The cons of quarantine

[Reef Pilot]

Even after QT, I had an ich outbreak this summer. I had bought some new fish and a couple conch snails a couple months before and put them all in my QT tank for a month. Everyone looked good, fishing eating well, so I added them to my display tank.

About a month after that, I noticed some scratching and flashing with a couple of my fish. Unfortunately, I was away a lot this summer, and not in a good position to fight the disease in the best way possible. Most of my fish caught the ich, and two ended up dying (my long lived Copperband, and a Royal Gramma). Ironically, none of the new fish died or even displayed symptoms. Also, I have a very old Yellow Tang (10+ years) that did not show any symptoms either. I thought they were supposed to be more susceptible, but obviously not this one.

Thankfully now, my tank has recovered and all the fish are fine. I have some other butterfly fish (Pearlescales) that had it pretty bad, and thought I might lose them, but they also pulled through. The infected fish never did stop feeding, and I think that helped them fight the disease.

In the past, when I QT'ed new fish, I put them through the hyposalinity routine, with 100% success. This time because I had the conch snails, I couldn't do that. Obviously, the new fish (gobies) were carriers, even though they didn't show symptoms in the QT.

Anyway, another lesson for me. Despite all my past preaching about QT, I still got caught. I guess I will just have to be more careful. And summer, or late spring, is not a good time for me to acquire any new livestock.