Yellow watchman w/ pistol shrimp?

[dburt520]

I am getting ready to break down my 50gallon tank in preparation for my new tank to arrive (225G peninsula - can't wait!). One of the things I would like to do during the wait period is QT my current fish (2 clowns, yellow watchman and a mandarin goby) but I am not sure the best way to go about it.

I didn't QT any them when I put them into the 50G and have never seen spots or disease of any kind on the yellow watchman or mandarin, however I did see some spots on the clowns a few days after I first introduced them a few months ago. Ideally I want everything to be QT'd before it goes into the new tank (setting up a frag system as well as a QT setup now).

Thank you

 

[Jay Hemdal]

How long has it been since the last fish you acquired? There is something called "observational quarantine" where the fish are deemed healthy simply by virtue of the amount of time that has passed without them becoming sick.

Jay

 

[dburt520]

It has been a few months since the last fish was added.

I haven't seen anything during that time period that would indicate disease, however I want to make sure that it doesn't get brought into my new tank if there is anything.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Even a rigorous quarantine is no guarantee of complete control. I'm mostly worried about the mandarin, they really don't do well in bare QT, and they don't like copper all that much.

I don't know the logistics of what you are planning, but the quarantine that I follow takes a minimum of 45 days. Seems that if your fish have been asymptomatic for 50+ days, and you add even a 30 days to that (what a minimum quarantine would tank) you are well beyond the fallow period for ich, and you'd be fine.

Jay

 

[dburt520]

Logistically what my plan is:

1. Break down my Lagoon and move the fish to another tank (QT? Observation?).
2. Move corals to a dedicated frag system.
3. Prepare my new tank in its place - still have a bit until it gets delivered but I wanted to get the stand in place, skin the stand, set the sump in place, pumps etc... All of the rigamaroe involved.
4. New tank gets delivered, move into place, plumb tank, let it run for a week or so to test plumbing, drain, dry, add sand, fill with Saltwater, move my currently curing/cycling rock into tank, wait until numbers stabilize and then move my 4 fish and pistol shrimp into new tank.

From that point on I will continue with the QT as I do plan to add some other fish, a few of which will be tangs (Purple, Powder Blue and a bristletooth of some sort, haven't decided yet).

It doesn't seem worth the effort to qt the tangs if I introduce something into the DT from my very first fish (I don't know for sure, but I'd prefer to error on the side of caution as my tang track record is not great...)

A few things that I am not certain of:
1. How will my pistol shrimp and Goby do with minimal sand in the observation tank?
2. I can add pods to this system as needed to keep the Mandarin happy for a month or two, not a huge deal, but I don't know if it will be sufficient enough or not. He does eat frozen as well as pellets, but he still grazes pods all day in my lagoon tank now. The only issue I see here is reintroducing him into the new 225g too early and not allowing the pod population to mature.
3. I may end up splitting the clowns out into QT to start - but is there a benefit to this if I don't qt the watchman and mandarin?

Maybe I am better off to just start fresh, with all new fish when the time comes...?

Sorry, that was a bit lengthy.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

A couple of things - your pistol shrimp wouldn’t be able to go through quarantine with the goby, since you’d need to use copper at some point. Powder blues are ich magnets, personally, I won’t add them to a tank with established fish due to the risk(grin).
I do think that you should either actively quarantine all of the fish, or just do observational on them all, splitting them up would defeat the purpose of an active quarantine.
FWIW: my basic quarantine is 30 days coppersafe followed by 2x praziquantel for two weeks. I almost always give the fish another two weeks of observation at the end.
Jay