Bucket Quarantine another round

[RiaanP]

Friend of mine run into the unfortunate event of loosing his powder blue to whitespot. I does not have the space available to quarantine the rest of his fish, so I'm helping him out. Half way through the bucket method.

This is the holding bucket with cover to prevent jumping. Half the container is covered by 2 pieces of eggcrate and the last part with a towel to provide some darkness.

Every second day I do a 50% water change to the new bucket. Still using the filter chamber (one with 19mm connections) with a pump inside the old container. The membrane is 5 micron. Whitespot smallest size is 25 micron.

Doing the water change. The old bucket is on the table.

Containers side by side. Fish still in old container. I use one of those reptile hides per bucket where some of the fish can hide in.

Fish moved over. I use a small spider fish tank to chase the fish into and transfer them with minimal water to the new bucket. I do not like to use nets, especially for angels and foxfaces.

Refilling the new bucket with 25L water from my main system. If your main system is infected, then do not directly use that water. Either new mixed salt or use the filter system I got. The tap is barely open, allowing the water to drain for about 30 minutes if not more.

 

[RiaanP]

Current fish list in the bucket

Blond Naso tang
Sailfin tang
Foxface
Ocealaris clowns pair
Formosa wrasse
Cleaner wrasse
Filefish
Sand sifting goby

 

[blackghostknife]

Hi @RiaanP

It's good to see my fish looking health, thank you so much for everything. Nice to see they all doing ok.

 

[valdero]

Whitespot is a real pain, How many times do you transfer and which intervals, do you add medication?

 

[RiaanP]

How many times do you transfer and which intervals, do you add medication?

The fish get moved over every second day 5 times. IF you look at the live cycle of whitespot, they are on the fish for 7 days. So actually I only need to move them 4 times. No harm in one extra.

I add no medicine. The only part of the cycle where you can actively act against the parasite, is in the small time frame between hatching and finding a hosts. Copper is effective, but only then. I have not looked into how Orca Labs Res-q-med works.

I believe in my method as it is 100% guaranteed to break the live cycle of the parasite.

 

[Juan27]

Where did you find that filter you use @RiaanP ?
And do you change the filter sock everytime you start a quarantine?

 

[RiaanP]

Where did you find that filter you use

filter from any water shop. Ask them check their catalog. There are two types, one with small fittings, as what we have on our RO units. The other with bigger fittings. Get this one. Easier to be able to get water running through it.

The membrane I dry out as well. Been using the same one. It is the same as in the first chamber of your RO unit. A 5 micron filter.

 

[RiaanP]

All the fish survived the bucket transfer period.

Blond Naso

Sailfin

They moved to the 220L holding system, while @blackghostknife Ozzie's tank runs without fish for 6 weeks

 

[cutterdoc]

Hi all yes I am new! The whole question is about quarantine! Yes we all know it has to be done the burning question is HOW? and WHAT EQUIPMENT do I need? and for HOW LONG?

I found your very good post that explains the BUCKET method that according to ypu is very labour intensive and to be totally honest seems rather complicated when I read through it.

So I started thinking (always dangerous for me). anyway to summarize it involves keeping the fish in a bucket for 10 days and then doing a 50% water change every 2 days with water that has been premixed ie: Has the same water parameters as the water in the bucket. You do not advocate a heater cos you cannot keep such a small volume of water at a constant temperature (I agree with that) but that will not work for us in Bloemfontein with 20' temp swings in a day! You then change containers every so many days (sorry I cannot quite remember specifics now) you also run new water through micron filter

SO I want to hear from the more senior guys! I propose the following:

premix about 150 liters of RO water and treat with anti ammonia agent. This water can be kept at a constant temp with small heater
place fish in cooler box to try and keep temp as constant as possible
Then with 2 small peristaltic pumps $15 on amazon adjust water flow so that 10 lt goes in and 10lt out everyday for 10 days also through micron filter
after that fish can be placed in quarantine tank with same principle for 30 days just with 5 liter per day exchange out of display tank into quarantine tank and 5lt per day out and discarded from quarantine tank?

Ok is heavy on salt and water but is it worthwhile to keep tank free of whitespot and livestock healthy?

 

[RiaanP]

I found your very good post that explains the BUCKET method that according to ypu is very labour intensive and to be totally honest seems rather complicated when I read through it.

20 to 30 minutes every second day.
Not a lot of work to ensure that the fish in my main display stay healthy.

You forgot or missed the main reason for the bucket transfer. It is to get rid of the cyst at the bottom of the tank, or in this case the bucket.

Check the cycle of whitespot.

In your proposal, to leave the fish in the same bucket for 10 days, and it could get re-infected by the second round of whitespot pests. They can hatch from 3 to 28 days after falling off the hosts. They are only on the fish for 3 to 7 days. The changes that an already infected fish dropped whitespot cysts on the second day in the bucket is there. You need to scrape the bottom clean. And at their size of about a quarter of a millimeter you can easily miss a few.

