When to add fish

[justrock79]

So our 40 gal. has been fallow due to parasites for about 5 weeks now. Would it be ok to reintroduce our YWG to the reef tank?

Or should we continue to the full 11 weeks of the fallow period?

 

[davidcalgary29]

I'd wait another couple of weeks. There's no need to rush into things.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I'd wait another couple of weeks. There's no need to rush into things.

+1
The longer you wait, the better chances there is of all parasites dying off and recreating a healthy system.

 

[justrock79]

I'd wait another couple of weeks. There's no need to rush into things.

Ok. I've heard YWG are pretty unlikely to get parasites, but doesn't mean it won't. Just had to ask the people out of curiosity. Don't want to experience losing anymore fish that could've been avoidable.

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

Think about it this way: Doing 11 weeks the first time around would take less time overall than if you were to readd it now, realize you messed up, and have to completely restart the whole process

 

[Sharkbait19]

Ok. I've heard YWG are pretty unlikely to get parasites, but doesn't mean it won't. Just had to ask the people out of curiosity. Don't want to experience losing anymore fish that could've been avoidable.

It is true that gobies are less susceptible to infection, but the parasites can still feed off of the fish without a strong effect on the goby. This would allow the disease to survive, even with the fish being relatively unharmed.

 

[justrock79]

Think about it this way: Doing 11 weeks the first time around would take less time overall than if you were to readd it now, realize you messed up, and have to completely restart the whole process

Yes, I don't want to restart this process due to a poor/bad decision.

 

[justrock79]

It is true that gobies are less susceptible to infection, but the parasites can still feed off of the fish without a strong effect on the goby. This would allow the disease to survive, even with the fish being relatively unharmed.

Aah, ok. That kind of confirms my thought of a Goby acting as a sort of carrier of parasites.

 

[justrock79]

It is true that gobies are less susceptible to infection, but the parasites can still feed off of the fish without a strong effect on the goby. This would allow the disease to survive, even with the fish being relatively unharmed.

Would adding a Mandarin at this time be the same as my goby question?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Would adding a Mandarin at this time be the same as my goby question?

Same idea, dragonets are one of the most disease hardy fish (thick, toxic slime coat), but can still be a carrier.

 

[KrisReef]

Would adding a Mandarin at this time be the same as my goby question?

It is a fish, same as the other one.

 

[justrock79]

Same idea, dragonets are one of the most disease hardy fish (thick, toxic slime coat), but can still be a carrier.

Ok, thank you for the advice. Was going to possibly pick up a pair of Mandarin this weekend, but that will have to wait.

 

[Sharkbait19]

If you have an empty qt system available, you can certainly get them now. Mandarins really only need to be kept in observational qt for 60 days, the hardest part is just maintaining enough food (which shouldn’t be too easy to harvest while the dt is fallow).

 

[justrock79]

If you have an empty qt system available, you can certainly get them now. Mandarins really only need to be kept in observational qt for 60 days, the hardest part is just maintaining enough food (which shouldn’t be too easy to harvest while the dt is fallow).

I don't think there's room in the qt. It's only 10 gal. and currently housing the YWG and a sixline wrasse. If it isn't possible to add 1 or 2 Mandarin in that size, I can wait. I might have a 20 gal. in storage tho.

 

[Sharkbait19]

I don't think there's room in the qt. It's only 10 gal. and currently housing the YWG and a sixline wrasse. If it isn't possible to add 1 or 2 Mandarin in that size, I can wait. I might have a 20 gal. in storage tho.

With the 6 line I’d say that’s full enough as is.

 

[justrock79]

Would adding cleaner shrimp and cleanup crew essentially be the same as adding the YWG or Mandarin?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Cleaner shrimp and CUC are usually negligible in terms of bioload and shouldn’t have much of an effect on the pod population. I wouldn’t be worried about adding them.

 

[justrock79]

Cleaner shrimp and CUC are usually negligible in terms of bioload and shouldn’t have much of an effect on the pod population. I wouldn’t be worried about adding them.

Cool. Thanks so much for the advice and help