So far I have been lucky...BUT

[Meshmez]

I have had a 55gallon mixed reef running for about a year now. I have been bad and not done any QT... So far i have been lucky and not seen any signs of ich or any other diseases (knock on wood)

I now plan to QT anything going into my tank (i really didnt know in the beginning...)

My questions are this, if I havent seen any issues, can i assume i have dodged the bullet thus far and that my tank is currently clean of diseases/parasites?

I will soon be transferring the tank to a larger tank, would it make sense to QT the fish now? a lot of live rock, corals, inverts, water will be transferred to the new tank... from what i understand parasites need FISH to continue their lifecycle, so could i assume if i have the new tank set up and only transfer corals, rock, water and inverts and leave it like that for 6-8 weeks i would break any parasite lifecycles that may be happening without me knowing?

 

[b0bab0ey]

Fish diseases are akin to human diseases in many ways. For example, a cold/flu virus is always out there, but it's our immune system and/or our not coming in contact with it that prevents us from contracting it. Similarly, you could have Ich (or something else) in your tank right now but your fishes immune system is able to fight it off so you're not seeing any symptoms. The stress from the upcoming tank transfer could be the very thing that temporarily lowers their immune system and then BAM! you've got an outbreak on your hands. Just like when you're stressed and it lowers your immune system, making it easier for you to contract a virus.

Of course, like you said, you could just be lucky and there are no fish diseases currently present in your aquarium. And I'm a big believer in: If it ain't broke don't try to fix it. So, my vote goes to just doing your transfer and observing the fish closely during & after. If you have something, you should know shortly after the transfer is complete. Just keep your old tank up & running for a little while in case you need to QT/medicate.

 

[Meshmez]

putting the fish back into the old tank wouldnt help, since as you said, if a disease is in there, its in there, and at that point the diseases would have been transfered to my new tank. I guess my main question (or rather clarification) is, can ich and other diseases live in sand/LR/corals over a 6-8 week period? Or basically, if you were to have an outbreak of ich or some disease, and you removed EVERY fish from your tank, but left in all your corals, anemones, snails, crabs, sand, rock, etc would you be able to break the cycle just by keeping the fish out? and if so, after how long?

 

[sandwi54]

if you have no see ANY symptoms of parasites for a whole year, and by that i mean not even instances of fish scratching on the rock/sand, or twitching, then i'd say you probably have dodged the bullet. while the fish may not show external symptoms such as white spots, it is in my experience that it would still scratch if the parasite resides in the gills.

since you're moving the fish to a larger DT, i would actually place the fish in a cycled QT for 4 weeks prior to moving them to the new DT, just to see if the stress would bring out any potential parasite disease. If it does, your fish are in the right place for treatment. If not, perfect and move them to the new tank!

 

[Meshmez]

so again, does that mean that ich and other diseases (if they currently exist) will not be transfered over by corals, anemones, rock, water, snails, crabs, on and on and on. Fish are the ONLY transport of these?

 

[sandwi54]

Inverts themselves do not carry the disease. however, they could harbor parasite eggs. the probability is small but still there.

 

[Meshmez]

ok, which would be fine, assuming i leave the fish out of the tank for 6-8 weeks, which would starve out any disease/parasite that affects the fish.