Quarantine....agressive or not?

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Kimlafeiet

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Dec 22, 2012
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Hey all,
My tank is coming close to the end of cycling, so I am now in the process of begining my stock search.
My first fish will be a pair of occellaris clowns. I set up my QT tank today, and have done a lot of research on quarantine this last few days.
My question is, is it better to go with a watch and treat if needed approach, or a more agressive approach, beginning with hyposalinity, and a general internal parasite treatment with something like prazipro?
My boss is currently battling a nasty case of marine ich brought on by a stressed fish from shipping and no qt. Now he is in a tough spot with his corals and inverts, and almost all of his fish have signs of it. I have no desire to go down that same path :(
The clowns I am getting have been in the same tank at my LFS for over 3 weeks now, and are on hold for me. I have been in there several times to look at them, and they seem happy and disease free, but I still plan to QT, I am just not sure what the best approach is. These guys dont scare me as much because I have been watching them in the same tank in good health (the lfs says they have not inrotduced any other fish to thier tank, but who knows how true that is or not), but I am thinking more in the future when I get fish I have no known history of.
What does everyone else do for QT and what are your thoughts on agressive qt and hyposalinity?
Sorry so long winded, I am getting super excited as my tank gets further along! ***squeee***
 
You will get a number of different opinions on this matter. I'm the type who would rather put the fish through as little stress as possible, so I don't treat (chemical or hypo) unless there's a problem, but I'll also leave them in QT for a little longer than average..... usually around 2 months. The only fish I would go against my own advice would be tangs since they are so susceptible to ich. I'd recommend treating them as if they have it, whether you see it or not.
 
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No tangs for me, my DT is only 37 gallons :)
Are there any other fish that are known to be more prone to illness that I should consider higher risk? I dont have a firm stocking list in place, but I do know I will be going with tank appropriate size fish that are reef safe and more on the peaceful side.
 
Hyposalinity is pretty stress free for fish. I would just start them out with that and go from there. I would however skip the medications.
 
I agree with as little stress a possible. I had a LFS owner explain ich is like the common cold as it's always around. Stress will bring it on due to the immune system being compromised. In the case of a fish store that is true. I've had ich in my system two times, both times I used Garlic Extreme to quell the outbreak.

I do quarantine a sick or injured fish if I can catch it. The problem with quarantine is the ich is in the system so treating a affected fish is not fixing the problem. A fish can carry ish and show no signs thus infecting other fish. I have never lost a fish to marine ich with this method and I have four tangs. It maybe my water chemistry but it's what worked for me. If if see a fish flash I use garlic on the nori. If I see any spots I use it In in the tank. Two days on, one day off, if I can smell garlic then a water change. Start over.

IMO once you beat ich in your system your good to go unless you add a very sick fish. My standard practice is to ask to see any fish I'm interested in to see it eat. A fish not eating is a problem.
 
Ive done some research on marine ich, and have had to treat an outbreak of ich in my freshwater tank once (totally different than marine ich, I know) but......does everyones tank have the actual ich protazoa from the get go? Say, a new tank that has never had any fish in it? I guess what I wonder is, if an established fish in your tank gets stressed for whatever reason, and your tank has never had any kind of outbreak or exposure (meaning you have never had ich in your tank before), can the fish still get ich? I know its a protazoa, but if has never been intoduced to the system, would it still be in there? So, like a common cold, if you expose yourself to it, you could catch it, but if you never have exposure to it, the chances of you catching that cold are not very high. Did that even make sense, lol?
 
Thanks Mebbid, I think I might consider going with a beggining hyposalinity for new qt fish if this doesnt seem to be a big stressor for the fish, I have always been one to not treat unless infected with my fish, but since marine is all new to me, I want to make sure I am doing the best for my future finned friends :)

What is the "standard" SG for hyposalinity? I have read anywhere from 1.010 to 1.018. Does anyone know what common practice is for this?
 
Ive done some research on marine ich, and have had to treat an outbreak of ich in my freshwater tank once (totally different than marine ich, I know) but......does everyones tank have the actual ich protazoa from the get go? Say, a new tank that has never had any fish in it? I guess what I wonder is, if an established fish in your tank gets stressed for whatever reason, and your tank has never had any kind of outbreak or exposure (meaning you have never had ich in your tank before), can the fish still get ich? I know its a protazoa, but if has never been intoduced to the system, would it still be in there? So, like a common cold, if you expose yourself to it, you could catch it, but if you never have exposure to it, the chances of you catching that cold are not very high. Did that even make sense, lol?

No, if Ich has never been introduced into your system then it isn't present in your tank and no fish will ever catch it no matter how much stress they go through. It is true that ich will usually infect the gills of fish before anything else so it's very possible for a new fish to bring in ich without any visible symptoms. However, if ich is in your tank it will stay there for a long long long time unless you take measures to fix it such as hyposlinity treating all the fish and leaving the tank fallow.

I would like to add that garlic isn't a proven method for treating ich. It can be useful for internal parasites but beyond that its properties are minimal at best. Aquarium companies have jumped on the garlic bandwagon and touted garlic as a magic cure all for just about every ailment known to fish kind due to a single popular aquarist suggesting that it is possibly helpful in eliminating internal parasites.
 
Ok, so, of course my hope is to never introduce ich (or any other parasites/diseases) into my DT, which could be possible with proper qt. It sounds more and more like hyposalinity qt might be the way to go for this.
 
I never quarantined and ended up with ich and eventually ended up with other diseases in my tank that caused me to lose some fish. I'd fight the ich by keeping my fish healthy and most wouldn't show any signs of it but one tiny thing stresses the fish out and they are suddenly covered with ich. I had read and read a lot of different things and decided to stop trying to just beat ich with good feedings and crap. Anyways I finally got a qt tank and left my main tank empty for 11 weeks.. recommended time is 9 but I did a couple extra. Finally get to put my fish back Thursday! I went ahead and treated for everything. There's some sicknesses that don't show up until its too late.. I used Maricyn plus, prazi pro and cupramine. But I just did a half dose one day and the other half the next. And the cupramine I did half doses to get the copper level up to .50 over a few days and my fish didn't seem to stress at all. I've got a scopas tang and two clowns. My other 3 tangs and cardinal are in my 55 gallon reef now waiting to be treated and put back into the 120 gallon.
Anyways I think preventative treating is good because I've had fish that didn't show sickness until after having them a month and then it was too late. Doing half doses at a time seemed to work for me and didn't seem to stress my fish out.
 
Yup, I think I am getting to where my cycle is almost ready for first livestock... too. This is a great question (one I was going to ask myself and now don't need to), thanks Kimlafeiet!
 
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