Quarantining freshwater crustaceans?

[Reefmonkey]

When I quarantie fish before putting them into my main tank, I treat them prophylacticly with QuICKCure. I'd like to use a similar prophylactic treatment on crustaceans like river shrimp, crayfish, etc, but am not sure what treatments are safe on them. Any suggestions?

[toddnbecka]

Anything that will kill parasites will likely kill inverts as well.

[Zagz]

Agreed, inverts are sensitive to most medications.

[Purrbox]

I would avoid using medications with inverts. Anything containing copper could easily kill them. I haven't heard about the smaller shrimp actually carrying any deseases, although I'm not sure if this would hold true for the larger inverts as well.

[Reefmonkey]

Any suggestions, then, on how to better ensure that the inverts we introduce into our tanks are not going to have hitchhikers? There is a real possibility that an infection which is asymptomatic in an invert could be zoonotic, and devastating to a fish. Simply quarantining the crayfish to see if it comes down with anything might not be enough.

[mattrox]

If you have a qt that is up and running, presumably there would be some sort of fish in it to keep it cycled. If those fish die then that might be the canary in the coal mine.

[Phoenixphire55]

This may sound intense, but if you're comfortable picking up your crayfish you can manually check its underside and swimmerets for hitch-hiking parasites and pick them off. Mine had a couple little white worm things on her leg area and I was able to just pick them off.

[Phoenixphire55]

Actually, maybe you should just give the crayfish (or shrimp?) their own tank. They will definitely try to eat the other fish, and if they catch any, they're gone. Mine ate a fiddler crab and a fellow crayfish in one day, so they're pretty voracious.

[Reefmonkey]

Originally Posted by mattrox

If you have a qt that is up and running, presumably there would be some sort of fish in it to keep it cycled. If those fish die then that might be the canary in the coal mine.

That's a good idea, but no, I don't keep a QT up and running. When I get a new acquisition, I siphon off water from my established tank into a bare 10 gallon that is usually in storage. I might think about putting in a couple of feeder guppies that I buy when I would buy the invert, but of course, they might just have their own illness the bring in.

[Reefmonkey]

Originally Posted by Phoenixphire55

Actually, maybe you should just give the crayfish (or shrimp?) their own tank. They will definitely try to eat the other fish, and if they catch any, they're gone. Mine ate a fiddler crab and a fellow crayfish in one day, so they're pretty voracious.

this is a hypothetical question, I am not planning to get anything anytime soon. I would agree with you on the separate tank for the voracious crayfish, but what about gabon river shrimp (not voracious), or for that matter all the snails that people like to put into their tanks? Certainly not voracious, and I don't think there are many people who would set up a "snail-only" tank.

[Reefmonkey]

Originally Posted by Phoenixphire55

This may sound intense, but if you're comfortable picking up your crayfish you can manually check its underside and swimmerets for hitch-hiking parasites and pick them off. Mine had a couple little white worm things on her leg area and I was able to just pick them off.

That'll work for ectoparasites that are big enough to be visible to the naked eye, but nothing else.