So I recently purchased a koi tang from my local fish store. I brought it home and introduced it in to my 310 reef tank which had pretty much all my fish I have had for the last three years disease free. I did not quarantine him and added him in without hesitation. After two weeks he developed minor velvet signs. I quickly set up a 30 gallon quarantine tank thanks to my LFS and after a brief struggle got him in the quarantine tank. A few days later all my fish had the dreaded velvet parasites. All my fish consisted of Naso tang, Unicorn tang, Foxface Rabbit fish which are all about 6+inches. Also a star blenny, three anthias and two blue chromis. All the fish I’ve had for at least three years. I caught all the larger fish and added them to the quarantine tank. I’ve been treating them with copper power and seems to be working well. The bad side is that I have been unsuccessful catching the smaller fish over the last few days. My blenny anthias are all now KIA and my blue Chromis seem un-effected.
The moral of this post is more to promote a quarantine system for anyone who is in the hobby and doesn’t have one or is not sure weather or not to set up one. I’ve been in this hobby for 15 years off and on and have never had one. I now will never add anything in my system without a quarantine for at least 4 weeks. I treat my fish as if they are part of the family and all my kids are part of the hobby in keeping up with our reef tank. This as been a huge learning process that I have never had to deal with in all my reefing years.
The moral of this post is more to promote a quarantine system for anyone who is in the hobby and doesn’t have one or is not sure weather or not to set up one. I’ve been in this hobby for 15 years off and on and have never had one. I now will never add anything in my system without a quarantine for at least 4 weeks. I treat my fish as if they are part of the family and all my kids are part of the hobby in keeping up with our reef tank. This as been a huge learning process that I have never had to deal with in all my reefing years.