Quarintine Quarintine Quarintine

Woo Tang

Woo Tang

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Its a word noobs hear all the time (myself included) but dont fully comprehend the pitfalls of not quarintining any fish added to the system.
So got my 1st pair of clowns and everything goes great for 4 weeks till I add a regal tang. Always loved the color of this fish. So within a week the regal starts flashing and scraping the rock and substrate.

At this point I take to MASA and after much reading realise that I have dreaded ITCH. This could of been prevented if I had simply quarintined the new fish or any fish for that matter.

After doing the late night researching and stressing about whats happening I decided the following morning to get the QT tank with filter and heater. All fishies to be removed and to start a hyposalinity treatment on all fish excl inverts etc. Could have saved myself a whole lot of unnecessary drama but its all a part of learning. (Alot of work on the hobbyist as the salinity is low ph needs to be monitored)

So, one noob to another... before buying any new fish setup a QT and you will be happy you did. Matter of fact include this in your equipment hardware when still in the setup stages of your build.
Also, I would suggest some research go into marine fish diseases etc. Just so you know what you up against when or if it does happen to you...

Just thought I would share my experience...
 
And a QT tank can be simple.
Use a old Daro 90L tank.
Put a divider at about 200to 250mm, make that an overflow/ sump / return chamber. Small return pump with flexible hose all the way to the other side of the tank. That will give you a nice flow and will remove the gunk that collect on the surface.
Fill the space around the return pump with bio balls. So you got filtration.

Put eggcrate over the tank, to prevent jumpers.

I like to put a towel over half the tank, to simulate a big dark cave. Gives them hiding space.
 
I am getting a new fish today or tomorrow.
I could document my qt if anyone is keen?
Here is a pic of my simple little qt system.

DSC_0775.jpg
 
my QT



Note,
I want the algae...
They are for copepods
and they are for a mandarin...
yeah
SOON
 
According to me a qt should not have any filtration as it gives parasites a place to populate and grow. One can do a daily water change to dilute pollutants. After treatment, you should clean and dry the qt tank for later use again. Provide hiding places in the form of pipe pieces and other plastic reef safe "things", but not live rock, again can be a breeding place for parasites.
The qt must be used short term, not kept running permanently,otherwise new fish can get infected if the previous fish was sick and died. It must be a sterile setup used for emergencies.
If you have a permanently running qt with live rock and other filtration and the new fish get sick, you gonna kill everything in and on the live rock as well as all the bacteria on the bio-balls or other filtration when using meds. That's my opinion anyway...
 
I bucket first for 8 to 10 days. Therafter the fish go to my QT for anther 4 to 6 weeks. So it is set up for longer stay.
 
So what if the fish gets sick after the 10 days in the qt? Then everything will be contaminated, not so??
 
and dont you forget it.....QUARANTINE!!!

i know first hand about this.....after years of preaching it....a few months back i slipped up and purchased some fish threw em in ......and landed up loosing an entire established system to gill flukes!
and all of my fish including a naso i bought back from mauritius aswell as a gem, flame etc etc to name a few.

not worth the pain of loosing the livestock nor the work to start up again.....so QT to reduce further PT!!!!
 
Woo Tang said:
Its a word noobs hear all the time (myself included) but dont fully comprehend the pitfalls of not quarintining any fish added to the system.
So got my 1st pair of clowns and everything goes great for 4 weeks till I add a regal tang. Always loved the color of this fish. So within a week the regal starts flashing and scraping the rock and substrate.

At this point I take to MASA and after much reading realise that I have dreaded ITCH. This could of been prevented if I had simply quarintined the new fish or any fish for that matter.

After doing the late night researching and stressing about whats happening I decided the following morning to get the QT tank with filter and heater. All fishies to be removed and to start a hyposalinity treatment on all fish excl inverts etc. Could have saved myself a whole lot of unnecessary drama but its all a part of learning. (Alot of work on the hobbyist as the salinity is low ph needs to be monitored)

So, one noob to another... before buying any new fish setup a QT and you will be happy you did. Matter of fact include this in your equipment hardware when still in the setup stages of your build.
Also, I would suggest some research go into marine fish diseases etc. Just so you know what you up against when or if it does happen to you...

Just thought I would share my experience...
Click to expand...

Quarantine means didly squat with any of the surgeon family. All it takes is for them to stress in your tank even after qt and they develop various levels of ich based on their stress levels. Strangely enough if you have fish that have ich it tends to get better if you feed them bloodworm daily. Not my remedy. Just a guy I know suggested it. It works in conjunction with heavy feeding and regular waterchanges. Yes I have a powder blue which is theee eorst white spot smuggler so I have personally experienced this
 
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for the sake of science

Here it goes.... I took a little less conventional approach to dropping the salinity to the required 1.009. I took my tank water, added it to quarintine tank and immediately dropped the water to the hypo level. I left QT for 24 hours to stablize ph and temp. Used only baking soda and no other buffers.

After this I added the fish directly to the Qt tank and monitored for 48 hours checking ph daily still and also fish behaviour. All went well as 6 days later they all doing well with fatalities and eating like pigs

REASON I did this....

"During treatment we highly recommend the S.G. of the aquarium (hyposalinity) be lowered. Although some authors recommend lowering the S.G. slowly, we suggest a radical and immediate drop in S.G. as low as 1.010 - 1.013 (T. Frakes, pers. dis.; G. Blasiola, pers. dis.; pers. obs.). We have not seen any ill effects to the fish by dropping the salt content in this manner. We have, however, seen dramatic results in controlling the parasite due to the fact that they are not osmoregulatory. Because of this fact, the parasite cannot control the osmosis through their semi-permeable membrane. Therefore they begin to absorb water in an effort to equalize the osmotic pressures within and outside of their cell wall. As a result they eventually explode when their cell wall can no longer maintain the pressure of the water they absorb, similar to a water balloon filled with too much water"

My regal who is still a juvenile had increased breathing and would just lay on a rock or the substrate. This fish is actively swimming and feeding :thumbup:

Treatment should still continue for 4 weeks after last spot has been seen... and display tank should still be left fowla for atleast 8 weeks. I will document any further changes and observations and post here. :)
 
Tobes said:
So what if the fish gets sick after the 10 days in the qt? Then everything will be contaminated, not so??
Click to expand...
Still better to get sick fish in quarantine than in your display. Yes all contaminated.
Can remove fish back to buckets. Clean out the holding system totally. Run it with RO for the time being. Reset it up before fish move back to it from the buckets. BIG SCHLEP. But still better than having to do this with your display tank.
 
Woo Tang said:
During treatment we highly recommend the S.G. of the aquarium (hyposalinity) be lowered.
Click to expand...

I do not drop the holding tank SG levels. After the bucket method the whitespot would not be around anymore. Flukes maybe. But can be treated in the bucket as well at the same time.

I do larger water changes in the holding system per week. Directly out from the display. About 33%.
Basically when I do my display water change, I do not throw the old water away. It is used for the holding system. Same salinity, ph, temperature. Just makes it easier.
 
@RiaanP all fish are in the QT tank. All were removed and added to hypo 6 days ago. Display is fishless... Hypo will certainly damage live rock and live sand including any invertebrates in the display.
 
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Woo Tang said:
Hypo will certainly damage live rock and live sand including any invertebrates in the display
Click to expand...
yes understand.

Just 2 different methods to achieve the same goal.
You go Hypo for a 6 weeks.

I go bucket method then normal salinity for a month.

Not sure which one is more of a job. For me, keeping the same salinity is easier.
 
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