What’s the next quarantine step

[DEE’S reef]

So I’ve had my fish in quarantine for a month 2 weeks of watching 2 weeks dosing formalin as medication now I’m doing a 50% water change and adding carbon then I watching them for a week does that sound right or is there anything I missed or should add to my quarantine process.
Also the fish in quarantine a small percula clown fish and a small yellow watchman gobie.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So I’ve had my fish in quarantine for a month 2 weeks of watching 2 weeks dosing formalin as medication now I’m doing a 50% water change and adding carbon then I watching them for a week does that sound right or is there anything I missed or should add to my quarantine process.
Also the fish in quarantine a small percula clown fish and a small yellow watchman gobie.

What was your formalin dose in ppm? How many times did you dose it?

I generally don’t recommend using formalin as a quarantine medication; it has human health concerns and needs to be used at different time/concentration doses depending on the disease organism being targeted.

I keep my updated quarantine process here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/

 

[DEE’S reef]

So I added it to the tank and add 1ml a day for 14 days

 

[DEE’S reef]

That seems to be the amount I saw when looking at dosing formalin

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So I added it to the tank and add 1ml a day for 14 days

What size tank is it?

 

[DEE’S reef]

It’s a 10 gallon

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

What size tank is it?

That works out to be a 25 ppm dose. That is typical for protozoans, but won't work against flukes. Here is the issue though - that dose of formalin is only active against one life stage of the common protozoan disease, ich. It doesn't affect the resting stage. That resting stage can remain active for longer than 2 weeks, so it can skate through a treatment like this.

Sorry, but you got some bad information about using that for quarantine.....

 

[DEE’S reef]

It’s fine I was told to watch them for a week or 2 and see if I see any signs of anything if I don’t see anything I should be fine to add them to the tank. Does that sound right to you the fish have been quarantining for about a month.

 

[exnisstech]

It sounds like observation QT was recommended vs medicating in QT as Jay recommends. I would follow Jay's protocol if preventing disease is a concern. Many people do observation only including myself but there are risks involved. If i do observation only I like to keep fish isolated for minimum of 30 days usually 45. Treatment with copper in QT is highly recommended to help prevent disease from new additions.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

It’s fine I was told to watch them for a week or 2 and see if I see any signs of anything if I don’t see anything I should be fine to add them to the tank. Does that sound right to you the fish have been quarantining for about a month.

Those are fairly low risk fish. What is the relative value of the fish in the tank that they will be going into? One important aspect of a proactive quarantine is to protect those fish.

 

[DEE’S reef]

I don’t really know the value of the tank I just have a tang a clownfish and some clean up crew in the main tank

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I don’t really know the value of the tank I just have a tang a clownfish and some clean up crew in the main tank

No - I meant the relative value of the fish in the tank. If you have some expensive/cherished fish in your main tank, adding non-quarantined fish to that tank is more of a risk than if the main tank has few or no fish in it.

 

[DEE’S reef]

I don’t really know the value of the 2 fish I have in there but by rough estimate that fish store selling the fish that size I say 70$ clown and maybe 200 or slightly more for the tang so like 270$ of fish in my tank.

 

[DEE’S reef]

So @Jay Hemdal is there any signs are thing I should be looking closely for during this monitoring phase of my quarantine

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So @Jay Hemdal is there any signs are thing I should be looking closely for during this monitoring phase of my quarantine

The main disease symptoms that I watch for are:

1) Rapid breathing. This is a subjective measure, but if you count the gill beats of a fish in 15 seconds daily, you can see any increase.
2) Skin lesions - spots, white patches, tattered fins, etc.
3) Scratching, flashing or fin flicking. These can indicate flukes.
4) Change in the fish's feeding habits. I recently posted an article on that:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/relative-feeding-responses-in-fishes.1146254/

 

[DEE’S reef]

So I haven’t noticed anything like 2nd and third 4 thing yet

 

[Bronco765]

What size tank is it?

That works out to be a 25 ppm dose. That is typical for protozoans, but won't work against flukes. Here is the issue though - that dose of formalin is only active against one life stage of the common protozoan disease, ich. It doesn't affect the resting stage. That resting stage can remain active for longer than 2 weeks, so it can skate through a treatment like this.

Sorry, but you got some bad information about using that for quarantine.....

What is the formalin dose for flukes?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

What is the formalin dose for flukes?

I used to use 150 to 167 ppm for a 45 minute dip with GOOD aeration, and then move the fish into a tank that does NOT have flukes in it. There is a person out there who says to use 250 ppm. That's TOO high, that dose is only used for cold water marine fish....he over-extrapolated from that and applies it to tropical marine fish. Some fish do o.k. with that, but others show chronic and even acute damage from it.

Formalin does not kill fluke eggs at a dose that doesn't also kill fish, so you need to "dip and move" in order to get the fish away from the eggs.

I stopped using formalin due to human health issues.....

 

[Bronco765]

What is the formalin dose for flukes?

I used to use 150 to 167 ppm for a 45 minute dip with GOOD aeration, and then move the fish into a tank that does NOT have flukes in it. There is a person out there who says to use 250 ppm. That's TOO high, that dose is only used for cold water marine fish....he over-extrapolated from that and applies it to tropical marine fish. Some fish do o.k. with that, but others show chronic and even acute damage from it.

Formalin does not kill fluke eggs at a dose that doesn't also kill fish, so you need to "dip and move" in order to get the fish away from the eggs.

I stopped using formalin due to human health issues.....

Hyposalinity seems the best option but trying to find an accurate lab grade hydrometer is tough. I’m assuming if the salinity isn’t at or below the treatment level it won’t work?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hyposalinity seems the best option but trying to find an accurate lab grade hydrometer is tough. I’m assuming if the salinity isn’t at or below the treatment level it won’t work?

Correct - you need to be exactly at a specific gravity of 1.009, or a salinity of 12 ppt for this to work. Too low, and the fish can be harmed, too high and ich will make it through the process.

Finding a good way to measure that is a struggle now-a-days. Electronic meters are often "off" by too much. Dip and read hydrometers work well, but they need to be confirmed with a laboratory hydrometer (which I can no longer find!). Refractometers can work, but are difficult to read with the narrow accuracy needed, and then, they also need to be calibrated.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/measuring-salinity-specific-gravity-in-aquariums.867/