How Many Reefers quarantine their Fish?
- Thread starter whitesquall
- Start date
after learning the hard way i now QT EVERYTHING. (coral, inverts etc)
i used to only QT fish but after adding a new acro just before xmas i got ich and killed $2.5K of fish including misbar regal :-(
i think you can have a disease free system without QT but it is luck, just like some people play russian roulette and live, i however am a unlucky fool so i take all precautions.
The only thing i am worried about now is my wife killing me having 4 QT tanks set up around the house.
QT also helps fatten up fish where they can eat with no competition from established bullies in the tank and they get used to our ugly mugs feeding them.
Also i am a big believer in introducing the fish by partioning the tank with egg crate or similar for a few days to reduce stress on the fish from other fish bullying etc.
i used to only QT fish but after adding a new acro just before xmas i got ich and killed $2.5K of fish including misbar regal :-(
i think you can have a disease free system without QT but it is luck, just like some people play russian roulette and live, i however am a unlucky fool so i take all precautions.
The only thing i am worried about now is my wife killing me having 4 QT tanks set up around the house.
QT also helps fatten up fish where they can eat with no competition from established bullies in the tank and they get used to our ugly mugs feeding them.
Also i am a big believer in introducing the fish by partioning the tank with egg crate or similar for a few days to reduce stress on the fish from other fish bullying etc.
Well put.
Korrine
You could get a ticket!!
Read the stickies on crypt. Go to the fish disease and treatment forum.
sweetrav18
New member
My question is you hear all the time of people you QT fish then add them and down the road the tank develops ich. You even hear of people leaving there tank fallow for 8-10 weeks and later develop ich. It was also my understaning that ich needs fish to promote its live cycle right?...so why QT inverts/coral for ich? Its always confused me whenever this topic comes up because ich is either a parasite that is "introduced" and if everything is QT your fish should never get ich??? or its and opportunistic parasite thats in everyones water laying dormant and only effects fish when theyre stress or weak?? So which is it because it doesn't seem you can explain it both ways?
Mike de Leon
New member
I have tried QT on Achilles, Powder Blues, Large Angels and butterflies etc to no avail. It is such a process. Environment needs to be stress free and water parameters has to be stable which is difficult to non existent in a QT.
Then I tried not to QT but making sure that specimens that I pick up are in top condition.
Only then did I experience success.
Only problem is when they get too big to fast you have to say bye
This is my own experience...
MCCOOL
Active member
I agree with Chris
your fish all look happy and healthy now, but what happens when the water parameters get out of whack? Or a heater sticks on? Or anything else happens that stresses the fish, then the disease/parasite pops up and wipes everyone out.
I qt everything that goes into my tank
your fish all look happy and healthy now, but what happens when the water parameters get out of whack? Or a heater sticks on? Or anything else happens that stresses the fish, then the disease/parasite pops up and wipes everyone out.
I qt everything that goes into my tank
Hookup
New member
Look for some research on marine ick. There are some stages of development that are not involving fish... In the right set of circumstances you'll get ice from snails, rock, corals, even water from other systems... You don't dry out your snails when they arrive do you? Haha...
My kids have a freshwater tank, aka stagnant pond of goo, and they only living thing added was two fish and the LFS water they arrived in... We now have 20+ snails infesting the tank...
To QT with success, you must QT everything... Water even...
Awesome "best practice" and at $500 and up for some fish you'd be crazy not to, or make a lot more than most of us..haha...
125G Reefer
New member
I have never quarantined, still don't. Ich affects weak and stressed out fish.
geaux xman
New member
I'm a firm believer of QT-ing. My DT will be ready for fish in about a week and nothing will enter that DT without a rigid QT regimen.