You can go back on threads here is South Africa. On guys who had whitespot in their tanks and then after adding whatever reported that their fish are now healthy. Ask him 2 weeks later and you will find that about day 11 to 13 since adding whatever, he got a big outbreak and lost a lot of fish. So I reckon the cyst phase of the common strand of whitespot we got here is about 8 to 10 days. Obviously depending on the temperature of the water.

Look at this original bucket transfer thread.
Bucket Method Quarantine
I do use a heater, although a small 50W heater. My garage / fishroom is insulated and temperature stays rather constant in there.

 

[cutterdoc]

Riaan Thank you very much! I must say that your explanation of quarantine is the best and most comprehensive, logical methods I have found so far! I was making a suggestion to try and get some discussion going Thanks again I personally think this cannot be emphasised enough

20 to 30 minutes every second day.
Not a lot of work to ensure that the fish in my main display stay healthy.

You forgot or missed the main reason for the bucket transfer. It is to get rid of the cyst at the bottom of the tank, or in this case the bucket.

Check the cycle of whitespot.

In your proposal, to leave the fish in the same bucket for 10 days, and it could get re-infected by the second round of whitespot pests. They can hatch from 3 to 28 days after falling off the hosts. They are only on the fish for 3 to 7 days. The changes that an already infected fish dropped whitespot cysts on the second day in the bucket is there. You need to scrape the bottom clean. And at their size of about a quarter of a millimeter you can easily miss a few.

You can go back on threads here is South Africa. On guys who had whitespot in their tanks and then after adding whatever reported that their fish are now healthy. Ask him 2 weeks later and you will find that about day 11 to 13 since adding whatever, he got a big outbreak and lost a lot of fish. So I reckon the cyst phase of the common strand of whitespot we got here is about 8 to 10 days. Obviously depending on the temperature of the water.

Look at this original bucket transfer thread.
Bucket Method Quarantine
I do use a heater, although a small 50W heater. My garage / fishroom is insulated and temperature stays rather constant in there.

 

[RiaanP]

Thank you @cutterdoc

place fish in cooler box to try and keep temp as constant as possible

As a side note, a bit off topic.
Do not keep fish in cooler boxes and other water in normal drums. Especially more so when doing a tank move and your job can be done within a day. Rather have fish and corals in the same type of containers as what you use for moving the bulk of the water. The temperature differences between the different type of containers will force you to be more careful at the end of the long day to re-acclimatize everything. If a 2 day job or very long distance relocation, then yes circumstances will force you to cater for overnight temperature drops.

 

[cutterdoc]

thanks for the info it will be useful for other guys but I will most certainly not be moving!! and definitely not with 700L tank I am just starting LOL

 

[Bodega]

Hi Riaan. So i am going to do this with my current fish as they are infected. The problem is leave for overseas in a weeks time. So i will have to start this when i get back. In the meantime i want to get all the equipment. So for the bucket method i need 2 pumps, 2 heaters. Anything else besides the filter to transfer water. Let me know if all these fish can be treated the same time in 1 bucket

foxface
Convict tang
Chromis x 3
Concord dartfish x 4
Lawnmower blenny
Fairy wrasse x 2
Platinum clownfish x 2
Anthia x 1

My holding tanks are in place will be up and running by Tuesday. That will be cycling for now till i get back.

With the bucket method, will airpump and airstone work fine in there. Thats what i will be using in holding tanks.

 

[Bodega]

Ok, so I am back from overseas and just noticed that my remaining fish are looking much better in DT. So what do I do now, Do I still take them out, do I place them straight into Holding tanks for 10 weeks and leave DT empty or do I just leave them as is. I just don't want to add any new fish and they end up with ICH too

 

[RiaanP]

I would still bucket them to be sure. Alternative is to just keep the fish in the display and not to add any other fish for next 6 months. For some reason whitespot dies out of a tank after 10 to 11 cycles. There are 2 studies I know about that confirmed it, but the reason is still unknown. Having temperature a bit higher at 26 to 28 will also speed up each cycle.

 

[Bodega]

I would still bucket them to be sure. Alternative is to just keep the fish in the display and not to add any other fish for next 6 months. For some reason whitespot dies out of a tank after 10 to 11 cycles. There are 2 studies I know about that confirmed it, but the reason is still unknown. Having temperature a bit higher at 26 to 28 will also speed up each cycle.

That is interesting. 6 Months without adding Fish can be torture though. Just afraid to stress them more by moving them.

 

[RiaanP]

Just afraid to stress them more by moving them.

Look at the top of this thread

All of these fish got caught out of an infected tank. Friend brought them over to my house and we eventually had them in the fist bucket.

They all made it. Extended stress period did nothing to them.

 

[Bodega]

Ok So bucket Method then into holding tanks for 10 weeks. No Problem with doing that, However I have 15 fish as listed above. Can I do all this 1 time in 1 bucket like you have or should I split them in 2 lots. Don't have that many buckets.

 

[RiaanP]

Plasticland

Depending on the fish. And the compatibility between them.
Holding tank for 6 weeks.