QT fish before adding to display

[yakfishin]

I'm just curious, for those of you that QT all new arrivals before adding to the main display tank (as all of us do...), do you run copper and/or hypo wether the fish is showing any signs of ich or other parasites? I have been QT'ing my new fish for 4-5 weeks and watching for any signs of disease or parasites without any preventative treatment, but I realize that just because they show no symptoms during this period, this is no guarantee that I'm not adding an ich free fish to my display. I have read different opinions on this. One school of thought is to treat all new fish like they already have ich, regardless of symptoms. The other view is that you are potentially adding more stress than necessary to an otherwise healthy fish, possibly causing it harm where it would have been ok. Just curious as to how many people here at RC QT there new fish one way or the other. Thanks for replies and input.

 

[Freed]

Hypo does not "stress" a fish. Fish can tolerate these salinitys with no problem. I always use hypo whether I see ich or not as a preventative.

 

[new2scene]

do you keep your salinity low and acclimitize the fish. float bag then drip or do you, once he's in, lower the salinity.

 

[Freed]

After in then you acclimate them over a day or two to 1.009 ppm

 

[new2scene]

thanks

 

[yakfishin]

hmmm, I have always heard that hyposalinity was perhaps the safest way of preventing ich, but may not kill marine velvet- which can also be common in certain fish. I have also heard that hypo is not without its own cause of stress, in fact, if kept too long under hyposalinity a fish can die because they can't flush there kidneys properly in the lowered salinity. Even if they shouldn't be kept so long under hypo that their kidneys actually fail, there has to be some degree of physical stress even short term.

 

[alexb518]

what i do is dump my fish in QT (always at 1.009-1.010) and leave them in there for at least a month to 6 weeks. then i dump them in. I know i'm going to get criticized for this next thing i'm about to say, but as far is it stressing out fish, i have a powder blue tang that has been in QT for 3 months. i bought him and he wasn't getting along with my other fish. all in all, it's safer than dosing copper which requires daily testing and can/will kill your fish if the levels are too high and, conversly, it will not kill ich if too low.