As requested, here is the QT article from the old site as well.
Quarantine (QT) is so many times overlooked by marine aquarists. Why this is the case is surely multifactorial, but my personal opinions on the matter are that our hobby is so fascinating that people often jump right in and want the tank to be bangin from day one.....so little or NO patience is the worst contributor....I think. I say worst, because it really hurts people the most in the longrun and ends up making many people leave the hobby. If you look we have nearly 1100 members here on HRRC, but about 75 to 100 of us are really active to any degree. The board is just a little over 3 years old and sure many have moved, but not that many. Most of those members got out or lost interest for a slue of reasons, but many of them got out because they just had so many problems that the hobby was just too expensive and problematic. I purport that a large number could have been saved the hassles if they had implemented a QT regimen. Fish (and corals) can be saved much easier in a QT environment than trying to treat with reef safe medications. Once you get a display infested with many of the parasites we can deal with, total breakdown or 6-8 weeks of no fish must be undergone to clear the tank. This equates to an enormous PITB for too many....especially when it comes to light that it could have been prevented and QT was not stressed or mentioned by the LFS. I would also interject that there are also many that just dont know to do it, because they crossed over from freshwater aquariums. WIth FW aquaria, parasites are just not the tremendous PITB they are in marine aquaria. This is mostly because most problems can be treated in the FW display and freshwater fish are not as affected and easy to kill as their marine counterparts. Freshwater fish are more adaptable to changes in water quality and temperature because they see them so frequently in their natural environments.......whereas marine fish are used to stable conditions ad nauseam, so changing conditions really present a great deal of stress to them. Also, there is the hassle of having another tank setup and the expense that it incurs. Of course, talk to those of us that learned the lessons the hard way and you will see that QT is super cheap in the grand scheme of things and is a pivotal process to not only LONGTERM success, but just plain good stewardship and husbandry of the marine creatures we are ultimately responsible for uprooting from their tropical homes thousands of mile away. If we are gonna confine them to a glass (or preferably acrylic.....Im with you Sean) box for the remainder of their life, shouldnt we try to make it as nice as possible? I think so.
So why is QT so important? Well when it comes to fish, there are so many parasites that they can contract thru the collection and transport process BEFORE they ever hit the LFS that QT has really become almost mandatory. When fish are collected, they are kept in tight quarters with all of the other fish that the collector harvests. Most of our wild caught fish are harvested by villagers from many small island countries and they go out in very small boats and take with them a bucket or maybe a couple buckets. All the fish they collect are placed in the same bucket.....compatibility is not an issue because all the inmates are now stressed. These fish are then brought back to the holding/shipping facility and placed along with all the other fish that have been caught by other harvesters......even the fancy scuba collected, deep water species. The tanks are small, the fish are stressed and very susceptible to bacteria, protozoans, fungi and viruses......many of these things are things they would normally be able to fight off with their normal immune system functioning. Some are not.
The biggest concern....IMO...are the protozoans and bacteria. These are things that not only kill quickly, but they are usually contagious to other fish and are nearly impossible to irradicate in situ in your reef display......plus, given the methods currently employed by the industry, the chances your fish has at least one of theses parasites,,,,is high. Of course most of what I discuss will be in regards to fish QT, but coral QT is important too. Luckily, many of the coral parasites can be treated in an active reef, so some may get away with bypassing the QT of corals. Also, many of the parasites are very specific predators so the loss here is usually the infested coral. I still greatly encourage the QT of corals too. Cryptocaryon irritans is what we call ich. Some also call Brooklynella hostilis and Amyloodinium ocellatum by the same term, but crypt is the odds on favorite for nearly all of us to encounter......the other two usually kill so fast, that unless the fish was bought from the shipping container, they will look so bad that they rarely make it to the purchase counter. If you have not had crypt on any of your fish then I hypothesize at least one of three conditions apply......one, you are lottery winner type lucky,...two, you are an extreme newbie and have not had many chances at it yet......three, you buy from the Divers Den where they do all the QT procedures for you. The rest of us have dealt with it. There could be another reason, but those are all hit me. Oh wait, there may be a fourth...you have no idea what keeps killing off your fish because you dont notice or dont know what you are really dealing with. But anyway, back on topic......QT of fish is so important that I personally wish that the only people allowed to purchase fish were those who promised to QT the fish for at least 2 weeks before placing them in a display. I might be in the minority on that opinion, but that is how close I hold this valuable part of reef husbandry.
