How do I quarantine 10 anthias all at once?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
For all who are not aware, I'm having a bit of a disaster in my 275g FO tank. The tank is infested with velvet (Amyloodinium), and the future doesn't look good. A harlequin tuskfish brought in the parasite with him, and has very recently died of it. I am currently treating the tank with a salinity of 1.010 and a formalin and malachite green commercial medication, but I'm still preparing for the worst. This tank has been setup for over two years, and has housed a Majestic Angel, Lionfish, dog facced puffer, Zebra moray, hippo tang, and an intrepid little blue damsel for 2 years now. I feel like I'm going to be sick when I look at the tank...it feels the same way as when my dog died when I was younger. What really sucks is that it's all my fault, because I didn't quarantine the tuskfish.

Anyway, lesson learned, and I won't be putting any fish in a main display before 8 weeks of quarantine from now on. If worst comes to worst, I will sterilize this entire tank and start over rather than having to deal with persistent recurring outbreaks of this parasite.

I know well enough how to setup a quarantine tank, but here's a dumb question: If I'm adding a school of anthias all at once, how exactly do I quarantine them? Do I setup several separate tanks, and keep them completely separate? Do I keep them together and keep the lights out? Should I just make them the first addition to the tank, and hope for the best?

 

[LX302]

Wow. Sorry for your lose. I always QT and "knock on wood", haven't had any outbreaks of parasites.

But Anthias in a newly established tank with no live rock isn't the best idea. These guys need to be feed 3 or more times a day and need hiding places.
But if you want to try it, I see you already dosed the tank with meds and or starting from scratch in this FO tank. If it was me I would start the tank up and get it cycled. Then add the 8 Anthias all at once. If you don't have live rock or inverts, you can dose the tank. Having multiple QT tanks will not be cost effective and you need to use the lights so you can simulate day for the health of the fish. Not sure why you don't want to use it.
But like I said above, any Anthias in a new tank is not a good idea.
So to summurize, get the tank cleaned up, add live rock to cycle the tank, and slowly add the live stock, one or two fish at a time ever month after QT is the best route to go at this point.
This is just my opinion.
Good Luck.

 

[Anonymous]

Matt, I feel sick now just reading this.

Are you asking about the anthias for the future? You can't be thinking of getting a whole school of new fish until you get your tank under control, right?

That is a very large tank, but if you really are at 1.010 SG, and you are using meds, then I don't see why you can't get rid of the parasite for good...kind of like a giant QT.

Good Luck

 

[Anonymous]

Manny, No, I wasn't considering adding them now. I would only add them after the tank has been sterilized, and completely cycled. From what I hear Amyloodinium, once in a tank, just sort of persists over and over and never really goes away.

LX, my idea of having no light was simply to allieve aggression among the fish. If I was cramming them all into 80 gallons of quarantine space, I wouldn't want them killing each other. I don't know if they would still feed or not, because I've never kept anthias before. It certainly worked fine when I paired my maroon clowns.

BTW, I planned on feeding them 5 times a day with an automatic feeder.

 

[Anonymous]

Use the BIGGEST tank you can find. If not a tank, then a container that's on the order of 100 gallons or so. The 80 is pretty close. Yes, they can indeed be q/t'd together, but you have to ensure sufficient water volume. If they get nippy with each other, use a divider.

<sm, keeping her fingers crossed>