Quarantine

cidermaster · Jun 20, 2019

I set up a reef tank last October and never quarantine anything . (I know) I’m transferring everything over to a bigger tank where I’m sure I’ll add more fish (and will qt these new fish)
But what about the older fish I haven’t added anything for months and show no sign of any diseases all fish look healthy. Is it worth qt these also to make sure I have a disease free system ? Would any of these diseases already shown themselves if they were in my system ?
Thanks

Idoc · Jun 20, 2019

Many of the diseases in fish are present but suppressed or controlled by a healthy fish's immune system. So, even though they are looking good now, a very stressful situation (ie: new tank location, new fish added, etc...) could possibly cause their immune system to drop a bit and a "hidden" disease state to manifest itself. Since going into a new system...I personally would start off fresh and prophylactically treat those current fish. It's basically how much risk you are willing to accept.

ihavecrabs · Jun 20, 2019

Yep, either go all in or put new fish through observation only. Treating new fish with copper will unfortunately reduce their immune system and if you add them to a tank with potentially suppressed diseases, the diseases may get a foothold and impact not only the new fish, but the existing ones too.

Personally I QT’d all my livestock in my current system and after doing that would never go back to any other way. Extremely healthy fish and coral... it takes a lot of work not picking up the random drag or fish without significant QT efforts though!

cidermaster · Jun 20, 2019

Would it also make sense at this point to go fishless for the 70something days ?? While quarantine ?
Thanks

HotRocks · Jun 20, 2019

cidermaster said:
Would it also make sense at this point to go fishless for the 70something days ?? While quarantine ?
Thanks

Yes, you have to do that will you QT the fish for it to be effective. This would allow anything that was present to die off without a fish host. So in the end, you have a clean tank, and clean fish once they have been treated.