How to Quarantine Crocea Clam, Mandarins and Cleanup Crew

[fishlearner]

I had Ich before because I didn't quarantine. I do NOT want to ever go through that again.

I have a 120 gallon DT and a 20 gallon QT/hospital tank.

Here's my questions.
I hope to buy a Crocea Clam and some Mandarins and a big cleanup crew for my 120 which is sorely lacking. I don't want to risk Ich hitchhiking with any of them.

1) Will the clam be o.k. for 10 weeks in my 20 gallon QT with marginal (2 t5's) lighting ?

2) If I get the mandarins eating in the QT, will the stress from moving them to the DT cause them to forget how to eat stuff other than copepods and will I have to teach them all over again ?

3) What about cleanup crew ? Will the snails starve in my (clean) QT ?

Thanks !

[mbd521]

I am not 100% sure on this, and I am sure someone will correct me if Im wrong, but I don't believe ich affects inverts... the things you would need to worry about would be parasites, I have read that clams can carry flatworms and other parasites. honestly haveny read it, but I know there is a sticky on just this subject somewhere in this forum... try checking it out.


Posted from ReefCentral.com App for Android

[fishlearner]

Originally Posted by mbd521

I am not 100% sure on this, and I am sure someone will correct me if Im wrong, but I don't believe ich affects inverts... the things you would need to worry about would be parasites, I have read that clams can carry flatworms and other parasites. honestly haveny read it, but I know there is a sticky on just this subject somewhere in this forum... try checking it out.


Posted from ReefCentral.com App for Android

This is true, ich doesn't affect inverts, but they can clearly come from a tank that has fish and Ich in it and I really don't want ich cysts transferred this way...

[michaelr]

Originally Posted by fishlearner

I had Ich before because I didn't quarantine. I do NOT want to ever go through that again.

I have a 120 gallon DT and a 20 gallon QT/hospital tank.

Here's my questions.
I hope to buy a Crocea Clam and some Mandarins and a big cleanup crew for my 120 which is sorely lacking. I don't want to risk Ich hitchhiking with any of them.

1) Will the clam be o.k. for 10 weeks in my 20 gallon QT with marginal (2 t5's) lighting ?

2) If I get the mandarins eating in the QT, will the stress from moving them to the DT cause them to forget how to eat stuff other than copepods and will I have to teach them all over again ?

3) What about cleanup crew ? Will the snails starve in my (clean) QT ?

Thanks !

i see where your coming from about being worried with inverts. I personally do not worry like that. keep this in mind when i say with my suggestion of only keeping the clam for 24 hours in a qt tank. Therefore all the water that was in the clam's system would be flushed out. maybe gently wipe the shell off. As for the mandarin, they have a really thick mucous coat. I know this doesnt make them impervious to ich. But if you buy from a very reliable retailer that rarely has diseased sensitive fish like DD these two factors will make it a pretty safe bet.

[devildog999]

IMO/E, don't quarantine mandarins. They require wayyyy too much food on a daily basis to be kept in quarantine. They need to go into a tank that has a WELL established pod population for them to thrive. You would literally be dropping a $10 bottle of pods in daily to feed him (unless you buy one that lives off frozen food which is highly unlikely to find). At 6 weeks apprx of quarantine, that is A LOT of money. Mandarins are one of the only fish that most IMO would recommend not putting through quarantine. Plus there extremely thick mucous coat means they are a lot less of a risk for ich issues.

[nlgill13]

How long has your tank been running? Do you have a refugium or a place where the pods can multiply (where the mandarins can't go)?

[joegoersch]

Tank up for 8 months, 40 gallon breeder refugium with chaeto and lots of LR for pods