Approaching the end of my fallow period - did I screw up?

[dweber618]

Fish came out 12/1, then I kept him in hypo for a little over a month. During that time I also did one formalin dip. Slowly brought salinity up over the next couple of weeks. Then decided I would do TTM since I still had time left in the fallow period and chances of hypo actually working were slim (at least from what I've read). Fish has now been in observation after TTM since 2/12 and has shown no signs of disease since early December, eating well and looks 100%.

My plan is to add him back to DT on 2/28 - 90 days after removal.

I wouldn't be questioning myself about adding them - except - I added new coral on 1/21. Didn't think anything of it (as they are not fish) until I was reading through the forum and saw someone say after adding anything (even coral) the 72 day clock starts over . I dipped the coral in Melafix before adding it to the tank. I added several larger frags of candy cane coral, GSP, Kenya tree, and a hammer coral.

Corals came from another reefer in town, the fish in her tank never showed signs, or died, from ich (which I realize doesn't mean it isn't there). But I don't understand the life cycle of ich well enough to know the chances of it getting in my tank from the frags. It will have been 38 days since adding the frags that I want to introduce the fish.

I know there could even be a .0001% chance, which is all it would take....just like there is a chance it could be a super strain of ich that lasts past 90 days of no fish.

Thoughts on the likelihood of ich being introduced on coral frags?

 

[Nina51]

unlikely but not impossible. after everything you have done to eradicate the problem in your dt, it would be a shame if the unlikely happened. i guess it just depends on how much of a gambler you are.

 

[dweber618]

unlikely but not impossible. after everything you have done to eradicate the problem in your dt, it would be a shame if the unlikely happened. i guess it just depends on how much of a gambler you are.

Yup - that's my current struggle.

What stage of ich is it that drops off the fish and sits on the bottom until hatching? That's what I would be worried about for being on the coral frags - correct?

 

[jbvdhp]

Yup - that's my current struggle.



What stage of ich is it that drops off the fish and sits on the bottom until hatching? That's what I would be worried about for being on the coral frags - correct?

Well from what we know, it won't grow on the coral tissue itself, but perhaps the piece of substrate it's attached to. Can you remove the coral from the substrate (moot point anyway as you've already put it in)?

If you don't want to gamble then start that clock over to be safe. Not too many people qt corals even though I suppose we should. I just take them off the plugs.

 

[dweber618]

Well from what we know, it won't grow on the coral tissue itself, but perhaps the piece of substrate it's attached to. Can you remove the coral from the substrate (moot point anyway as you've already put it in)?

If you don't want to gamble then start that clock over to be safe. Not too many people qt corals even though I suppose we should. I just take them off the plugs.

Gotcha.

They didn't come on plugs, some came on rock, the candy cane coral was just the base of the coral, and the hammer coral was the same way.

There's always a chance I messed up during QT somehow as well, so no matter when I put the fish in I'm risking it.

 

[jbvdhp]

Gotcha.



They didn't come on plugs, some came on rock, the candy cane coral was just the base of the coral, and the hammer coral was the same way.



There's always a chance I messed up during QT somehow as well, so no matter when I put the fish in I'm risking it.

Then don't risk it and just continue with qt and running the tank fallow

 

[mitchrapp]

What you should be concerned about are encysted tomonts on the rock the coral is attached to. What is less clear is if tomonts can encyst on coral skeleton. The 72 day fallow period is to allow encysted tomonts to hatch. If there are no fish when they hatch, they will die off. So the safest course of action is to just wait it out until 72 days after you put the frags in the DT. I would personally do this for peace of mind, especially after you have already endured such a long fallow period.

A little more risky would be to take the frags out now and put them into their own QT. Then you can continue on with the original plan (putting the fish back in the DT on 2/28). Any tomonts that hatched in your DT since adding the corals will have died off already or within the next 10 days.

More risky is just to leave the frags in the DT and put the fish back in on 2/28. As stated before, most people don't QT their corals, so this would be slightly better than that (since they have had almost a month in a fallow tank already).

 

[dweber618]

What you should be concerned about are encysted tomonts on the rock the coral is attached to. What is less clear is if tomonts can encyst on coral skeleton. The 72 day fallow period is to allow encysted tomonts to hatch. If there are no fish when they hatch, they will die off. So the safest course of action is to just wait it out until 72 days after you put the frags in the DT. I would personally do this for peace of mind, especially after you have already endured such a long fallow period.

A little more risky would be to take the frags out now and put them into their own QT. Then you can continue on with the original plan (putting the fish back in the DT on 2/28). Any tomonts that hatched in your DT since adding the corals will have died off already or within the next 10 days.

More risky is just to leave the frags in the DT and put the fish back in on 2/28. As stated before, most people don't QT their corals, so this would be slightly better than that (since they have had almost a month in a fallow tank already).

Great - thanks for the recommendations!