Introducing disease when adding an anemone?

[daniella3d]

Hi,

I have a pair of clownfish in quarantine for 5 weeks now and 3 days ago I introduced a seabee anemone which one of my clown is already hosting.

Now I am wondering if there is a risk of introducing some disease with the anemone? I guess to be safe I should quarantine another 4 weeks?

I acclimated the anemone and then took it out of the water in my hand and put it in my quarantine tank, so only very little of the bag water got into the tank with the anemone.

The tank the anemone was had no fish in it, although not sure if it was not connected to other tanks in the store.

How strong of a risk is that?

[Aquattro]

Well, if it was wet, it's a risk. How great? Dunno, but you seem to put a lot of effort into quarantine, hate to mess it up this once, no?

[George]

I will let them be in QT for 4+ more weeks if your QT has enough light for the nem.

[reefwars]

If you do qt which i also say you should add a tupperware of sand so the sebae has somewhere to set its foot they are sand dwellers;)

[daniella3d]

I see. The anemone is currently attached to my bare bottom quarantine tank. there is no sand, does that matter? I guess I will take no chance and leave them there for another 4 weeks...sigh

The anemone seem to be getting better and better each day. It's regaining a bit of color and I have 4 x 24 watt T5HO over a standard 20 gallons tank.

If you do qt which i also say you should add a tupperware of sand so the sebae has somewhere to set its foot they are sand dwellers;)

[Myka]

Well, if it was wet, it's a risk.

Agreed. Anything wet technically should be quarantined to maintain complete diligence, however most people are not this diligent.

Personally, I dip all corals, and quarantine all fish. Shrimp, crabs, anemones, etc aren't regarded in my quarantine/dipping efforts. Albeit, I do dip snails in coral dips, though not for very long as they can often carry things like flat worms.

[daniella3d]

Usualy when I get a shrimp I don't quarantine it. I take it out of the bag after acclimatation and put it in my tank without droping water from the bag, so only water that is on the shrimp might be a risk.

I also did that for my long tentacles anemone about 2 months ago, acclimated it 4 hours and took it out of the bag in my hands and in the tank. I did the same thing for my clam, and for my others previous anemones, 2 rock flowers and one maxi mini.

But after reading so many horror stories about parasites I now realize that I was lucky not getting anything nasty, or is the risk so low that it is not worth to quarantine those...that's what I was wondering about.

Agreed. Anything wet technically should be quarantined to maintain complete diligence, however most people are not this diligent.

Personally, I dip all corals, and quarantine all fish. Shrimp, crabs, anemones, etc aren't regarded in my quarantine/dipping efforts. Albeit, I do dip snails in coral dips, though not for very long as they can often carry things like flat worms.

[Myka]

...or is the risk so low that it is not worth to quarantine those...that's what I was wondering about.

Well, I'm not sure about a scientific standpoint, but I would consider inverts like shrimp/nems to be much less of a threat simply because they don't have any live rock. Snails' shells are like mini live rocks though, so I do consider snails to be a threat. Sorry, that doesn't really answer your question too well. Maybe there is some more authoritative information out there.

[daniella3d]

I will definitly quarantine a few more weeks, but I am really curious about this.

Sorry, that doesn't really answer your question too well. Maybe there is some more authoritative information out there.

[paddyob]

LFS don't usually qt nems and inverts.

Usually right into acclimate and then tank. Possible dip.

[daniella3d]

Ok but many LFS have ich, marine velvet and brook in their tanks, so is a LFS a reference?

Does liveaquaria do the same with anemone?

LFS don't usually qt nems and inverts.

Usually right into acclimate and then tank. Possible dip.

[marie]

I think if it is just a coral (or nem) then the risk of adding a parasite is low. Corals and nems slime up, expand and contract and would make it hard for any parasite to stick there for any length of time. The risk gets greater when the coral or nem is on a rock....the bigger the rock, the greater the surface area for potential problems

[daniella3d]

that make sense. I was more afraid that some free swimming parasite could have been in the water with the anemone though, but I guess the risk is very low and only the water that was stick to the anemone got into the tank.

I think if it is just a coral (or nem) then the risk of adding a parasite is low. Corals and nems slime up, expand and contract and would make it hard for any parasite to stick there for any length of time. The risk gets greater when the coral or nem is on a rock....the bigger the rock, the greater the surface area for potential problems

[gregzz4]

On a side note ...
Are you able to run that 4 x 24 in pairs? One pair to start, then the second for mid-day?
Only reason I ask is it seems a lot for the clowns in a QT if all they get is darkness, and then BAM 96 watts, especially of T5HO.
I have a 15w T8 for my 20 that I'll use for fish, and a 65w PC for light dependant dudes.

[daniella3d]

There is an anemone in there so that one need a lot of light.

The clownfish don't mind the light at all either.

I start actinic + fiji purple first, then the aquablue special kick in for about 6 hours.

The anemone would probably not survive under PC.

On a side note ...
Are you able to run that 4 x 24 in pairs? One pair to start, then the second for mid-day?
Only reason I ask is it seems a lot for the clowns in a QT if all they get is darkness, and then BAM 96 watts, especially of T5HO.
I have a 15w T8 for my 20 that I'll use for fish, and a 65w PC for light dependant dudes.

[daniella3d]

Well, I had to move the anemone to my main tank already because it was dying. It was so shriveled that I thought it would die that same day. The tentacles were flat and empty, with no substance. It was going worse each day.

I am not sure if it is the T5HO light, or the clownfish hosting already that bothered the anemone but it was going to die.

After a day alone in the main tank, no host and good Pheonix 14K MH plus a bit of natural sunlight (one hour), the anemone has made an incredible come back. It is now beautifull and full.

I just hope that there was no disease with it. Again I took it out in my hand to put it in the tank so very little of the water got into my tank. I had no choice, either lose the anemone or take the risk and put it in the main tank.

I had the anemone with the clownfish in quarantine for 2 weeks now. I wish I could have keep it at least another week in quarantine.