Not enough QT

[duanes]

The adults last a long time on a fish, and in nature are irritants, usually not killing their host, but in the confines of a tank, or pond the sheer numbers that build up in a closed system, and reinfecting is what does the damage.
When there is just one, in a few thousand gallons, not lethal.

But in a closed system, one becomes many quickly, as they reproduce, and parsites overwhelm even healthy and normally resistant species.

A similaar situation happens with the ich parasite, and many others, in nature in millions of gallons one ick, is an irritant, and doesn´t overwhem,
as it reproduces and larvae are dispersed among many.
But in an aquarium, or pond, with a limited fish population, enclosed if a finite amount of water (in essence, any aquarium is a puddle)
ich keeps reinfecting the same individuals over and over, sucking the life out of them.

And yes, it is not very satisfying airing this type dirty laundry, my miscalculation in proper aquarium quarentining practice.
But I wanted to show how just a few weeks of a lack in QT, can lead to disaster.
This would apply to any new fish, or even how a few unQTed , and infected feeders can lead to this outcome.
Consider I went thru 4 tubes of Prazi. lbs of salt, and yet the parasite resisted all those efferts, and produced secondary infection.

 

[Cal Amari]

Thank you for sharing, I wasn't criticizing, I'm lax on qt myself and think many of us would consider a 6 week qt sufficient, so this is good information to share. My surprise was that it will be ready for more fish in 2 weeks. Will they all die off in that period with no host?

 

[duanes]

According to some data, in a certain larva l stage, they can only survive 5 days without a host, but we shall see, I´m hoping the full 2 weeks will help.
and I´ve also just added another 2 lbs of table salt to the fishless tank, bring the total to around 4 lbs, enough to be toxic to newly hatched larvae.

And returned some of the drft wood., still somewhat coated with Prazi gel.

But because my tanks are outside, with fish eating birds drinking and krapping in the them,
after eating fish on the beach parasites are a concern.

 

[tiger15]

We all made mistake in short cutting QT and paid the price. I once added one sick fish and ended up losing 80 percent of the population. In public aquarium, the QT time mandates a lot longer than 3 months as mistake is costly.

An ick outbreak in a home aquarium can be treated with a few $ and oz of ick medication. An outbreak in a 10,000 gal public tank demands expenditure of $$$$ for many gal of expensive medication. Go figure.