Adding established fish to your display tank

[Lost in the Sauce]

Let’s say you got a $1000 wrasse from an established “healthy” reef environment that it’s been in for 2 years, but the established reef does not QT their fish. As copper QT would probably cause more harm than good, would you add it directly to your display tank full of QT-Ed fish?

Nope. Not a chance.

I've got a fully qt'd fish starting copper in my qt right now because I don't trust ANYONE to do my job for me. My job is protecting my investment and the ecosystem I'm in charge of.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have read about your post and the recent quarantine protocol posted back in April. Assuming if no white dots shows up by then, do I and should I, do a round of prazi? To deworm or something just in case?

Prazi is pretty safe and flukes at low levels have few symptoms, so yes, it is usually a good idea to run prazi 2x about ten days apart (just stop collecting skimmer effluent and maintain good aeration).
Jay

 

[andiesreef]

I did read your paragraph, and I would still venture to guess that velvet and ich do not concentrate to anywhere near the population density in the wild as in our reefs. Obviously, fish can have some resistance to disease, but we still see posts daily where ich and velvet have overrun a tank. When have we seen a mass fish kill on the reefs due to velvet or ich?

I think it's partially because of volume, but also because of natural resistance. Yes the concentrations of parasites in reef tanks may be higher. But we also have chemical and physical methods of filtration like UV sterilizers and water changes that cut down on pathogens so the fish aren't swimming in a "petri dish". I think wild schools of thousands fish in close proximity to one another have to have developed some resistance to parasites and we can use that to our advantage in reef tanks.

And I think tanks on here are overrun because the resistance is not built up correctly and/or the fish are unhealthy and cannot resist the existing parasites any longer. QT essentially strips a fish immune system away in my eyes by never ever exposing them to a parasite that could help build their immunity and the second something goes wrong, the fish have no resistance to the pathogen and are overrun like we've seen all over R2R. Just how I think about it and I'm aware not everyone agrees with me and that is totally fine.

 

[Jubei2006]

I agree that we could do much better with nutrition, stress management through water quality and adjunct therapies such as UV sterilizers and such. But you cannot strip a fish's immune system through quarantine. WBCs such as lymphocytes have great memory. And there is the complement innate system to the immune system as well. That doesnt disappear immediately just because you do tank transfer or copper. Conditioning a fish may make it more hearty and hopefully survive the parasite, but if they havent been exposed they still wont have the antibodoes to fight it off should velvet and sometimes ich in a system. Same for animals I work with, I'd rather vaccinate and avoid rather than make sure they are in great condition and hope they can survive diseases like parvo and such. So to each his own. Thanks for the dialog! It's always goo to see both sides so we can move forward as a hobby. I do absolutely agree with you that doing things to better condition our fish and improve their quality of life will improved overall survival and hopefully help fight off diseases if they occur. But I'm still not gonna chance my entire tank even for holy grail fish. I'll wait for them to be quarantined (by someone else respected by all) then consider placing them into my tank.

 

[Jubei2006]

Sorry for the double!

 

[andiesreef]

I agree that we could do much better with nutrition, stress management through water quality and adjunct therapies such as UV sterilizers and such. But you cannot strip a fish's immune system through quarantine. WBCs such as lymphocytes have great memory. And there is the complement innate system to the immune system as well. That doesnt disappear immediately just because you do tank transfer or copper. Conditioning a fish may make it more hearty and hopefully survive the parasite, but if they havent been exposed they still wont have the antibodoes to fight it off should velvet and sometimes ich in a system. Same for animals I work with, I'd rather vaccinate and avoid rather than make sure they are in great condition and hope they can survive diseases like parvo and such. So to each his own. Thanks for the dialog! It's always goo to see both sides so we can move forward as a hobby. I do absolutely agree with you that doing things to better condition our fish and improve their quality of life will improved overall survival and hopefully help fight off diseases if they occur. But I'm still not gonna chance my entire tank even for holy grail fish. I'll wait for them to be quarantined (by someone else respected by all) then consider placing them into my tank.

I agree that exposing the fish to the pathogen is necessary for resistance. Thus continuing to add in non-quarantined fish for additional exposure to whatever they are carrying. And of course in animals like dogs vaccines are important to teach their immune systems to prepare for the pathogens.

And thank you for the respectful conversation. I really appreciate you being super polite and having a civil conversation even though we have different opinions. Personally I do what has worked for other people and makes sense to me but there are drawbacks to everything. For example adding fish prone to ich like certain tangs would be a death sentence with the method I go by. It's also important the fish is in good condition to overcome things so no fish that have persistent injuries or a weaker immune system for me.

Hope you have a lovely day and you fish stay happy and healthy