Do I need to quarantine my new cleaner shrimp?

[yoshii]

I'm going to get a cleaner shrimp really soon, and I was wondering if I needed to quarantine it, could it carry stuff dangerous to my fish? I have no coral, only 4 fish right now in my 55 gal, 2 common clowns, royal gramma, and a yellow clown goby. I have my quarantine tank set up, and today I'm also doing a water change, and I was thinking that since I'm not using the quarantine right now, I could take it down, unless I'm going to use it for the shrimp.
Thanks

 

[btldreef]

Cleaner Shrimp do not need to be placed in quarantine. They can not carry ich like a fish can, etc.

 

[noah's nemo]

Umm,anything wet can carry ich...hosting is a different story.If it is wet and will be going into your DT,its best to QT..so ,simple answer ,yes IMO.

 

[yoshii]

Well does that mean I can just "wash" the shrimp with some aquarium water and it will be fine?

 

[noah's nemo]

Take a look at some of the threads going on now in fish disease and treatment, and you'll have a better understanding of why we should QT everything...

 

[mrdc]

Originally Posted by Noah's Nemo
http:///forum/post/3236673
Umm,anything wet can carry ich...hosting is a different story.If it is wet and will be going into your DT,its best to QT..so ,simple answer ,yes IMO.
Okay, then how do you handle coral? None of us QT coral as far as I know and they are surely wet and most just bag float them. I do think there is a rinse you can apply before adding a coral but I don't have the specifics right now. I am not trying to start an argument with you but I am curious when you make the "wet" statement. I drip acclimate all inverts to not shock them but I am not thinking about ich.

 

[noah's nemo]

I have 0 corals and probably never will(angel)
Did you read any of the very interesting threads in the disease section.I know they do not mention corals,but just curious,why could you not QT those too

...

 

[yoshii]

well actually I've read that people quarantine corals all the time
I've decided to quarantine my shrimp anyways, better safe than sorry!

 

[noah's nemo]

 

[btldreef]

I QT corals.
Honestly, I've never QT'd inverts, but I do QT rock, corals and fish.
Yes, anything wet can carry ich. However, it can't host it. This is the reason why when treating fish or a tank with ich you can simply remove the fish, treat and return, even if the inverts stay in the tank. I've never heard or seen an invert give a fish ich.

 

[mrdc]

I guess I mispoke about the QTing corals.

My bad ...

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by mrdc
http:///forum/post/3236981
I guess I mispoke about the QTing corals.

My bad ...
Most people that don't QT corals usually at least dip.
If you've ever had the misfortune of dealing with nasty critters that can come one corals (red bugs, zoa eating spiders, zoa eating nudi's, montipora eating nudi's) you'll dip everything and QT everything. I QT and dip and still ended up with Red Bugs on my SPS

 

[mrdc]

Bristle worms have been the only hitchhiker I have gotten in the past and I didn't mine having them. I guess I better start considering a dip now that I am back to stocking my tank.

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by mrdc
http:///forum/post/3237043
Bristle worms have been the only hitchhiker I have gotten in the past and I didn't mine having them. I guess I better start considering a dip now that I am back to stocking my tank.
You've been lucky. I used to say the same thing. Then the tidal wave hit.
Over the past 4-5 months I've encountered:
2 Pistol shrimp (one came with rock, one came in a large lobo colony)
1 Reef lobster (came in rock, QT'd the rock for 2 weeks and this sucker still evaded me and made it into my tank - wasn't fun to catch him

)
Montipora eating Nudi's - not sure where they came from
Red Bugs - came on one of my SPS frags that I dipped in Interceptor for 7 hours and still got them

All of this has happened even with dipping and QT'ing.
If your LFS deals with wild stock, which most do, unless they deal exclusively with ORA, you're bound to get something sooner or later, it just depends how bad. Red Bugs is by far the hardest!

 

[fibinotchi]

Originally Posted by BTLDreef
http:///forum/post/3237049
You've been lucky. I used to say the same thing. Then the tidal wave hit.
Over the past 4-5 months I've encountered:
2 Pistol shrimp (one came with rock, one came in a large lobo colony)
1 Reef lobster (came in rock, QT'd the rock for 2 weeks and this sucker still evaded me and made it into my tank - wasn't fun to catch him

)
Montipora eating Nudi's - not sure where they came from
Red Bugs - came on one of my SPS frags that I dipped in Interceptor for 7 hours and still got them

All of this has happened even with dipping and QT'ing.
If your LFS deals with wild stock, which most do, unless they deal exclusively with ORA, you're bound to get something sooner or later, it just depends how bad. Red Bugs is by far the hardest!
I am just curious if you have ever caught anything in QT before adding it to your tank? How do you miss a reef lobster? Do you come check with a light in the middle of the night? That is the best way to find hitchhikers.

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by Fibinotchi
http:///forum/post/3237106
I am just curious if you have ever caught anything in QT before adding it to your tank? How do you miss a reef lobster? Do you come check with a light in the middle of the night? That is the best way to find hitchhikers.
Yes, most of this was caught in the QT before it ended up in my DT's, with exception of the Red Bugs (still haven't figured that one out) and the Reef Lobster.
I'm meticulous with rocks in the QT. I poke through the holes with pipe cleaners, look at different times during the day and night (I actually set my alarm for 2am to check the QT tank when LR is in there). I'm not sure how the reef lobster was able to evade me

The rock he was in was out of water for a good 20 minutes before it went in the DT because I was aquascaping at the same time and the little monster didn't show up. Normally if they're exposed to air for that long, they'll pop their heads out to search for water again.
In the past I've caught other critters in the QT, mantis shrimps, more pistols, green serpent star (the rock I bought was out of a tank that had them, so he wasn't really a true hitchhiker). Even caught flatworms on a Fox Coral while it was in the QT.
I QT everything except inverts. My husband used to make fun of me until the first mantis shrimp we found, then he decided that QT'ing coral wasn't such a bad idea.