quarantine questions.

[Anthony.Luciano710]

ok so i have some questions about quarantine. now that im treating my tank for ich i need to start quarantining my stuff for ich. its going to still be in hypo salinity for another month but i would like to start doing research now. first question is, do i have to quarantine fish from live aquaria. i just read there quarantine thing under divers den and i seems pretty intense. it says they do multiple freshwater baths, then treat with medication, then do hypo salinity, then observe them until they are settled into the main fish system and then sold. so i was wondering since they go through that like months process with all those quarantine procedure, do i have to quarantine them when they come in the mail? my second question is. how do i quarantine inverts and coral because i know that they can carry parasites and stuff to. coral i know about dips and stuff but im more concerned about ich. they cant get it but someone said the ich can still live on the coral and inside the shell of a hermit crab or snail. how do i make sure its not reintroduced into my tank.

 

[jrobbins]

It's a good question. It makes sense that ich would/could be on a snails shell, but that stage of the ich cycle is pretty short. If you are really concerned you could put them in a qt tank with a uv running for a week I guess.

And fish from live aquaria also need to be qt'd. If you don't do it for all your fish it doesn't really make sense to do it at all.

Just remember a qt is for observation. Keep the parameters the same as your display (just use the old water chnge water) and only mess with hypo or meds if you see that the fish has a disease and you know what it is,

 

[125reefer]

dont use water from your DT tank.if he is going through with all this work ridding his tank from ich "imo is a waste but thats just my opinion" why is he going to reintroduce ich into QT tank every time he does a water change!:splitspin

 

[Domboski]

ok so i have some questions about quarantine. now that im treating my tank for ich i need to start quarantining my stuff for ich. its going to still be in hypo salinity for another month but i would like to start doing research now. first question is, do i have to quarantine fish from live aquaria. i just read there quarantine thing under divers den and i seems pretty intense. it says they do multiple freshwater baths, then treat with medication, then do hypo salinity, then observe them until they are settled into the main fish system and then sold. so i was wondering since they go through that like months process with all those quarantine procedure, do i have to quarantine them when they come in the mail? my second question is. how do i quarantine inverts and coral because i know that they can carry parasites and stuff to. coral i know about dips and stuff but im more concerned about ich. they cant get it but someone said the ich can still live on the coral and inside the shell of a hermit crab or snail. how do i make sure its not reintroduced into my tank.

Definitely QT fish from LA. I didn't QT a filefish once I got from the Divers Den and I had a breakout in my fully treated tank.

The only way I know to QT inverts is to leave them in a tank with no fish for 6-8 weeks but I haven't done any research on that.

 

[ming]

The fish from Divers Den are supposed to be QT'ed already. I don't believe the rest of the fish on Live Aquaria are QT'ed though. Some people will trust their QT procedures, and others won't.. up to you I guess on that one.
As for inverts, no need for UV. Just keep the inverts in any fishless tank for up to 37 days and any ich living on the shell will have died from not having a host... shorter with a higher temp. Ich can hitchhike on an invert, but the invert is not a host. Also, dips doesn't kill many coral parasite's eggs (flatworms/red bugs)

 

[jrobbins]

dont use water from your DT tank.if he is going through with all this work ridding his tank from ich "imo is a waste but thats just my opinion" why is he going to reintroduce ich into QT tank every time he does a water change!:splitspin

missed the part that he already had ich. you are totally right. using the old wc water would be a really stupid idea in this case.

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

well im in the process of hypo salinity so i have a couple more weeks the tank will be ich free so thats when i want to start strictly quarantining everything i get. so i thought it was a good idea to use the main tank water so everything the same so when im done with hypo, do you think i should use the DT's water or still use new water?

 

[Brando457]

Anthony I did the same thing and I used new water. As long as your ph, salinity, and temperature are the same you should be fine!

 

[KathyC]

You need to use new water. For subsequent water changes in the QT tank, you need to match temp, salinity and pH, as you would during any water change.

Coral & inverts should be QT's in a tank separately from any fish (possible hosts) for 5-6 weeks to insure they will not introduce Ich into your DT.
Be sure to provide the inverts with the proper diet.

I personally have never understood the suggestion to use old water from a DT for any reason. If you are taking the water out of a tank because it needs to be changed what is the point in using that water in a QT tank where - supposedly - you want the most pristine water to help the fish?

 

[jrobbins]

The theory on the old water (at least my theory) was two fold....

1. I am not doing water changes to lower nitrates, but to replace trace elements, so while the water isnt exactly pristine, its not skanky either. Since I never qt'd inverts I never cared about the trace elements

2. I just have to acclimate a fish once this way

 

[KathyC]

The theory on the old water (at least my theory) was two fold....

1. I am not doing water changes to lower nitrates, but to replace trace elements, so while the water isnt exactly pristine, its not skanky either. Since I never qt'd inverts I never cared about the trace elements

2. I just have to acclimate a fish once this way

..and that's cool.
But you wouldn't do that if you were running a hospital tank due to an ich outbreak

 

[jrobbins]

I agree. I missed that part. But even if you have ich in the tank, I still don't know if it would matter if you used the old water. If you are going to run copper it will kill the stuff anyway.

 

[Domboski]

I agree. I missed that part. But even if you have ich in the tank, I still don't know if it would matter if you used the old water. If you are going to run copper it will kill the stuff anyway.

+1

Whether your treating fish with ich (they already have it, the water is not going to make that much of a difference if you are using copper) or inverts, its better to use the DT water. Less stress on them during the move IMO.

If you want to treat fish using hyposalinity or other natural methods, you should not use DT water.

All my opinion of course.