Do you quarantine new fish / corals?

[Anonymous]

I havnt in the past, but I will in the future, I am now fighting (ich in my 385ga and its not an experience I would wish on my worst enemy.... I only buy healthy fish that spend at least 2 weeks in meds at the lfs before bringing them home, now the research I have done implies 6 weeks is the recommended period...Now in the process of organising a QT tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Put water-soluble garlic extract into their food and buy a bunch of cleaner shrimp. An ich outbreak ususally indicates that there is a problem in the aquarium, so figure out what is stressing them out.

 

[Anonymous]

...Again, you're saying "I haven't worn a seatbelt for a year, and I'm still alive...

Jim

A trifle blunt Jim, but I agree. A QT tank is so easy to maintain when compared with the disaster of having a main display get infected. Cripes, you can do it in a clean 5 gallon bucket with some PVC pipe for hiding places and a cheapo HOB filter as long as you keep up on the water changes and add something like "Amquel" or even a resin filter.

I always used to keep a filter cartridge "soaking" in the sump of my reef to jump start a Q or hospital tank and always had extra mixed water ready just in case. Since I never had sick fish (crosses fingers) I always used water from the display in a Q tank setup.

That made it easy. I'd just change 20% water in the Q tank every few days with water from the main display and put makeup fresh water into it in between changes. Add fresh mixed salt water to the main tank and I was done. That whole procedure took what, 1/2 hr every week? Time well spent IMO.

 

[Anonymous]

Whenever I go to work I carry a baseball bat with me when I walk down the hall, and I have never been attacked by Islamic fundamentalists. Years of experience doing this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have avoided death on several occasions, and that carrying a baseball bat around with me at work is absolutely essential to my survival.

 

[Anonymous]

Now you're just being silly...

...and yes Tracy I tend to be a bit blunt with this subject. It's not one those matters subject to opinion. :wink:

...and marcos, and ich outbreak indicates that C. irritans is present in the system, which it wouldn't be if proper quarantine procedure had been implemented in the first place.

I've had fish stressed beyond reason during a moving disaster...temperatures dropped into the 60's. No ich, because the parasite wasn't in the water to infect the fish.
This pathogen can also affect perfectly healthy fish that are not stressed in the least, the likelyhood of which varies with species.

 

[Anonymous]

Whenever I go to work I carry a baseball bat with me when I walk down the hall, and I have never been attacked by Islamic fundamentalists. Years of experience doing this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have avoided death on several occasions, and that carrying a baseball bat around with me at work is absolutely essential to my survival.

A reply worthy of the Sump dear one, but a wasted effort in this context as you left your baseball bat at home according to your stated POV. It's very simple really, if you properly Q fish before you add them to the main display you cut the chances of introducing a pathogen to the tank. If you don't, you are playing roulette. Period.

FWIW, many wholesalers/LFS nowadays treat with a low level of antibiotics which keep disease in the tanks subclinical. You take that healthy looking fish home and between the stress of the move and the lack of supporting Abs, one week later you have a sick fish in your main dislay tank.

If taking that risk is acceptable to you, great. But don't belittle those of us who do carry a baseball bat .

 

[Anonymous]

...[milzed]...

 

[Anonymous]

But don't belittle those of us who do carry a baseball bat .

Maybe I should have said plastic jesus.

In any case, there is no logical connection. You don't know unless you do the experimental control.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't quarantine anything, and have not had any infectious disasters.

I think if you're careful with what you buy, and are willing to take some risk, then it is not as necessary as many would have you believe.

Again, you're saying "I haven't worn a seatbelt for a year, and I'm still alive. Therefore seatbelts are not very necessary" A rather narrowminded approach methinks.

Thank you.

Let me try to explain my point using your own analogy.
1st, I refute your conclusion that my statement's logic is equal to "I haven't worn a seatbelt for a year, and I'm still alive. Therefore seatbelts are not very necessary".

My logic, in your terms, is that:
-not all car trips are equal.
-not all drivers are equal.
-not all roads are equal.

Let us imagine a man who lives in the country. He only drives to the local store and to his neighbor's house. He's been driving for fifty years. He drives without a seatbelt. And he's neversomuch as broken a fingernail. These people do exist.

For this guy, yes, I'd be willing to say 'seatbelts are not necessary.'

Now imagine that this guy lives by the ocean and keeps marine fish. He has a large stable tank, gets his fish from LFSs who get them straight from the ocean. The LFS always QTs and watches for disease. He knows his tank and the environment from which his livestock is bought.

I'd say this guy can continue doing just fine without the QT.

Any other approach, I thinks, would be narrowminded.

