Keeping parisites "@ bay" fish??

[Heidi]

Question: Does anyone here keep neon gobys (or other small cleaner fish) and do they really eat parasites like ich and velvet off fish, or out of the tank when they are not attached to fish? I was thinking of getting a couple if they really work. I made the stupid mistake of putting my first fish I bought into my main tank w/o quarantine, and that is why nemo (now an only child) is now out until the 20th. Plus I am thinking for just keeping that little 5 gallon up and running and keeping any new fish I buy in there for a while to make sure they don't have nasties, if I got the gobys or whatever they could just hang out for a while till I filled up my main tank w/ fish like a "watch and cleaning period" . . . How long should I quarintine fish when just bought? I know some of ya'll don't qt at all thats fine for you but I have decided I do. It is not that I don't trust where I get fish from but I trust me more :)

So right now here's my setup:
50g hex, bakpak skimmer, simple hob filter I run carbon in, 250mh pendent, 25ish pounds live rock & bout 3 inches of live sand I set up my tank beginning of November. Everything in there is doing great I even have some purple algae starting to grow on the glass, there are 5 small sand-sifting snails, 10 astra snails, a brittle star (creepy sob but loves to eat crap off the bottom) I have a 5 gallon qt and my one little nemo is set to go into the main tank Jan 20th.

[jimsflies]

I wouldn't recommend the gobies in lieu of quarantine. I'm not sure what all they "clean", but I'm sure there are parasites and other diseases that they don't clean and in fact could become infected themselves. At ~$20 each, cleaner gobies get expensive as well. Additionally, I have never seen "cleaning behavior" with ones I have kept. Perhaps its because the other small fish I typically keep aren't comfortable with another fish being in their space.

I've never had a cleaner goby that seemed to last long either. I think they are easily eaten by nearly everything in a reef tank. In my current tank, I started out with two and over a few month period they both vanished. I keep anemones and brittle/serpent starfish...I'm sure one of them made a snack out of the small cleaner gobies. :hungry:

In my experience, purchasing another animal to deal with a problem, rarely seems to work out the way I intended. In the best cases, they perform their job and eat themselves out of a home or in the worst cases, they don't do anything for the target problem. If there are other options (e.g. quarantine) you're better off doing that.

As for length of quarantine, ideally it should be as long as a parasite's life cycle which varies by parasite. I've read, 30-40 days is reasonable. I think this could potentially be reduced if your quarantine tank is treated or has hypo-salinity. However, these can be stressful for the fish as well.

[vittleking]

several of my fish visit my cleaner shrimp pretty regular. Like Jim said though, I would not use this as a replacement to QT. But if your looking for a cleaner, I would recomend a cleaner shrimp from my experience.

[Heidi]

Thanks for the real life advice. I have read, and read, and READ and am starting to figure out that most of the time I get better advice from these forums or people then books about fish. I do plan on qt I have it set up right now and my little clownfish is in there. Its not medicated anymore, I put carbon in the filter after my other fish succumbed to ich or whatever they had. I had treated all the fish with copper in there but once the dead ones were out I figured I would just watch Nemo without meds or hypo. I figured that in a month or so if he doesn't get symptoms he is alright to not have meds. Feel free to correct me if that is a wrong assumption.

Oh btw Jim, I need to get you some measurements for my tank. I still want you to make me a mesh cover. Will you need the measurements from the most outside edge of the rim or inside edge? Also is a good scaled down drawing good enough or do you need a "tracing of the top"? Anyhow I will try to get on that this week now that the kids are back to school I should be able to think straight! lol :thumbsup:

[jimsflies]

As far as medications and qt...I think you need to evaluate the hardiness and health of each fish. Those can be hard on the fish as well. Some fish don't tolerate it as well as others. Steve Pro has an expert forum here (http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=57) on CR, I have heard him give some real good talks on this topic. If you have specific questions, you might want to ask him in his forum. (Not that he can't answer here, but is more apt to see and respond there.)

I need the measurements from the inside of the rim (assuming you want the the frame to sit inside of the rimstock). I can't recall what tank you have off the top of my head. If it is anything with an odd shape, I will need a trace of the shape....then we'll need to know the width of the rimstock so that the frame will sit inside it. You can shoot me a PM when you are ready.