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Ques. (Question of the Day?) clean up crew acclimation and quarantine.
- Thread starter Cpage101
- Start date
I know I may be playing with fire, but I honestly have never quarantined anything since getting my feet wet back in 2004. I like to live dangerously. With that said, I do temp acclimate CUC before dropping them into the system. Other sensitive inverts do go through a needed drip acclimation. Maybe I set up a fish and invert QT this year during one of Petco's dollar per gallon sales.
I have not do anything special when adding new inhabitants.
However I saw an interview with @Humblefish and he has vendors for all sea creatures that do QT.
Also if using UV sterilizer is QT that important??
However I saw an interview with @Humblefish and he has vendors for all sea creatures that do QT.
Also if using UV sterilizer is QT that important??
OP
OP
This also gives new reefers a place to go and see if there question is answered already as well as a place to ask more about a specific topic.@Cpage101 Love the question of the day by the way, it drives engagement
OP
OP
UV would only help manage it will not eradicate ICH nor Velvet it will always be in there if transfered into your system from a CUC
I do not quarantine my CUC. I normally temp acclimate them before beginning to mix in my tanks water. It can be difficult as we all know not just throwing them into their new home.
I mix in some of my water to the bag they’re in for around an hour before dropping them into the new tank. I then get rid of the mixture of water, making sure never to add it to my tank.
I mix in some of my water to the bag they’re in for around an hour before dropping them into the new tank. I then get rid of the mixture of water, making sure never to add it to my tank.
Cheddah93
Well known member
I do not quarantine anything or acclimate anything beyond temp and drop… cleanup crew corals and fish included.
I’m sure I’m playing with fire but it just works for me. I’ve done it with a $5 fish and a gem tang when they were $1200 and still have them all.
I’m sure I’m playing with fire but it just works for me. I’ve done it with a $5 fish and a gem tang when they were $1200 and still have them all.
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Quarantine across the board has become a large focus of our business. Fish of course and now inverts and coral as well. Parasites can easily get into an aquarium on the shells of snails, crabs, coral bases, etc. Any hard surface with saltwater. Uronema can be a sneaky killer of fish and doesn't need a fish host to persist, so taking measures to keep it out of your system is another big step in avoiding unexplained fish loss
This is how I've always done it too, however, after getting montipora eating nudibrachs, I'm thinking I should start qt'ng the CUC as well. I haven't added anything since the beginning of December except for snails and a feather duster.
There are simple facts in the hobby, I feel like on of the "inconvenient truths" is that if you don't QT everything, eventually, it will bite you. Say there's a 5% chance of this one thing and a 50% chance of another more common thing, you roll the dice each time you get a new critter. Some people are lucky and go years without issues. Others kill all of their fish regularly.
The other issue is, and pertinent to this question, if you don't QT ALL critters going into the tank, you will still likely get things like ich given its free-swimming and settling stages of life. This leads many people to throw up their hands and say "Jesus take the wheel I am not quarantining anything!"
There is also the issue of coral pests that regularly get through coral QT which is maddening.
The long and short seems to be, if you have room, and utmost dedication to health and wellbeing of your critters, then a rigorous QT of all animals is the only surefire way to keep a DT clean. But anything less than 100% leaves you exposed to some small degree.
I am not sure where I'll fall on this in this go-around. One way would be to introduce clean up crew before fish and run it fallow for 7 weeks just feeding algae and CUC while you QT your fish then add them when out of QT. Man that seems like a lot of work and waiting, but is it what is needed? And what happens when you need to add more snails in a year? More snail QT?
In the past I didn't really QT, just kept fish all fat and was by and large successful. I don't know if that makes me irresponsible or normal. I know we get cats/dogs and have them de-wormed/treated. Why wouldn't we do that for fish? Interesting discussion
The other issue is, and pertinent to this question, if you don't QT ALL critters going into the tank, you will still likely get things like ich given its free-swimming and settling stages of life. This leads many people to throw up their hands and say "Jesus take the wheel I am not quarantining anything!"
There is also the issue of coral pests that regularly get through coral QT which is maddening.
The long and short seems to be, if you have room, and utmost dedication to health and wellbeing of your critters, then a rigorous QT of all animals is the only surefire way to keep a DT clean. But anything less than 100% leaves you exposed to some small degree.
I am not sure where I'll fall on this in this go-around. One way would be to introduce clean up crew before fish and run it fallow for 7 weeks just feeding algae and CUC while you QT your fish then add them when out of QT. Man that seems like a lot of work and waiting, but is it what is needed? And what happens when you need to add more snails in a year? More snail QT?
In the past I didn't really QT, just kept fish all fat and was by and large successful. I don't know if that makes me irresponsible or normal. I know we get cats/dogs and have them de-wormed/treated. Why wouldn't we do that for fish? Interesting discussion
