Fish that are too delicate to QT?

[jnc914]

After 6 years in this hobby, and many years of being stubborn regarding keeping a QT tank; I have gone out and purchased a 20 gallon long for this purpose. I have some pricey fish in my display that I am not willing to lose, and do not want to take the chance of introducing parasites to the system.

Are there any fish that would be considered too delicate to keep in a QT? I have looked at trying another Achille's and may look to keep some other fish in my system that are considered difficult to get to acclimate to aquarium life (colini angel, venustus angel, regal, etc..). Just wondering if QT will actually over stress some species of fish.

 

[john37]

Out of my experience. I just finished QT'ing my fish from my main tank. The fish that had problems were my rosyscale wrasse. Of the new fish that i QT'd a moorish idol didnt make it and a semilarvatus butterfly.

Actually my regal angel did the best. Didn't show any signs of stress at all. I was quite impressed. I hope the same goes for you. gluck.

 

[Gwynhidwy]

For delicate fish like that I like to use an "established" quarantine. By which I mean set up the quarantine several weeks prior to getting the fish, allow brown diatoms to grow on the glass and pvc, and use some filter media from your display to seed the quarantine. I find that often the first thing angels and tangs will eat is the brown diatom growth on the glass, so this seems to help them settle in. For some angels I also place some live rock in the quarantine for them to graze on. Obviously if treatment becomes necessary this would have to be removed.

I also try to use as large of a quarantine as possible and have found that some fish seem to do better if they are not the only fish in quarantine. I recognize that this means the possibility of shared diseases, but in my experience some fish seem extremely nervous if they are in isolation. To do this I usually try to get a hardy fish that I want to add to my display anyway, a few weeks before I am getting a delicate fish. I quarantine the hardy fish alone and treat any problems that arise prior to getting the delicate fish so I know I'm not exposing the delicate fish to disease.

 

[LisaD]

I agree, Gwynhidwy.

If you don't have a big tank, keep a large Sterilite or Rubber Maid tub on hand. Be sure you have some "extra" cured live rock - plenty of it - that you can take from another tank. That way, you can have a stable tank set up pretty quickly. Put in some powerheads with foam filters (with bacteria).

Delicate and expensive fish are worth setting up in a roomy, stable tank.

 

[sevendigitcake]

you also dont quaranteen mandarins and leopard wrasse because they will starve without the pods to feed on and because the have a mucus layer to protect them from common diseases like ick

 

[LargeAngels]

I QT ALL my fish, wrasses (including tamarin and leopard wrasses), angels (multicolor, hybrids, venustus, regal, potters, chrysurus, bluespot, etc.) I think the definition of QT is different for many people.

I agree with Gwynhidwy and LisaD. I always keep a couple of QT tanks going, but some people would think of them as fish tanks instead of QT tanks. QT is not just to keep diseased fish from entering the main tank. It is to allow the fish a stress free environment where it can regain it's strength from being shipped around the world and not being fed.