So before I appear to be on a soapbox.......Ill cover the necessities for QT....it aint that much really. Obviously, you need a tank, or a modified bucket, container, etc. or my current QT system here in Okinawa.....a 15 gallonish Sterilite tub. You will need something for water movement.....I like using a HOB filter, but currently am using a tiny powerhead. Some use the old school sponge air filters.....these are good for fry tanks as well.....but something to move water around that is compatible with the organisms you are going to place in the aquarium. The benefit here is that you can have a sponge to set in your sump (if you have one) and have a colonized media to place in the QT to minimize fouling the water. You will need a heater. I recommend that the temp of QT systems be kept at 80F. This will allow a faster cycle of the parasites lifecycle and elevate the fishs metabolism....but not dangerously. As for a light....well anything that will allow you to perform a good visual inspection on the organisms is suitable. If you are using it for a hermatypic coral or anemone QT then it will need to be light that can meet their photosynthetic requirements.....if it is for non-hermatypic corals like sun polyps....then any light will work.
It is best to QT for at least 2 weeks. If in those 2 weeks the fish or coral show no evidence of disease or parasites, then they may be suitable to add to the display. If however they do show symptoms, it is best to treat appropriately and then AFTER the treatment is complete, give them another 2 weeks in the QT to show they are cured and exhibit no signs or symptoms before adding them to the fray. Personally, I QT for 4 weeks. Given the lifecycles of all the parasites I know about......which I live with the hope is all of them, but I certainly leave room for a new one to come my way.......that is sufficient time for them to rear their ugly head and have me start my war with them.
For specific treatment modalities on a specific parasite, just ask. We will all be glad to help out and get you thru it. Remember, bad parasites happen to good aquarists. Just read Jacobs thread of over a year and a half now.......heartbreaking. Luckily, jacob is smart and he recovered.....quite nicely too.
There should be a thread that covers protozoans. I will look at it and update as necessary.
Hope this helps and if it leads to just one person adopting this husbandry method, it will be worth the time it took to type it.
Happy reefing.
The enemy of good enough is better.
Quarantine (QT) is so many times overlooked by marine aquarists. Why this is the case is surely multifactorial, but my personal opinions on the matter are that our hobby is so fascinating that people often jump right in and want the tank to be bangin from day one.....so little or NO patience is the worst contributor....I think. I say worst, because it really hurts people the most in the longrun and ends up making many people leave the hobby. If you look we have nearly 1100 members here on HRRC, but about 75 to 100 of us are really active to any degree. The board is just a little over 3 years old and sure many have moved, but not that many. Most of those members got out or lost interest for a slue of reasons, but many of them got out because they just had so many problems that the hobby was just too expensive and problematic. I purport that a large number could have been saved the hassles if they had implemented a QT regimen. Fish (and corals) can be saved much easier in a QT environment than trying to treat with reef safe medications. Once you get a display infested with many of the parasites we can deal with, total breakdown or 6-8 weeks of no fish must be undergone to clear the tank. This equates to an enormous PITB for too many....especially when it comes to light that it could have been prevented and QT was not stressed or mentioned by the LFS. I would also interject that there are also many that just dont know to do it, because they crossed over from freshwater aquariums. WIth FW aquaria, parasites are just not the tremendous PITB they are in marine aquaria. This is mostly because most problems can be treated in the FW display and freshwater fish are not as affected and easy to kill as their marine counterparts. Freshwater fish are more adaptable to changes in water quality and temperature because they see them so frequently in their natural environments.......whereas marine fish are used to stable conditions ad nauseam, so changing conditions really present a great deal of stress to them. Also, there is the hassle of having another tank setup and the expense that it incurs. Of course, talk to those of us that learned the lessons the hard way and you will see that QT is super cheap in the grand scheme of things and is a pivotal process to not only LONGTERM success, but just plain good stewardship and husbandry of the marine creatures we are ultimately responsible for uprooting from their tropical homes thousands of mile away. If we are gonna confine them to a glass (or preferably acrylic.....Im with you Sean) box for the remainder of their life, shouldnt we try to make it as nice as possible? I think so.
