QT a tube anemone

[mproctor4]

Does anyone have any ideas how to QT a tube anemone? I am wondering if it would attach to a small piece of flat rock that I could then later add to the DT. Pretty sure with my luck it would move and attach to something I don't want it to and then I will never get it out of QT. Any thought?

 

[meowzer]

HMMM...can anemones carry disease or parasites?
I never heard of qt'ing one LOL

 

[btldreef]

Anemones are mainly made up of water, so there is a chance that it could carry along a parasite. It's not likely that it will, but it can.
If you are afraid of it attaching in the QT, just blow a powerhead towards it to get it to release the grip before moving.

 

[flower]

You don't need to quarantine an anemone.

 

[mproctor4]

I have hypo my entire system twice now. I believe the second time the ich came on some coral that I had dipped but not QT

After loosing my powder blue tang, almost losing my sailfin tang, the nightmare of tearing my tank apart, 8 weeks of hypo in 2 different tanks (not enough space in just one) and leaving my DT fallow for 8 weeks.....I will NEVER put another drop of water fromf any sorce in the tank again without hypo or coral/inverts in a fallow tank!! Prevention is a 100 times easier and much less heartbreaking.
I am still trying to figure out how to handle certain situations...such as the anemone and a mandrin. I am thinking maybe when I do my next round of corals for 8 weeks I will also load up the tank with copods and let them reproduce for a couple of months and do a short QT for the mandrin. I am hoping I might be able to get the mandrin to eat live baby brine so I could extend the QT for a bit longer. I know the mandrins are less likely to carry ick but still not willing to risk it.
I have removed multiple rock anemones with my fingernails and have yet to damage one, but it does make me nervous and I would really perfer not to do that. I will try the power head trick. Thanks for the info. Any info on QT a mandrin would be greatly appreciated.

 

[btldreef]

I fully agree, if you can quarantine something, you should.
As for the mandarin, I don't recommend hypo'ing it. They're fairly resilient to ich due to their slime coat. I have quarantined mine in the past. I took rocks from the DT and refugium and also seeded the QT with pods before purchasing the mandarin. (side note, this really should only be done in a QT that has not seen copper or medicinal treatments) I purchased a very small mandarin both times. For one, I had to re-seed just to be safe, but for the other, the quarantine tank actually served as a place to also train it to eat frozen, so it can be really beneficial to QT them. You really just need to observe the fish and be aware of the pod population, but it's completely doable if you prepare ahead of time.

 

[mproctor4]

Thanks for the info!!! It would be going into a 29g biocube that has never been treated with any type of medication. I just finished hypo on some fish in there and plan on using the biocube exclusively for corals and someday the mandrin. Since the tank just went thru hypo there are not any pods in it currently. I am hoping to buy some from this site. I have been reading a bit about some people training their wild caught mandrins to eat frozen, I am hoping I can do that. I never really thought about purchasing small but that is a good idea. How long did it take you to train your mandrin to eat frozen? One benefit to leaving my DT fallow for 8 weeks was the pod population exploded. I still would like it to eat frozen however because I currently have a cleaner wrasse and would like to get at least one more wrasse and I don't want to deplete the pod population.

 

[btldreef]

The baby that I had to train onto frozen took about 3 months total to willingly accept frozen.

 

[mproctor4]

Wow....that is longer than I expected. I was expecting 1-2 months. I'm sure it is worth the effort to get them eating frozen.

 

[btldreef]

I got him to eat Reef Nutrition Arcticpods fairly quickly (about 3 weeks). My husband and I were arguing over putting him in the reef at that point. Around 5-6 weeks, he started accepting frozen, but only after it settled on a rock or to the bottom of the tank. I wasn't satisfied with this and really wanted him to hunt the food when I fed and eat from the water column. I eventually got him to start doing that, but once I put him in the reef tank, he went back to just eating what landed near him. So he did start to eat in less time, I just really pushed it and tried all sorts of foods, etc to try to get him to not just pick from the rock.