Do you use preventive medication in your quarantine tank?

[Beff]

When using your QT to add a new fish to your display tank, and the new fish you just bought looks healthy, do you add any preventative (prophylactic) medication to the QT just in case? If so, what do you use?

I bought some Seachem ParaGuard as an all-in-one med to baptize my new fish for a month or so in QT. There are instructions regarding the use of this product in a prophylactic mode.

A search on this forum did not yield recent thoughts on prophylactic meds for QTs that are now available to us.

Thanks for any input.

Jeff :spin1:

 

[JustinM]

I prophylactically treat all my fish, but IMO I would throw away the paraguard. I treat with prazipro then 30 days of copper with a acriflavine bath before moving to the DT.

Many people have tried using paraguard with no success. If fish show any signs of bacterial infections, I treat with antibiotics. These are the only meds I don’t treat prophylactically with. In most cases, fish can fight off bacterial infections if healthy.

 

[Dmorty217]

Always. Everything I get goes through 3 weeks of chloroquine phosphate and a formalin dip upon arrive. Also 2 rounds of prazi

 

[harper68]

I'm a man that observes I don't treat unless there are signs all diseases show signs you wouldn't treat a man for cancer if he doesn't have it so why treat a fish for a disease that they don't have. If they show signs of a disease then I treat I have a 5ft tank 12 fish 4 angel fish and 4 tangs 2 clowns a puffer and a goby in my display tangs are known for diseases and I have just observed my fish. I do get them from the Same lfs and they hold them for a minimum of 6 weeks and they don't run copper them into qt for 4 to six weeks. One of my tangs is an Achilles tang and has been in my suplay for 2 months with no issues (touch wood). I'm not saying this is the right way to go but it's worked for me


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[pfan151]

I'm a man that observes I don't treat unless there are signs all diseases show signs you wouldn't treat a man for cancer if he doesn't have it so why treat a fish for a disease that they don't have. If they show signs of a disease then I treat I have a 5ft tank 12 fish 4 angel fish and 4 tangs 2 clowns a puffer and a goby in my display tangs are known for diseases and I have just observed my fish. I do get them from the Same lfs and they hold them for a minimum of 6 weeks and they don't run copper them into qt for 4 to six weeks. One of my tangs is an Achilles tang and has been in my suplay for 2 months with no issues (touch wood). I'm not saying this is the right way to go but it's worked for me


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Your LFS holds fish for 6 weeks???? Have you seen the holding system? Seems almost impossible to believe.

 

[harper68]

It's 100% true I don't have much experience with different lfs but my one( Maidenhead aquatics) have held my fish and all of my fish for 6 weeks at a minimum but they were not fish they had in the store when I set my tank up I had a list of fish for my tank the manager of the store I was speaking to a lot about the setup and I pretty much gave him the order I wanted the fish in and the size of the fish and he got them in 3 or 4 at a time he held them for 6 weeks. when I took them home the following week he got the next lot for me whilst mine were in qt when I put them in the DT it was at least 2 weeks before I got more just in case I had to remove he held my Achilles and lipstick tang for 5 weeks and a week before I got them he put them in the same tank for me and all was good I can't fault the store what so ever. He has also said when my fish were reserved people were asking for them and he was ordering in more.


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[harper68]

The only one that was out of order was the Achilles as I want a smallish one and he said when I gave him the list it would be difficult as he hasn't seen one that small in ages ( about 2 inches) he in fact saw it at tmc what he'd it feed and took it back to the shop and put a reserved sign on it straight away without me knowing as he had missed a digit out of my phone number and couldn't contact me but knew I wanted that fish and so just got it and reserved it picture of the 2 at the store below

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[LedZep fan2]

I'm a man that observes I don't treat unless there are signs all diseases show signs you wouldn't treat a man for cancer if he doesn't have it so why treat a fish for a disease that they don't have. If they show signs of a disease then I treat I have a 5ft tank 12 fish 4 angel fish and 4 tangs 2 clowns a puffer and a goby in my display tangs are known for diseases and I have just observed my fish. I do get them from the Same lfs and they hold them for a minimum of 6 weeks and they don't run copper them into qt for 4 to six weeks. One of my tangs is an Achilles tang and has been in my suplay for 2 months with no issues (touch wood). I'm not saying this is the right way to go but it's worked for me


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While it may work for you, I would not advise others to do the same. All it takes is one sick fish to completely wipe out a system. Your comparison to treating a man for cancer if he does not have it is pure nonsense. Vaccines are a preventative measure we humans use to prevent disease. If you want to talk about preventative measures regarding cancer, how about annual physicals? Prostate exams? Colonoscopies? All of which are measures to insure health even if one does not show signs/symptoms.

In the end there will always be those who decide not to quarantine/prophylactically treat and those that do. Sadly our reef inhabitants cannot tell us how they feel or if something is wrong. I would rather error on the side of caution and prophylactically treat fish with some level of medication or TTM than infect my entire display tank.

I will step off my soap box now :spin1:

 

[harper68]

Everyone is entitled to there opinion hence why I'm not saying it's the right way but has worked for me. My tank is only 4 months old. And if you observe a fish for long enough it does tell you when something isn't quite right by the way they act maybe I've just been lucky with my approach but I have read a lot and learned a lot from this forum and a few member I've liaised with and also keep my qt running all the time and also have avoclor and gill and fluke treatment on hand just in case I have an issue ( touch wood meds' are unopened) i just don't like the idea of treating something for a disease that it might not have . The lfs I do get my fish from do treat flukesolve


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[Jdub968]

I believe prophylactically treating is the best method however it's not the only approach if a person has time to sit and observe the fish every day for 2-3 weeks and feels comfortable adding them to a DT full of thousands of $s of fish and coral that's ok. If you are a busy person and don't have time to really spend watching the fish treating is the safe way however if you don't have time to sit and enjoy your fish why are you keeping them. I watch my fish for 2-3 days get them eating and then treat with cu and prazipro it takes 7-8 weeks minimum doing it my way. Paraguard I believe is a good product to try starting with however if the fish start showing signs of parasites discontinue the paraguard and move on to a stronger Med. Paraguard is better used as a bath

 

[microlady]

Cancer isn't contagious. Parasites in this marine hobby are highly contagious among fish, so I choose to clean them up well before they hit my expensive display. Once you have to tear one down and lose tons of money, as well as pets you've had for years, you will probably vow to never let that happen again. Every fish gets a formalin bath upon arrival, and then observation for 1 month with 2 rounds of Prazi. Then they get 2 weeks of TTM before they hit the display.