Corals bring in disease?

[sac10918]

Hi there
I wanted to buy a few new corals and some cheato today to put into my 24 gallon aquapod. I had a bout with brook a few months ago but all fish are healthy now and the tank is disease free. I am sorta scared to add the corals and cheato for fear they might bring in disease.
Can anyone confirm or ease my fears? Will adding corals bring in disease or is it mostly when you add a new fish?
Lauren

 

[dmjordan]

i don't believe corals bring disease into your tank but i am not sure. fish diseases as far as i know are not transferable between fish and corals....but treating a sick fish with chemicals (copper) or doing a hyposalinity will hurt your corals.
not much help but you get a free bump.

 

[saltn00b]

it is possible to bring ich into a tank from a frag of coral, because part of the life cycle involves the parasite digging into calcium / porous material (IE sand, LR, etc)
this has been documented a few times, but it is VERY rare.
i dont know if anyother disease for fish can be introduced this way.
a vast majority of the time is because you add new fish, or the parameters / conditions are not right.

 

[dmjordan]

Originally Posted by saltn00b
it is possible to bring ich into a tank from a frag of coral, because part of the life cycle involves the parasite digging into calcium / porous material (IE sand, LR, etc)
this has been documented a few times, but it is VERY rare.
i dont know if anyother disease for fish can be introduced this way.
i didn't know that. thanks!
always nice to learn new things

 

[sac10918]

Hey salt noob,
Thanks for your answer. My fish are happy and healthy right now and I would hate to introduce something into the tank because I wanted a new coral.
I saw a product at the LFS today that is like a dip for corals. IT says it won't harm your corals but can be used as a dip for them so that they do not introduce any parasites, fungi, or protozoans. Any thoughts on this?
DM Jordan
Thanks for the help and the bump!

 

[saltn00b]

i dont know anything about that product. if you wanted to try it on your own corals and let us know what happens that would be nice! i guess if it does not harm any corals than it cant hurt....weather or not it actually helps, and with what is different story, mostly because it is a very hard thing to measure.
honestly, the chances of introducing something bad into your system, especially for your fish, from a coral is really pretty slim IMO. most people take no precaution whatsoever here. If you are really paranoid about it, try the product, but make sure to let us know if it ever clearly did not work.