Quarantine info

C

Critter9905

I'm new to quarantines so any info is appreciated.
I have a 55 gallon that I set up as a quarantine tank.
Its fully cycled and currently houses two damsels, several blue leg crabs, as well as some junk corals I don't care about...
My qt question is:
I'm currently qt-Ing an Achilles Tang.
How long should he stay there until introducing him to my display? Should I do anything special? Just wait?????
No signs of ich or parasites, but I'm hesitant.
I want to at least wait for him to not be so skiddish of me walking up to the tank, and I want him to aggressively get food.
He's seemingly healthy, eating brine, mysis and nori.
Thanks in advance
 
Most of the time, it's recommended that you keep them in quarantine for 4 weeks. If my fish are eating and there is no sign of ich or parasites I do 3 weeks. One thing you want to be careful of is if you have to dose copper for ich,(I use Cupramine) you'll need to remove the inverts and coral from your QT tank. The copper treatment will kill them.
 
I'm jealous, pics please sir. I'd say 3 weeks is a good time, really just depends on the fish and how it's eating/acting. Very nice addition.
 
I can't load pics from my phone... I don't think....
I can email you a pic tomorrow tho when the lights are on. He's a juvi, but looks beautiful!

Mike, I don't PLAN on using copper, or any other medication, just lower salinity if needed and let whatever happens happen, just not in my display.
All looks good so far tho.
 
Achilles Tangs are beautiful fish. They can be a bit tricky to keep. I can remember when you could pick one up for $50. Not anymore.
 
You're doing the right thing by quarantining. A lot of people don't and come to regret it later.
 
I'm one of those people. When I first got into saltwater, my lfs never gave any true help, just false information. I lost a LOT of livestock thanks to them.

Thanks to this club, I've learned better.
I'm doing this one right, the best I can anyway...
 
My wife and I have been in the hobby since the late eighties. We were young and impatient and didn't quarantine. I lost a number of very valuable fish due to ich outbreaks. I left the hobby in 2003 when I was transferred to DFW from Ohio. We didn't get back into it until last year, after a trip to Maui. We promised ourselves that this time we would do it right and quarantine any new fish. We've stuck to that and have had great success.
 
Great size setup and kudos for thinking ahead.

Personally, I would wait 6 weeks or longer on a fish that is prone to ich. My decisions are also based on where they came from (I.e. straight from distributor, tank from someone I know, lfs, etc.).

My concern with ich is the fish could have it internally with no visible signs for a while. Longer time in qt will give you a chance to look for it if it is hidden and for it to become apparent. I rushed a PBT through once after just 3 or 4 weeks and learned that lesson.

If the fish is skittish or thin it will give it a good chance to fatten up and get used to tank life.

I think you'd be okay with the longer timeframe given you have a full reef for qt as opposed to a bare bones setup if you are willing to wait that long.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SIII
 
I can wait. No issue there.
However......say I want to buy another fish. Then what. Add it to the qt tank? Does the Achilles then have to wait another full 6 weeks?
I think I know the answer, don't buy another fish til qt is done, but figure I'll ask anyway!
 
Its my understanding that each new addition to a QT tank starts the QT "cycle" over. The new addition can carry in pests and infect the other fish. When I QT, I never add new fish to the QT tank until its residents have arrived to the DT. When I did when I initially stocked the tank with the first addition of fish, I restarted the QT clock.
 
Yup, adding another fish restarts the clock. It can be hard to be patient as you add them slowly but, in your case, you've got a good sized reef QT so you could add a few fish in there at once and then run them through all at the same time.
 
So I know tangs especially have a tendency to carry and break out in ich. Two questions:

1) When QTing these fish, would it hurt anything to treat with copper just as a preemptive measure?

2) If they've been treated with copper and QT'd for 4-6 weeks with no signs of ich and they are truly ich free, is it possible for it to still show up from them? I mean, Ich is a parasite and can't just appear from nothing right?(sorry if that's a dumb question I just see people say to NOT get a powder blue or similar tangs because they ALWAYS break out in ich but if treated that shouldnt' be the case right?)
 
