Quarantine for solo fish?

[risk1994]

Looking to get a small clownfish (A. Ocellaris) for my5.5g. He'll be the only fish in there due to the tanks small size.

 

Is there any benefit to putting him in quarantine? I'm not sure what the point would be since the only other occupants are some corals and CUC (and I havent even added the corals yet). If he comes down with ick or something he wouldnt be able to infect anyone else. If he dies I'd get him out the same day.

 

I dont actually have a QT tank so I'd have to set up a bucket or something with very frequent WC's, seems like that would be more stressfull than the DT.

[Asureef]

I think that will be fine. Though, you won't be able to treat him if he does have something.

[Rollermonkey]

If the clown ends up having a disease, you'll need to move it to a hospital tank. Most fish medications tend to be harmful to inverts and corals, and thus cannot be used in a tank with LR because you can't get stuff like copper back out.

[risk1994]

Thanks for the responses. What your saying makes sense.

 

The only issue I can think of is if he comes home from the store with say ich, I can take him out to a hosp tank but will the disease live on in the tank to infect whomever gets put in there next? Since the DT can never be treated this must be a big issue in reef tanks.

[nibor]

If you introduce ich into the display, you will have to leave it without fish for about two months to give it time to die out.

[risk1994]

So I just got a small ocellaris clown home from the store and noticed the SG of th store was 1.022, I keep mine at 1.026.

 

How long should I acclimate before going into DT? Seems like a prety big jump.

[jestep]

I would do about an hour at that much of a change. You could probably get away with less but that's a pretty substantial change ~29 to 35ppt which is more than 15%.

[risk1994]

Agreed, I was shocked at how low they keep it. There are corals in that store as well...suprising.

 

Aside from LR and snails hes the first inhabitant. Im considering lowering my sg down to like 1.024/3. Then bringing it back up slowly over days.

[Rollermonkey]

Low salinity in FOWLR tanks helps stave off diseases. I'm sure the coral tanks at the store have higher salinity.

[jestep]

It's cheaper to keep it low and fish are much less likely to get disease at a lower salinity. My corals definitely do better at slightly higher though, but I can see the costs becoming a big factor if you have to change out hundreds to thousands of gallons of each week.

[risk1994]

no corals in my tank yet, lowered salinity to 1.023/4. Ill bring it up slow over time. I just hate to make it go through that much of a change.