quarantine starfish or not

[Chicago]

ok.. so I have a 10 gallon tank I put usually all my snails crabs, fire shrimp ect in for a few weeks before adding to the main tank. Paranoid about the ick egg attached some how inside the shell ect and hatachs and boom round we go again.. but here is the thing.. starfish take, at least I do ,, over night drip to acclimate. so doing that.. thoughts on putting them into main display without being quarantine for four weeks?

 

[wooden_reefer]

All outside sources of water go thru 12 weeks of fallowing before being added to my dt

 

[Newsmyrna80]

I would highly recommend quarantine for a starfish. I drip acclimated a sea urchin for 3 hours and brought in brook. I now quarantine all inverts for 12 weeks.

 

[Chicago]

THATS WHERE I AM AT.. OPPS sorry for caps.. thanks

 

[Dmorty217]

QT anything wet period

 

[snorvich]

QT anything wet period

Exactly.

 

[Chicago]

So if wet only and invert qt system . Is 21 days long enough for cleaner shrimp and star fish

 

[HumbleFish]

So if wet only and invert qt system . Is 21 days long enough for cleaner shrimp and star fish

No, 72 days (same as going fallow). I know... it's :spin2:.

 

[Chicago]

.. I was afraid of the advice I already knew.. bummer... and of course if I add another invert to the invert QT tank.. we are starting the clock over.

 

[HumbleFish]

.. I was afraid of the advice I already knew.. bummer... and of course if I add another invert to the invert QT tank.. we are starting the clock over.

Well, not exactly. The biggest concern is if you happened to get a coral/invert with tomont(s) encysted upon it, because that can take up to 72 days to release theronts. So, that's where the 72 day countdown comes from. However, theronts are free swimmers that can be "washed away" with a little DT water prior to being introduced.

So, let's say you have a coral frag that has been in isolation (i.e. fish free environment) for 60 days and then you go buy a bunch of snails. In 12 days time, the only risk posed by that frag is if theronts were on it in a drop of water.

The only "grey area" I'm not sure about is protomonts crawling around looking for a surface to encyst upon. Could protomonts be on a snail shell and crawl over to your coral frag, encysting there and starting the tomont stage all over again? Or can the threat of introducing protomonts be neutralized by washing them away, the same as with theronts? This is a question snorvich would need to answer - although I'm sure he's going to tell you to just restart the 72 day clock every time you add a new coral/invert.

 

[Spar]

If you fully trust in the ich life cycle, then one plan that would work for you is to QT new invert/non-fish arrivals for 2 to 3 days or so separate and then introduce them into the existing fallow invert QT. This will allow time for any Protomont's to fully encyst on the new inverts rather than allowing them to encyst on pre-existing inverts already 'on the clock'.

For pre-existing inverts, the clock would not need to be restarted; as the risk is what HumbleFish is stating, that a Protomont 'drops' in and then forms a cyst on a pre-existing invert... but if you allow the Protomont's to fully encyst first before adding them to your fallow invert QT (takes around 24 hours), then that risk is avoided. You would need to track which inverts were added when to make sure that each individual lasts 72 days before moving them over.

IMPORTANT: at each 72 day mark, you would then also need to isolate the inverts being moved over to your DT for 2-3 days to ensure any Trophont's die off that hitchhike with the small amount of water you are moving over. Takes 24 hours without a host. you need to do this since you won't know when the cysts are hatching on the various inverts/non-fish around the tank since the time schedule is all whacked.

 

[HumbleFish]

If you fully trust in the ich life cycle, then one plan that would work for you is to QT new invert/non-fish arrivals for 2 to 3 days or so separate and then introduce them into the existing fallow invert QT. This will allow time for any Protomont's to fully encyst on the new inverts rather than allowing them to encyst on pre-existing inverts already 'on the clock'.

In theory, this should work. Sort of like doing a "one time" TT on a coral/invert. And since they produce little ammonia and corals can survive 3 days without light, a 5 gal bucket should suffice. With a heater and small PH for circulation, I might add.