That said, my 1st response to this thread was just that, a response to the OP's question. It was not meant to be advice, and not meant to be driven recklessly.

 

[Anonymous]

[
FWIW, many wholesalers/LFS nowadays treat with a low level of antibiotics which keep disease in the tanks subclinical.

Sounds really impressive until you realize that antibiotics do nothing for eukaryotic parasitic infections like ich an amyloodinium.

:roll:

Nice try, though. Do they share gourds over the fish-tanks too?

 

[Anonymous]

Whenever I go to work I carry a baseball bat with me when I walk down the hall, and I have never been attacked by Islamic fundamentalists. Years of experience doing this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have avoided death on several occasions, and that carrying a baseball bat around with me at work is absolutely essential to my survival.

A reply worthy of the Sump dear one,

LOL, my thoughts exactly. You can take the sumper out of the sump, but you cant...

 

[Anonymous]

Well, it is funny to see the same people argue with the same flawed logic in two different contexts. I merely point these logical flaws out in a consistently cheerful and engaging manner.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks SM, I already have a pile of cleaner shrimps in the tank and have run it in darkness and with a 2 deg increased temp for 3 days now, I am going to try the garlic route as well.... as a corrolary to the QT story, QT is likely to be only partially effective for me as I do pwcs with natural sea water and according to (I think) Sprung, its possible (although not likely) to introduce c.irritans with those...Oh, well, dont want to hijack the thread with the same old' I've got Ich and this is how I'm treating it' story, just mentioned it in passing as it is a current example of the benefits of QT.. Y'all have a great evening-outta here until tomorrow.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree if you stick a fish in a bucket and it develops ich and dies, you decrease the likelihood that the pathogen will be introduced. But why do you think a visible external parasite is present when you can't see it in a tank at the LFS, but isn't present after sitting for six weeks in a bucket in your house?

Because the life cycle of that particular parasite is pretty well known, and would manifest itself on the lone fish in the bucket within six weeks. But ich isn't the only thing that can come into a tank. I don't belive I mentioned ich in fact, you are the one focused on that.

ich just isn't that contagious, and can be kept in check with cleaner shrimp. An "outbreak" indicates other problems.

Why don't we see massive ich kills on the coral reefs?

Ich is very contagious in the tank situation, it's the stresses of the tank environment that contributes to mortality. The reef is an entirely different matter.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

This disease is usually associated with several environmental triggers. Changes in water temperature, exposure to high levels of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate, low pH levels, low dissolved oxygen, and overcrowding are all factors contributing to the onset of the disease. You could lump all of these in a general category of stress, but I find it more appropriate to think of all of these as wholly unnatural conditions. In fact, Cryptocaryon irritans is rare in the wild, and even more unlikely to be lethal (Bunkley-Williams & Williams, 1994). Ich is truly a disease that exploits the conditions of captivity to reproduce and easily find suitable hosts.

FWIW, many wholesalers/LFS nowadays treat with a low level of antibiotics which keep disease in the tanks subclinical.

Sounds really impressive until you realize that antibiotics do nothing for eukaryotic parasitic infections like ich an amyloodinium.

:roll:

Nice try, though. Do they share gourds over the fish-tanks too?

I said disease, not ich. Try and not be so literal and closed minded, it's very unscientific.

Well, it is funny to see the same people argue with the same flawed logic in two different contexts. I merely point these logical flaws out in a consistently cheerful and engaging manner.

No you don't. You simply cannot accept a person with a dissenting viewpoint without the obvious "LOOK HOW SMART I AM AND HOW STUPID THE REST OF THE WORLD IS" replies.

 

[Anonymous]

6:15 am here.

 

[Anonymous]

...[milzed]...

 

[Anonymous]

Answer my assertations before you divert the conversation elsewhere dear.

 

[Anonymous]

Whenever I go to work I carry a baseball bat with me when I walk down the hall, and I have never been attacked by Islamic fundamentalists. Years of experience doing this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have avoided death on several occasions, and that carrying a baseball bat around with me at work is absolutely essential to my survival.

Well, it is funny to see the same people argue with the same flawed logic in two different contexts. I merely point these logical flaws out in a consistently cheerful and engaging manner.

:lol:
Yep.. - Even funnier to see one person do it in the same thread.

So whats the deal? - Ragging it that hard or what?

 

[Anonymous]

Answer my assertations before you divert the conversation elsewhere dear.

I'm still waiting for you to tell me how it strengthens their immune systems.

:lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Answer my assertations before you divert the conversation elsewhere dear.

I'm still waiting for you to tell me how it strengthens their immune systems.

:lol:

No, you are doing your usual evasions