So why is QT so important? Well when it comes to fish, there are so many parasites that they can contract thru the collection and transport process BEFORE they ever hit the LFS that QT has really become almost mandatory. When fish are collected, they are kept in tight quarters with all of the other fish that the collector harvests. Most of our wild caught fish are harvested by villagers from many small island countries and they go out in very small boats and take with them a bucket or maybe a couple buckets. All the fish they collect are placed in the same bucket.....compatibility is not an issue because all the inmates are now stressed. These fish are then brought back to the holding/shipping facility and placed along with all the other fish that have been caught by other harvesters......even the fancy scuba collected, deep water species. The tanks are small, the fish are stressed and very susceptible to bacteria, protozoans, fungi and viruses......many of these things are things they would normally be able to fight off with their normal immune system functioning. Some are not.
The biggest concern....IMO...are the protozoans and bacteria. These are things that not only kill quickly, but they are usually contagious to other fish and are nearly impossible to irradicate in situ in your reef display......plus, given the methods currently employed by the industry, the chances your fish has at least one of theses parasites,,,,is high. Of course most of what I discuss will be in regards to fish QT, but coral QT is important too. Luckily, many of the coral parasites can be treated in an active reef, so some may get away with bypassing the QT of corals. Also, many of the parasites are very specific predators so the loss here is usually the infested coral. I still greatly encourage the QT of corals too. Cryptocaryon irritans is what we call ich. Some also call Brooklynella hostilis and Amyloodinium ocellatum by the same term, but crypt is the odds on favorite for nearly all of us to encounter......the other two usually kill so fast, that unless the fish was bought from the shipping container, they will look so bad that they rarely make it to the purchase counter. If you have not had crypt on any of your fish then I hypothesize at least one of three conditions apply......one, you are lottery winner type lucky,...two, you are an extreme newbie and have not had many chances at it yet......three, you buy from the Divers Den where they do all the QT procedures for you. The rest of us have dealt with it. There could be another reason, but those are all hit me. Oh wait, there may be a fourth...you have no idea what keeps killing off your fish because you dont notice or dont know what you are really dealing with. But anyway, back on topic......QT of fish is so important that I personally wish that the only people allowed to purchase fish were those who promised to QT the fish for at least 2 weeks before placing them in a display. I might be in the minority on that opinion, but that is how close I hold this valuable part of reef husbandry.
So before I appear to be on a soapbox.......Ill cover the necessities for QT....it aint that much really. Obviously, you need a tank, or a modified bucket, container, etc. or my current QT system here in Okinawa.....a 15 gallonish Sterilite tub. You will need something for water movement.....I like using a HOB filter, but currently am using a tiny powerhead. Some use the old school sponge air filters.....these are good for fry tanks as well.....but something to move water around that is compatible with the organisms you are going to place in the aquarium. The benefit here is that you can have a sponge to set in your sump (if you have one) and have a colonized media to place in the QT to minimize fouling the water. You will need a heater. I recommend that the temp of QT systems be kept at 80F. This will allow a faster cycle of the parasites lifecycle and elevate the fishs metabolism....but not dangerously. As for a light....well anything that will allow you to perform a good visual inspection on the organisms is suitable. If you are using it for a hermatypic coral or anemone QT then it will need to be light that can meet their photosynthetic requirements.....if it is for non-hermatypic corals like sun polyps....then any light will work.
It is best to QT for at least 2 weeks. If in those 2 weeks the fish or coral show no evidence of disease or parasites, then they may be suitable to add to the display. If however they do show symptoms, it is best to treat appropriately and then AFTER the treatment is complete, give them another 2 weeks in the QT to show they are cured and exhibit no signs or symptoms before adding them to the fray. Personally, I QT for 4 weeks. Given the lifecycles of all the parasites I know about......which I live with the hope is all of them, but I certainly leave room for a new one to come my way.......that is sufficient time for them to rear their ugly head and have me start my war with them.
For specific treatment modalities on a specific parasite, just ask. We will all be glad to help out and get you thru it. Remember, bad parasites happen to good aquarists. Just read Jacobs thread of over a year and a half now.......heartbreaking. Luckily, jacob is smart and he recovered.....quite nicely too.
There should be a thread that covers protozoans. I will look at it and update as necessary.
Hope this helps and if it leads to just one person adopting this husbandry method, it will be worth the time it took to type it.
Happy reefing.
The enemy of good enough is better.
