Quarantine
 

Do you quarantine? Fish? Corals? Both? Ever wish you had quarantined when you hadn't? What is your quarantine setup like?

I myself do not quarantine anything. Mostly due to space and impatience. But I haven't heard any nasty stories to encourage me to do so...only statements saying I should.

I had one for FW, but I've been very... um... lazy to do one for my reef tanks, I try to add stuff rarely, but I'm worried one day it will bite me in the butt...

I quarantine all new fish, I should with all corals too especially with all the nasty pests out there



My achilles tang would of been just another statistic if I didn't have him in quarantine and he would of probably killed all my other fish too ( he had marine velvet)

Normally QT fish with a little 10g with a Aqua-clear and heater unless I was confident pest free (like a promise from another reefer) but more than fish can cause problems so I found. Got a little acro frag that ended up spreading bugs though-out tank, added some rock and got aptasia (no QT).

I started to quarantine a while ago in a 10 gallon. Due to aiptasia on rocks and a unwanted hitchiker. I have only quarantined fish and Im thinking of QT my new corals as well but I get to lazy or impatient:wink:

what happened with the bugs? i'm not worried about aiptasia. it's treatable, and it might not show up for months.

Lots of things are treatable but can be a royal pain, probably just easier to keep out the bad guys in the first place.

As for the bugs, whole tank treatment with Interceptor(x3), they're gone but by the time I figured out what was going on and got with the cure, the acros started to bleach and brown out. Colours still not coming back.

at least the red bugs are treatable, the montipora nudibranches are what scare me

Everything that I buy goes into quarantine for a minimum of 6 weeks. Corals get a iodine dip and also a freshwater dip. Is it a pain? You bet it is. But, I havn't had any kind of disease or parasite infect either my fish or my coral yet, nor do I intend to. Man, with all the money I've spent on fish and coral, why wouldn't you want to quarantine? The cost of a quarantine setup is cheap compared to the cost of losing livestock and most importantly getting frustrated at a hobby that should be relaxing.:biggrin: So start a quarantine tank you'll thank yourself latter.


Well, did you set it up yet?
Come on, drop those cheetos, get off the computer and set one up. :lol:

nope i haven't set it up yet. i need to hear a few horror stories first. the theoretical damages of not quarantining don't mean much to me, no offense. i need to know the real possibilities of contracting something horrible before i clutter my apartment even more, and stress my corals even more.

Since my tank is still pretty new, I haven't done much for quarantining. Just my two cinnamon clownfish. The other 3 fish I just acclimated straight into the main tank. If I get anything from Gold's that comes from the uber-medicated system, I'll definately quarantine it. You know, the system with the perpetually green water? ;)

I would like to quarantine certain corals, but I don't have a proper setup with the proper lighting yet. I'm still very indecisive whether I'm going to tap the nano I'm putting together into my main system or not. Would make it way easier to maintain, but then I wouldn't have the peace of mind of a separate system just in case I need it... We'll see.

Historically, I didn't quarantine. As a result, I now have both red flatworms and red SPS bugs.

While I am aware of "cures" for both of these, the cure would wipe out a large number of other critters and that is not acceptable to me. Nothing will go into the new tank without being quarantined. That's my lesson learned.

interesting. would you be able to treat the bug problem in a separate tank? or has it infected other corals?

You want a horror story? How about 2??

#1-50g FOWLR....well established, Niger Trigger, True Percula, Orchid Dottyback, and Yellow Wrasse. The last fish I was to add was a Kole Tang. The tank was doing exceptionally well, all healthy, got the Kole Tang...didn't QT and it wiped out everything but the Niger. It came from a fantastic place BUT it had Velvet. Can't see it, but WOW does it spread like crazy! Watched our Perc die, our Dottyback die...it was nasty! Pretty upsetting...to say the least

Should've learned my lesson......

#2-120g FOWLR.... several months old and doing well. Pair of Blue Throats (very small), CBB, Golden Spotted Rabbitfish, Valentini Puffer, trio of Saddleback clowns, Rusty Angel, got a tiny Sailfin Tang, Cleaner Wrasse and my much awaited Moorish Idol.....no QT, Moorish Idol came with Ich, wiped out the Idol, Tang, and Cleaner Wrasse. Then I had Ich on each and every fish to try to deal with. They were all very very sick, I tried everything that I could do to deal with it or treat it other than actually medicating with drugs. With the fish that remain I still take risks as the Porcupine Puffer I added after it "looked" gone for several months comes down with spots every now and then....I have added Neon Gobies to help deal with it...another Cleaner Wrasse, and a 40W UV sterilizer. The wrasse and gobies succumbed to Ich and it's complications. If I could do it all over again I would have had a QT tank, treated any problems and would have those fish still.....I HATED looking at the tank after the Ich infection, and the devastation that it caused....now I have a QT tank...I won't take the chance again...

Sorry long post but you wanted horror stories. Now you have 2

Horror stories! Man I've got well, ummmmm, NONE. Thats because I quarantine everything. Thats kinda the point I guess. I have however avoided flat worms, red bugs, zoo eating nudibranchs, ich and possibly a plethora of other shizen that never did make it into my display tank. Grim, no offence taken man, just don't want to see another thread that starts like this.


"Hmmm, I put a new fish in my display tank and now all of my fish have these white dots on them?"

Or like this.

"I've had it with this hobby, I can't seem to keep my fish alive."

Come to the dark side Grim. Set up that quarantine tank. :twised:

What should you look out for when you have things in a QT?

In other words, what are the criterion that you need before putting it in the main display?

Moog, great question! There's all kinds of things that people look for when either their fish or their coral are in quarantine. Everything from ich to bubble algae. I've placed a few links below to help a brother out when it comes to identifying all those nasty little critters that wreak havoc on a persons tank.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com./mardisindex.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2003/mini1.htm
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...03/feature.htm
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=127010
http://www.melevsreef.com/

Happy reading. It'll be worth it when your done.

Red Bugs are an interesting lot. I have two corals that actually got them, suffered, then eliminated them and are now thriving. I have one other that seems to be slowly losing it's battle to them...and another that just exists with them, but isn't thriving. I'm starting to think that a really healthy coral fights them off somehow.

I do intend to transfer a lot of things from the small tank to the new one. That will mean quarantining and treating things just as if they were coming from somewhere else.