adova
02/27/2016, 09:39 PM
I have been in the hobby for almost 10 years now and I have to say that fighting fish disease has become increasingly difficult. Perhaps it is the sheer numbers of LFS that fail to QT properly and let infected fish permeate the hobby. But, regardless, I have a plan to beat this!
Pre-cursor - after having my most recent tank (180g) established for about 1 year with 10 fish, I introduced some Turbo Snails, a Clam, and 2 Fighting Conch all within a 1 week period. Within 2 more weeks or so, all but 2 fish died. Velvet was the culprit. My own damn fault, right? Should have QT'd the new inverts.
Most inverts are not affected by diseases that affect fish, but they can propagate them to fish. This means that if you want a good chance at a pristine aquarium, all inverts should be QT'd fishless for ~75 days. That's a damn long time to wait and most people won't - at least not for their first introduction.
Then you have corals - which may have the same fish parasites and more issues with coral specific diseases. Add to that you need to maintain a frag tank with extra lights and what not. This is getting harder by the minute!
My idea - go all invert and coral first! Why not introduce your snails, corals, shrimp, clams, etc. first and let them mature. Get a beautiful SPS / Zoa tank going and add fish later after their full QT process. Spend a year or two building an awesome fishless DT. Then add some fish that you know are safe after their own QT process.
To me, this is also a huge stress reliever for the caretaker - it let's you focus on getting the tank params perfect for your corals and inverts. Adding fish then becomes "decorative". I know this will not fit the desire for most aquarist, but perhaps for some it will give you a different perspective on setting up a new tank...
Well - that's my rant!
Shawn
Pre-cursor - after having my most recent tank (180g) established for about 1 year with 10 fish, I introduced some Turbo Snails, a Clam, and 2 Fighting Conch all within a 1 week period. Within 2 more weeks or so, all but 2 fish died. Velvet was the culprit. My own damn fault, right? Should have QT'd the new inverts.
Most inverts are not affected by diseases that affect fish, but they can propagate them to fish. This means that if you want a good chance at a pristine aquarium, all inverts should be QT'd fishless for ~75 days. That's a damn long time to wait and most people won't - at least not for their first introduction.
Then you have corals - which may have the same fish parasites and more issues with coral specific diseases. Add to that you need to maintain a frag tank with extra lights and what not. This is getting harder by the minute!
My idea - go all invert and coral first! Why not introduce your snails, corals, shrimp, clams, etc. first and let them mature. Get a beautiful SPS / Zoa tank going and add fish later after their full QT process. Spend a year or two building an awesome fishless DT. Then add some fish that you know are safe after their own QT process.
To me, this is also a huge stress reliever for the caretaker - it let's you focus on getting the tank params perfect for your corals and inverts. Adding fish then becomes "decorative". I know this will not fit the desire for most aquarist, but perhaps for some it will give you a different perspective on setting up a new tank...
Well - that's my rant!
Shawn