new system to be clean and am setting up a copper based QT protocol for any new fish. My question for you is should I run these healthy fish I already have through copper (or TTM) before I add them? I really don't want to stress or harm them unnecessarily. Also I'll admit I don't really want to make a bunch of extra work for myself. Wouldn't ich have shown some sign of being present by now? I don't know. What would you do?

 

[Dr. Reef]

not really, sometimes parasites can sit dormant for many many months or even years before showing up or sometimes fish can develop temp immunity and live with it till an outbreak happens.
What type of fish are you holding for 1 year

 

[MaryL]

Thanks for the reply! The fish came from my previous 125 that I took down when we moved. They are lyretails, chromis, clowns, orchid dottyback, a flame angel and a yellow tang.

So I should do something before I put them into the display. Can Velvet be dormant or asymptomatic in a fish like Ich can? If so, I guess it's copper for them. Ugh. I hate to put them through that when they've been doing fine for so long.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Welcome aboard!

I would treat the existing fish, no doubt about it.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Cha-CHING$... Looks like Hanna has just sold another Copper Checker! I agree— you’ve come this far, run the copper and complete your peace of mind. With the Checker you can use CopperSafe... thought to be a bit more gentle. Best wishes.

 

[MaryL]

Lol yes I have already ordered the Hanna checker. Any future fish are getting copper. Which I guess would be for nothing if I didn't do it with the old fish first.

Anyone know if Marine Pure absorbs copper?

 

[JumboShrimp]

My guess would be ‘it does,’ similar to rock— maybe even more efficiently. This might go against the norm, but personally, with a Hanna Checker I have used a few pieces of rock in my hospital tank many, many times. You just can’t use it anywhere else (like your DT) where you don’t want copper leaching out.