a new scooter dragonet, quarantine?

[xeanliao]

picked up a skinny red scooter dragonet from LFS. i should have enough pods and think i can save her.

i have a 10g hospital tank for copper treatment when needed, a 29g gt currently have one blue tang moved from HT 2 weeks ago. The QT is bare bottom with good amont of live rocks, but i am not sure if it has enough pods. 120g DT should be good for her lon term.

Given the above, what would u do prior to add her to dt? ie, fresh water bath only? or copper in ht as i do for tang, or qt, or anything else?

 

[keddre]

I would go ahead and quarantine it, I hate suffering animals but they can go a long time without eating. Does it eat frozen, because scooters aren't that picky?

 

[caelanuk]

Could try feeding frozen mysis or zooplankton or you could get some cheato to add to quarantine tank every time I bought any it was always full of pods.

 

[Humblefish]

I would go ahead and quarantine it, I hate suffering animals but they can go a long time without eating. Does it eat frozen, because scooters aren't that picky?

+1 Even fish like dragonets, which often don't show symptoms of disease, can still be carriers and infect other fish.

 

[Flippers4pups]

+1 Even fish like dragonets, which often don't show symptoms of disease, can still be carriers and infect other fish.

Exactly, while in Qt, I would attempt to feed it a quality frozen food such as mysis or LRS nano or reef frenzy. Larger pieces I would chop into smaller pieces so that it could eat it. Did this with my mandarin in QT and it worked very well.

 

[Big G]

I did the same thing. I lost one a few weeks ago. It's a challenge to feed them frequently enough. They eat constantly. Some say their digestive system is more like a Seahorse and the food goes almost straight through them. So it's a challenge to keep them fed. Best of luck, sincerely. Cheers!

 

[ngoodermuth]

Get some nutrimar ova! I have had my mandarin in a 20g QT for MONTHS now due to a botched ich treatment in my DT. She's happy as can be.

I did pack it with live rock and add a few bottles of pods from my LFS at the start, but other than that she's been eating the ova exclusively.

 

[xeanliao]

Taking your suggestion, pretty much all suggested the same way:

1. no need to do the preventive copper treatment in the HT.
2. I did a 5-min fresh water dip, and put her in the 29g QT where there are a lot live rocks and a blue tang already been there 2 weeks.
3. Do whatever I can to feed her, adding pods, chaeto, frozen food, etc.

I was planning to move the blue tang to DT in 1 week, probably no hurry now just to be safe, right?

 

[keddre]

I was planning to move the blue tang to DT in 1 week, probably no hurry now just to be safe, right?

Correct, whatever might be on the scooter could jump onto the tang now

 

[Flippers4pups]

Yep both should wait now.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Taking your suggestion, pretty much all suggested the same way:

1. no need to do the preventive copper treatment in the HT.
2. I did a 5-min fresh water dip, and put her in the 29g QT where there are a lot live rocks and a blue tang already been there 2 weeks.
3. Do whatever I can to feed her, adding pods, chaeto, frozen food, etc.

I was planning to move the blue tang to DT in 1 week, probably no hurry now just to be safe, right?

The blue tang will be a pretty good indicator if the dragonet was harboring something. I'd say waiting longer is better, but I'd go at least 3-4 weeks from now in observation for both.