currently i have in QT:
40g breeder: 1 emperor juvie and 1 adult blueface - 2 treatments of prazi and cupramine
29g :1 powder brown tang, hypo 1.009 on its 6 week, 1 treatment of prazi
17g :4 carberryi anthias, hypo 1 week so far and prazi
currently i have in QT:
40g breeder: 1 emperor juvie and 1 adult blueface - 2 treatments of prazi and cupramine
29g :1 powder brown tang, hypo 1.009 on its 6 week, 1 treatment of prazi
17g :4 carberryi anthias, hypo 1 week so far and prazi
jk1138
New member
I QT now all the time. I have delt with ich too many times to want to see it in my DT ever again. I have a pair of False Percs in a 29 gal now. I look for the healthiest fish i can find and QT them in the 29, if they show no signs of ich after the month in the DT they go. If however they get ich, or anything else, the go to the hospital tank located in a tank under my 29 gal for hypo or whatever they need.
what about ensuring the specimens you pick up were in top condition then QT them, the fish may have died previously because they were not in good condition to start with then you are fighting a loosing battle from the start.I have tried QT on Achilles, Powder Blues, Large Angels and butterflies etc to no avail. It is such a process. Environment needs to be stress free and water parameters has to be stable which is difficult to non existent in a QT.
Then I tried not to QT but making sure that specimens that I pick up are in top condition.
Only then did I experience success.
Only problem is when they get too big to fast you have to say bye
This is my own experience...
Also it must be stressed that a PROPER QT is used, you can not simply just fill and go, you must ensure that adeqaute bacteria etc are established in the QT. I believe this is where most people fail. I always have sponge in my sump to collect bacteria so if i need to start a new QT (always have a QT running for emergency which is a 2x2x1 20 gal) i can set up and have enough bacteria to get it going.
I think most people that fail QT and hypo as they purchase the fish as either an impluse buy or are not prepared with the QT. WOuld you chuck a fish in newly established tank? i think not, so why would this be done with a QT? This is why people claim you can not control water quality in a QT because it is simply a fill and fish set up and not a properly constructed QT.
Ryan
BTW that Achilles is flippen sweeeeet!
djze
Member
mike de leon is right there is certain species that just don't do well in quarantine i to have tried 3 achilles and never had success in quarantine but had success in the main display what i do is i quarantine all my fish in a 220 gallon sump connected to my main system they will be in there normally 2 months or more to get well acclimated to the system and also to monitor for serious infections i feel good water quality and good food supplement with a stress free environment is the most important role to success
Gogandantess
New member
I don't see how this is really good. If it's connected, the ich can go into your main system.
Ich is the one thing about SW that really drives me nutts. FW ich is so much easier to kill.
Hookup
New member
I think whenever this is brought up. Those who don't QT will far outweigh those that do, just for the simple reason many people only have one tank and are only will to keep one tank. Also the people getting into the hobby is far greater than those who have been into it for a while.
That being said the benefits of QT far outweight the risks, IF done right.
It is just your choice. If the long-term health of the fish is your best interest then I think everyone should QT IMO, if at the very least you are just providing a less bustling place for the fish to adapt to aquarium life. If you are able to prophylactically treat, IMO that is good too.
Think about it, if you have a properly cycled QT, all the water quality issues should not be a problem. It is just another cycled tank.
That being said the benefits of QT far outweight the risks, IF done right.
It is just your choice. If the long-term health of the fish is your best interest then I think everyone should QT IMO, if at the very least you are just providing a less bustling place for the fish to adapt to aquarium life. If you are able to prophylactically treat, IMO that is good too.
Think about it, if you have a properly cycled QT, all the water quality issues should not be a problem. It is just another cycled tank.
Megatrev62
New member
Figure this one out. Many years ago I had a tomato clown that had ich. The fish was put in a mature 75 gallon and was there for maybe 24 hours when I noticed the ich. I took him out and treated for ich in a 5 gallon with ich x. Left him there a week and put him back in display. Not a single fish got the disease and he was fine. Just saying at the time(10 years ago) never heard of RC and fallow and hypo and so on. This worked in this particular situation. This is definitely not the advice that one would give in this situation.
In the meantime I do quarantine my fish now in a 23 long and one has to ensure when doing so that there is a mature filter on the tank. Just my 2 cents.
In the meantime I do quarantine my fish now in a 23 long and one has to ensure when doing so that there is a mature filter on the tank. Just my 2 cents.
