fox face rabbit demise

[bandr1002]

so this will be the third fish in my tank to go. i am not looking forward to this but i cannot avoid the inevitable. unfortionatley i do not own a QT. i am going to pull the rest of my livestock out though and donate them to a LFS so that my tank can sit empty for about four months. couple of ?'s for all of you fellow reefers.

1. if the foxface dies (being a venomus species) will this harm the clean up crew. i ask because it is near impossible to remove him. he is not eating and he is hiding behind all of my rockwork.

2. if i empty the tank for a period of 3-4 months (leaving only my LR, corals, and clean up crew) will this allow the tank time to be devoid of any parasites? i know that i have ich and black ich in my system.

any info and/or experience in these matters would be greatly appreciated.

btw. 75 gal reef, 29 gal fuge, all parameters check out, 6 at 54 watt t5 tek fixture, aqua c remora skimmer (in fuge), LPS, SPS, and some softies. i also have a RBTA, and a harliquin.

 

[Gwynhidwy]

I have never heard of a rabbitfish harming a cleanup crew after death.

3-4 months fallow is definitely enough for the ich and as far as I know it is long enough for the black ich as well. Black ich can live for a while longer than crypt without a host, but I don't think it is over 4 months. One potential problem is that I have read that the parasite responsible for black ich can host in non fish (ie, sea cucumbers), you might double check that to make sure you don't have any other potential hosts.

The real question is, when you start adding fish again, how will you avoid reinfecting your tank without quarantining new fish?

 

[bandr1002]

I plan on having a QT set up before putting fish into the system again. I will be able to QT all new fish for 6-8 weeks before entering them in DT.