Disease Prevention Question

[DDon]

Since an ich outbreak and the "fun" of a fallow tank, I proactively treat all new fish with TTM and prazi. While treating a trio of fish, I had an issue that caused me to pull one of the fish just before the second transfer and place in another tank. A bicolor blenny was chewing the fins off of my yasha goby so the goby was removed. The goby was put in a 10 gal tank with a pistol shrimp I was QTing. The plan was after QT to place goby in with pistol shrimp to pair up before going in my display. So the goby has been in with the shrimp for going on 8 weeks now. The goby's fins have all grown back and they have paired up. There has been no sign of ich on goby that I can tell.
I wanted to get the experts opinions on what they would do. Run the goby through tank transfer before putting in the display or the QT only is sufficient and put him in display.

Thanks
Dale

 

[Paul B]

I keep my fish disease free with the use of live foods like live blackworms. With this system I don't have to quarantine, all my paired fish are spawning even the 23 year old fireclowns. Fish in breeding condition don't hardly ever get sick. There has not been ich in my tank in over 30 years. It is all due to the food.
Many people will disagree with me, but my tank is very old and has no problems.

 

[Dmorty217]

If you want to be 100% sure then TTM is the only way. I proactively treat fish no matter what and I currently have a group going thru CP

 

[DDon]

I keep my fish disease free with the use of live foods like live blackworms. With this system I don't have to quarantine, all my paired fish are spawning even the 23 year old fireclowns. Fish in breeding condition don't hardly ever get sick. There has not been ich in my tank in over 30 years. It is all due to the food.
Many people will disagree with me, but my tank is very old and has no problems.

Hey Paul,
I have read quite a few of your threads, quite amazing what you have done, you are an inspiration. I have used live blackworms in the past based on what you have written. Need to find another local source now on start a culture. Hopefully some day I will be able to achieve what you have done but I'm not there yet. Since I have gone through a recent ich outbreak I will continue with tank transfer for now (prefer not to use chemicals if I can help it). I would like to know when/how you got comfortable with adding items without quarantine if you don't mind sharing.

 

[DDon]

If you want to be 100% sure then TTM is the only way. I proactively treat fish no matter what and I currently have a group going thru CP

Thanks Dmorty, I was pretty much expecting that answer but wanted an opinion besides my own. Being gun-shy after having to rip the tank apart to catch the last few fish after ich outbreak, I tend to err on the side of extreme caution.
Due to some travel commitments, I can't fit tank transfer in until the second week of April. Guess I will have to count on others to do daily manual top offs on this thank which I was hoping to avoid.

 

[Paul B]

It was about 1982 or so after I discovered that blackworms would get my fish into breeding condition after a few weeks of feeding them every day. I noticed that my fish always had ich like all fish in those days and I had to continousely keep copper in the water.
My blue devils started to spawn, then my clownfish and I noticed that I didn't see any more ich. I stopped adding copper and just continued to feed live worms every day and I never saw ich again. The first blue devils spawned in 1972 but I couldn't get the worms every day but now I can. I also feed clams because that is a whole animal, not like squid tentacles or shrimp that is also just the muscle without the guts. To me this is very simple and I have never had any problems with disease and it is a non issue.
In a newer tank it may take a little longer because new tanks are not very healthy. But if you can get the fish into breeding condition, you should not have any more problems with any disease. You need to feed live food such as worms every day,not just occasionally.
If you have a diatom filter, that would help greatly while you are using that tank transfer method as a diatom filter will remove any free swimming ich that is not attached to the fish. But it won't cure the disease.

 

[DDon]

Thanks for sharing Paul. I am in agreement that good nutrition is important to the long term health of the fish. I will look at getting back into the live foods in addition to whole foods.

With that said, I don't ever see myself going away from quarantine and proactive treatment with TT. I don't believe these 2 methods (proper diet and QT) are in conflict with each other but instead compliment each other. I'm pretty confident that at this time I do not have ich in my tank (I'm sure some will disagree as I have read enough threads arguing that it is always there), so it makes sense, in my mind at least, to do what I can to not introduce it. Then I can keep them healthy and in "breeding condition", and who doesn't want to be in breeding condition , through good diet.
The ich outbreak I had this spring was the first time I had to deal with disease in a marine aquarium and it happened right after an upgrade. Just don't want to ever deal with it again if I can help it.

Hope you don't take my response as disagreeing with you. I don't have anywhere close to the experience you do and will never have a tank as mature as yours. I move too often for work so always seem to be dealing with new/newer tank. I appreciate you insight.

Now to take my thread completely off topic. With a tank the age of yours, have you ever dealt with "old tank syndrome"?

 

[Paul B]

With a tank the age of yours, have you ever dealt with "old tank syndrome"?

No, but maybe that occurs at 44 years of age.