More QT questions (adding chaeto and pods)

[TonapahNorth]

I just went 80 days fallow in my office display tank. Taking things slowly.

I started and completed new protocol of copper and prazi on the fish that were in my display. All is well. Fish look great, colorful, and healthy. They're all doing great.

So I want to add chaeto to my fuge and work on adding pod populations. Can I get some advice?

How can I be sure that the chaeto I get is ich/disease free? Do I need to put it in another fallow tank for 76 days? Fortunately I have one that I can use for this purpose as I have set up a coral QT tank all ready for 76 day runs.

What about copepods, etc? How can I be sure that I'm adding these critter populations without adding diseases/parasites? Do vendors guarantee to be free of diseases and parasites? I'm guessing not. But how do I get these populations going in my display without the risk of disease/parasites?

Should I add chaeto and pods to my coral QT at the same time and then let them populate for 76 days? Then move the chaeto over presuming that the pods have begun to populate in the chaeto?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Maritimer]

Copepods should be all right to add, as they're pretty much never cultured in tanks with fish. (They wouldn't last very long . . . )

Other inverts, such as crabs, shrimp or snails can carry in encysted ich or velvet tomonts. Echinoderms and anemones are far less likely to, but corals can as the buggers encyst on frag plugs.

Chaeto, I should think, _could_ carry encysted tomonts, as it's often raised in systems with fish. A 76 day QT for it wouldn't be out of line, in my opinion.

~Bruce

 

[Smo]

I agree with Bruce and have gone thru a similar experience as you. My macro algae is in quarantine right now but completed 76 days and is about to be moved to my DT. The macro algae came with a few pods that have since multiplied. Since the pods have an exoskeleton capable of hosting tomonts I played it safe and quarantined them too.

 

[melypr1985]

Technically ich and other parasites cannot create their cyst on macro algae so all it needs is a good rinse in new saltwater before putting it in the tank. The copepods should be fine as long as you aren't getting them out of somebody else's refugium. If you are buying them from somebody who cultivates them, then it should be fine but don't go to a bud's house and get them out of this fuge with the macro.

 

[TonapahNorth]

Technically ich and other parasites cannot create their cyst on macro algae so all it needs is a good rinse in new saltwater before putting it in the tank. The copepods should be fine as long as you aren't getting them out of somebody else's refugium. If you are buying them from somebody who cultivates them, then it should be fine but don't go to a bud's house and get them out of this fuge with the macro.

I trust you implicitly with all your years of good advice. I expect to put them in my coral QT anyway since I'm about to start a new 76 day cycle. Has it been tested that tomonts don't form on macro?

 

[melypr1985]

I trust you implicitly with all your years of good advice. I expect to put them in my coral QT anyway since I'm about to start a new 76 day cycle. Has it been tested that tomonts don't form on macro?

yes it has, but I don't have the link to the study. Humble does I'm sure. I'm pretty sure he's memorized the links to all these studies since he can come up with them so darn quickly. lol

 

[TonapahNorth]

got a link @Humblefish ?

Melypr1985, thank you as always ... great to know
Tona

 

[Humblefish]

got a link @Humblefish ?

Melypr1985, thank you as always ... great to know
Tona

Dr Peter Burgess tested plant fibre (see table at bottom) against C. irritans - tomonts would not encyst, but trophonts did adhere before degenerating within 48 hrs. So, it would be wise to isolate any new macro to a bucket for at least 48 hours. However, the real threat from chateo (and other marine plants) comes from any pods they might contain. Pods are tiny crustaceans with an exoskeleton, and parasite tomonts CAN encyst to that. To neutralize that threat you'd need to use a coral dip (to kill all the pods) and make sure their dead bodies had all dropped out of the chateo; or isolate the "pod infested" chateo to a fishless invert QT for 76 days.

 

[Humblefish]

Dr. Burgess' thesis, which is still considered "The Bible" on everything Cryptocaryon irritans related, can be found here: https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10026.1/2632/PETER JOHN BURGESS.PDF?sequence=1

It is a very large PDF (332 pages worth of info), so please be patient with download speed.

 

[TonapahNorth]

excellent information and directly on point.

Thank you all

 

[Hermie]

This thread was one of the first results I got from Googling "quarantine chaeto" ... I hope no one minds if I bump it, even if there may be a better place to ask,

is it possible to dip individual strands of chaeto in something that will kill encysted tomonts? Basically, starting a new culture of chaeto from a single strand that's been "chemically cleansed"

 

[Smo]

Likely low probability there would be any encysted tomonts on strands of chaeto. However, they could encyst on the hard skeletal structure of any pods that may be living on the chaeto. I was unwilling to take a chance so I quarantined my initial bunch of macro algae in an invert QT for over 76 days before adding to my DT refugium.