How long should I wait to reintroduce fish...

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tampa4

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Feb 15, 2005
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after a bout with velvet which wiped out my whole tank? A little background---a month ago several of my fish got sick and died (probably from Windex overspray). A few days later, the surviving fish (clown, yellow tang) got velvet and they too died within 2-3 days, which left me with an empty tank except for the cleaning crew (snails, crabs, etc, which are doing fine.) Well, that leads to my two questions: is it quite normal for sick/stressed fish to get ich or velvet after what happened? Next, how long should I wait to reintroduce fish after a bout with this parasite? The guys at my lfs store said that 3-4 weeks should be plenty of time to kill off the remaining parasites (though they did warn that I would always have larva? in my tank).

Especially considering I'm keeping my tank at 83 degrees, they said that would speed up the cycle, and again 3-4 weeks should definitely do it. They went on to say that I might want to consider getting a UT sterilizer, but as long as I buy healthy fish, and keep them happy and peaceful, then I should be fine and shouldn't have any problems from this point forward. Does that sound about right or is there anything else I might not know about? Thanks.
 
one last thing---my clownfish died while I was out of town for a day. He looked like he was starting to get velvet (much like the tang who just died from it) but I wasn't sure. When I came back the following day he was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere, even in the cracks of my live rock, to no avail. The guys at my lfs said perhaps I have a mantis shrimp in my tank, who came out from the rocks and ate him, but they really weren't sure. I've never seen a mantis shrimp in my tank, so hopefully I don't have one, though I've only had my tank for several months. With that in mind, does anyone know what might have happened to my clownfish? Is it possible to have a mantis shrimp in your tank without ever seeing one? Thanks in advance...
 
tampa4 said:
one last thing---my clownfish died while I was out of town for a day. He looked like he was starting to get velvet (much like the tang who just died from it) but I wasn't sure. When I came back the following day he was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere, even in the cracks of my live rock, to no avail. The guys at my lfs said perhaps I have a mantis shrimp in my tank, who came out from the rocks and ate him, but they really weren't sure. I've never seen a mantis shrimp in my tank, so hopefully I don't have one, though I've only had my tank for several months. With that in mind, does anyone know what might have happened to my clownfish? Is it possible to have a mantis shrimp in your tank without ever seeing one? Thanks in advance...
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It's possible that you might have a lot of things in your tank that you haven't seen. :) Mantis shrimp, octopus, starfish, etc, all very likely and willing to eat fish. What I would do is get a flashlight with a red lense cover (or buy some of that red saran wrap) and wait until late at night after all the lights are out, and take a very close look in the tank. Lot of things that hide in rockwork are nocturnal predators.
 
are such nocturnal predators common to have in a tank? Why the red over the flashlight? If I end up finding one, how do I catch/get rid of him?
 
Mantis can be very tough to locate--but you can often hear them--a sharp clicking sound, and notice their 'work'--they will build a cave, sometimes drilling through a rock. With a variety of regular cleaners, though, a fish can quickly be consumed, no mantis needed.

I would leave the tank free of fish for a minimum of 6 weeks--and use the time to gather the supplies for a quarantine tank. No amount of stress will introduce a parasite--those come in on fish that have subclinical levels that reach 'classic' symptom levels as the fish is stressed.
 
I'm hoping you're right in that I don't have a mantis shrimp and instead my cleaners simply consumed the clown. BTW, I have 7 snails and approx. 25 hermit crabs in my tank---I guess its possible that they consumed the clown? As for a parasite, the guys at my LFS said that since you've already had velvet (or ich), you'll always have larva eggs? or something like that in my tank. They key is to keep your new fish as healthy and happy as possible. Does this sound about right?
 
Nope. Parasites have very specific life cycles they follow. If one component of the life cycle is missing, they die. Since the parasites require a fish host, leaving the tank fishless (and you should bump the temp up to at least 85) leaves them out of luck, and they die. The increased heat will force the parasite through it's life cycle faster, and giving it a full 6 weeks ensures that none of the cysts of parasites remain unhatched.

This is sort of like saying that once you get a cold, you'll always have the cold. Not turue--once your body kills the invading virus, it's gone--but you can still be re-infected by another strain. Same thing--the parasite can be reintroduced to your tank, but it's not just lurking there.
 
Most animals are color blind to red light so the red light spectrum is the same thing as darkness (the animals think its dark out). However Mantis Shrimp and Octopi have perfect color vision, so this trick wont work on them very well, but are easy to tell if you have them by thier eating habbits.
 
I think I'm going to a similar issue with one of my tanks. For some unknown reason all of my fish died about a month ago. My inverts are alive & doing fine but no fish to speak of. Will increasing the temperature of the tank harm the inverts? If there are disease(s) can the inverts be a host to them? I have a 46g bow tank with live rock & live sand and I'm been playing with the idea of draining the tank and starting fresh but I'm not sure how to deal with the rock & sand & inverts while I'm going through this process.
 
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