I can't speak from experience on the copper, but I know several people QT with cupramine. You may look into that if no one responds to that part of your question.
As for the ich, my Achilles was in QT for exactly 6 weeks to the day. I caught him and drip acclipated him to my display tank. Once in the display, he had small white dots on his pectoral fins. I was terrified, but they were gone the next day. I just added a foxface to my display last week and the Achilles had the same white dots on him. I assume it's just from the stress. I don't know if it's the ich or just how he reacts to stress. He was 100% ich free in my QT and nothing in my display has had ich for over a year.
Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in here?
 
I run all my fish* through cupramine in QT without a problem. If you are going to do it, it really is only useful if you do it from the beginning. Lets say you had 4 fish in your tank that have never shown signs of ICK but were never treated with copper. You then buy a new tang, treat him with copper in your QT, and then add him to your display. While you may have cilled off any ICK that he came with, it is my understanding that it is still possible that the untreated fish in your tank are ICK carriers that have never shown any signs. They could then pass the ICK along to your new tang, making the copper treatment you put him through pointless. On the other hand, the prior fish could be clean, in which case the treatment would prevent it from entering the tank on the new fish.

*I actually have 1 tank that has untreated fish because they are mated pairs (banggia carddnial pair and clown pair). Because copper can be harsh, I didn't want to take fish through it that may be breeders at some point,
 
i do not believe there are any truly long term studies on the effects of copper on tangs. I've read where people say it can shorten their lifespan or mess with their digestive systems. That said, my personal experience with Curpramine is that it works and works well if you maintain the correct therapeutic level for the prescribed time.

My personal opinion is that if you have QTed all your fish from the start and are religious about QT for any additions to your system, you can prevent Marine Ich from entering your system. The problem I think we all have is that it is too tempting at times to just add stuff and hope everything works out okay be it coral, clean-up crew, macroalgae, or anything else that can harbor parasites.

I am done adding fish to my system but if I were to do it over again for a new system with tangs I would run all the fish through Cupramine as a preventative measure. The Cupramine could also help keep other diseases and parasites out. My prior method was simply observation over a 8 week period and treatment as needed. As Titus noted, however, they can carry it internally and not show signs. I ended up rushing a Power Blue through after only 3 weeks as a shipment with an Aussie Dussemieri came in and I paid the price as I got MI in my system and all my tangs (Powder Blue, Blue Hippo, Purple, and Dussemieri) got infected.

I had to then catch all my fish out of an active reef (3 day process), expand my QT from 40 gallons to 80 gallons (tied a second 40B in to the existing 40B), treat with Cupramine, and leave the display fallow for 12 weeks. All the fish were then returned to the display tank and have been there without incident for a while now.

Even though I am done adding fish, I am upgrading and resetting my QT so that it will be running as a mini-reef for the purposes of QTing corals, clean-up crew, other inverts, and anything else that I may want to add and I can use it as a grow-out frag tank. Having "been there, done that" with pulling all the fish out has reinforced resisting the urge to rush and add anything that could introduce MI to my system.
 
Thank you for the replies. I had an Ich breakout and lost many fish because of it. The 3 fish that I was able to get out of the DT have been in QT for 9 weeks now and they will not return to the DT until 12 weeks have passed to allow the DT to be clean of the parasite. The fish in the QT have been treated with Cupramine even though only 2 of them showed signs.

The reason I ask this is that I am assuming after I return my fish to the DT, it and all 3 fish will be 100% ich free and I don't want to risk it getting back in. I will NEVER add another fish prior to a minimum of 4 week QT and plan to treat with Cupramine starting week 2 of the QT process as a preemptive attack. My primary question/concern is that if I get another Power Blue(what took my tank down w/o QTing which I knew better) and treat it with Cupramine and QT it for 6 weeks is there still a chance that said tang has and can infect my tank with Ich?
 
You should be safe with what you are planning. That is assuming the copper levels are maintained the entire time. What I did when I did water changes, for example, was to dose the NSW with the appropriate amount of copper to ensure I was not lowering the copper levels when I did a water change on the QT. You can run Cupramine longer if needed with the PBT to ensure the Cupramine does its job. 2 weeks should be enough time to let any Ich fall off the fish but 3 weeks wouldn't hurt to be sure. I moved my fish back to the display by matching the parameters of the QT with the display and literally took the fish out of Cupramine water and plopped them into the display.

If you have a second QT system, you could move him there for observation while you wait out the remainder of the 12 weeks too.
 
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