Opinions on quarantining these guys

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I ordered some wild caught sailfin mollies that have been converted to full saltwater and then treated with Ich X for 3 weeks. I have my own quarantine set up with Cupramine and Prazipro as my go to medications, but where these fish were captured in brackish water and have never been around marine fish or diseases, should I even bother? Medicated quarantine is stressful and I worry about putting them through another quarantine. But I also worry about my resident fish getting something.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Depends on the brackishness of the water in my opinion. If it was less than 1.005, then yeah it's fine. If it's more than 1.005, then you should probably quarantine.

The best thing about mollies is that you can just switch them back and forth and back and forth between fresh and saltwater. I'm quarantining a molly right now in all freshwater, and that should kill off any of the nasty ectoparasites she picked up from being in saltwater. And once that period is over, I can just convert her back to saltwater. No copper, no medicines, just salt and water and lovely lovely osmotic pressure.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So - I had some sailfin mollies that I got a year ago from a scientific supply company. Converted them to SW but never got them out of quarantine! They had flukes, nematodes and some unknown internal bacterial infection, probably Mycobacterium. What a debacle! I think that the brackish parasites they had were just too tough....also, I think we didn’t get enough vegetable matter in their diet at the start.
Jay