Do any local stores truly quarantine fish?

D

dburt520

Member
I was just curious if any of the local stores actually quarantine their fish before selling them? I am looking for a new fish or two and unfortunately do not have the room to set up a quarantine tank. I have 2 clowns in my tank now (have been for almost a year), but the more and more I read about fish disease it is making me very hesitant on purchasing my third fish without a proper QT.

Thanks
Dave
 
The word on the street is Aquatouch and LE Corals both QT their fish thoroughly.

You can also house the fish in a friends QT if you know someone nearby with one set up already.
 
I have heard that LE corals QT's their new corals, but wasn't aware about the fish. Nice to know.

Unfortunately I don't know any reefers near/around me well enough to ask for some QT help. I don't plan on many more fish (probably 2), however after reading all of the horror stories it is better safe than sorry I think.
 
A quarantine can be as little as a 10g with a heater, hob filter and a piece of pvc pipe. Not sure if that is still too big for your current situation
 
Beefy_Reefy said:
You can't rely on a fish stores qt method. Find room for a 10g qt, can tear down and store it when done.
Click to expand...

For that matter, you cannot rely on your own QT. I've seen people go through full QT and have Ich pop up on the fish a few weeks into the DT. It's certainly better than nothing if the LFS QT first.
 
I am not disagreeing with you Beefy, but if a store "truly" does QT (like I asked), what is the difference if they do it vs. myself doing it? Alot of stores can say they QT, but saying they QT vs. actually doing it are two different things, and was the reason for my post.
 
If they staff a QT facility, or are slow during the middle of the day, they might have MORE time to observe than the average person who is at work for most of the daylight hours?
 
I would think so, they have employees in the store 8hours a day on average right? Not sure what reason they could have for not checking on their QT several times a day.

I would like confirmation from the stores as to how long they QT, is it the standard 4 weeks or maybe a shorter two weeks(this is for fish specificallly) We know both stores QT, Ive been in LE's QT room and its nice, just never asked for the length of time.
 
That was my thought exactly... I have seen LE Corals QT room however do not remember seeing fish while I was in there. And if aqua touch has an off site staffed lab I would assume they are pretty thorough, although their website mentions that they QT rare fish, nothing about the every day common fish that I am looking at.
 
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I know LE does fish too as people have mentioned buying some straight out of the QT room, I need to head back there as I am looking for a tailspot blenny right now.
 
Please make sure if buying a QT fish from a LFS that it somewhat eats!! Seen to many fellow reefers in another state fish die cause it was too weak to fight healthy fish..
 
well my only experience with LE Corals is the royal gramma I got from them, he was fat and happy in their tank and is the same in mine, little more shy than the others but that's how they are in general, loving nooks and holes in the rock....except when there is food in the water....then the shyness is gone.

Never bought fish from aquatouch so cant say there but they always look very healthy.

I know someone on FB said there was a third store that also QT's, but I cant remember it for the life of me.
 
I know LE does at QT as have seen their at area and tank. Have only bought 1 fish from them a Sun Burst Anthias which can be hard to get to eat and it was eating well in their store and I have had for 7 months and doing well. Aquatouch qt also but have not bought a fish in years as well out of my.
Don't know of anyone else that qt but had great luck with fish from Aquarius and Aquarium Arts just check them out to see how healthy they look and how well they eat in store. Unless the fish actively eats and not just picks at food is a good sign.
 
Do any local stores truly quarantine fish?

dburt520 said:
I am not disagreeing with you Beefy, but if a store "truly" does QT (like I asked), what is the difference if they do it vs. myself doing it? Alot of stores can say they QT, but saying they QT vs. actually doing it are two different things, and was the reason for my post.
Click to expand...


Doing it yourself allows you to monitor that 1 fish or however many you get. Say you spot ich for example. And say you use the copper (cupramine) treatment. You can make sure you get the copper to its effective level .35-.50 ppm and keep it there for 30 days. Fish stores get so many new fish in every few weeks + the occasional trade-ins, if they were treating some fish at this copper level and got a new shipment to put in qt a week later, the timer starts over for entire qt. I just find it hard to believe a store can effectively treat EVERY fish for the entire 30 days keeping copper level where it's most effective. Plus there are many other diseases/infections etc to look for. Will they treat for internal worms, flukes, bacterial inf and ich on new arrivals for 30+ days? I doubt it. (Not saying every fish will have all of these issues)

I just feel QTing yourself is the best practice. It's not for everyone and it is trial and error. Sure someone could treat a fish for whatever it has and still have it after treatment. Maybe they didn't follow instructions, didn't dose enough or cut corners. Maybe they did it right and need to start another round of treatment. To me its worth doing myself. I'm no pro but I'm feeling better about all of my fish after I learned how to treat them myself. I now prophylactically treat all new fish. It just works for me.

Just my 2 cents

Back to your title question- Aquatouch and reef culture (no longer with us) were the only ones I knew of that "quarantined" fish. How long and what they treated for? I don't know. LE corals sounds promising ill have to check them out!
 
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Why not buy captive bred fish? There are a lot more options than just clowns these days. If you know someone that will buy from ORA for you for example just have them call you when the fish come in and tell them to keep em bagged. If the fish came direct from ORA I would have no issues dropping it directly into a reef tank.
 
So does petco but I would be hesitant there incase they went into some type of holding tank.

Just be sure you are talking to the person that places the order directly at an LFS
 
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