QUARANTINE YOUR FIRST FISH! Why?>>>

[FraggledRock]

I dont understand why so many people are so stubborn with QT-ING NEW FISH.

Its NOT the end of the world!

it's a choice of keep ONE fish in QT for a couple weeks or have NO FISH in your MAIN TANK for 3 months... and possible most die...

take your pick...

i feel like stepping on someones tonsil when they keep saying "Well I Keep ich at bay with XYZ" Or " I haven't seen Ich in a while so I dont have to do anything".

I once compared it to a child. If the kid is sick but is showing no signs do you just let the kid rot from the inside or take him to the doc to make sure it is nothing major is happening not visible? You want to know what one response was? the guy said, well I was once sick as a child, my mom didnt take me to the doc, and i grew up tough as nails, I am still alive today...

That explained a lot.

Treat your fish as you would treat your children, or for some of you a sick child. Care for your animals.

 

[Nina51]

i feel like stepping on someones tonsil when they keep saying "Well I Keep ich at bay with XYZ" Or " I haven't seen Ich in a while so I dont have to do anything".

haha, i'm gonna use that next time somebody gets on my wrong side.

and i totally agree with you. it's especially frustrating when an employee of an LFS says it!!!

 

[FraggledRock]

haha, i'm gonna use that next time somebody gets on my wrong side.

and i totally agree with you. it's especially frustrating when an employee of an LFS says it!!!

LOL be my guest! They will think twice about saying another word HAHA

BTW I thought Louisiana only had 4 floors HAHAH

 

[gone fishin]

I don't know if it is someones way of gambling or they just think they know everything. But the vast majority of people that do not QT end up in the fish disease forum eventually. Even then some are still resistant to QT. SMH

 

[FraggledRock]

I don't know if it is someones way of gambling or they just think they know everything. But the vast majority of people that do not QT end up in the fish disease forum eventually. Even then some are still resistant to QT. SMH

and they will never own up to the fact that they were forwarned about it and try to claim it was some magical ICH fairy dusting their fish after they bought a UV filter to kill the ICH

people somehow rely solely on spending money and buying gadgets to try to overcome the simple fine art of being patient.

:deadhorse1::dance::blown::fun2:

 

[ca1ore]

So.. I've been doing saltwater fish since 1997.. I've never had a fish with disease. Always bought from LFS, never online, they both had really clean/nice displays, ran UV.. They guaranteed their fish and would only sell them if they were eating well and looked healthy.

I'm curious, are most of you getting diseased fish from online retailers? I ask because there aren't any good options here so I'll likely be ordering all of my livestock online.. limited selection at the local pet store (I've never seen them carry any fish I wanted, although they could probably order them, their tanks don't look that clean/nice, they aren't running anything but a skimmer on each tank) or Petco.. which.. is where I think i'd be most likely to get a diseased fish... although they occasionally get some neat fish in and they have low prices.

Now, I've had freshwater fish with disease, mostly ich... just never had an issue with saltwater.

Depends a bit on what kinds of fish you have been keeping, but is suggest that you have been extraordinarily fortunate. I have been keeping saltwater tanks since about 1998, didn't QT for the first decade, got all my fish from my LFS (which I still use) and had ich at least three times that I can recall. Never any of the more serious parasites, but enough to kill off a few fish.

 

[Nina51]

BTW I thought Louisiana only had 4 floors HAHAH

louisiana? i'm in illinois. and apparently, you don't frequent the rc lounge. the lounge is on the 5th floor which is where many hospitals house their psych patients. you should come on over sometime.

i started my first saltwater tank probably 25 years ago. it was a 125g. i got it for xmas. my then-husband knew i had wanted one for a long time so he went to the LFS, unbeknownst to me, and bought the tank, hood, lights, everything the LFS guy told him he needed including a **gasp** skilter.

i knew absolutely nothing. zilch. zero. nada. i filled that puppy with saltwater, let it run for a few weeks and then went to st. louis and spent a small fortune on fish. fish, fish, fish. sure, the LFS guy said, you can go ahead and pick out 8 fish, you'll be fine. so, that's what i did.

yellow tang, hippo tang, picasso trigger, cleaner wrasse (he said i'd need that in case i ever got ich in my tank), among others. two weeks later, ich. the cleaner wrasse wasn't *doing his job*. LFS overnighted some $30+ of medicine. i lost every fish in the tank. and several hundred dollars.

i qt everything wet. everything!!

 

[FraggledRock]

louisiana? i'm in illinois. and apparently, you don't frequent the rc lounge. the lounge is on the 5th floor which is where many hospitals house their psych patients. you should come on over sometime.

i started my first saltwater tank probably 25 years ago. it was a 125g. i got it for xmas. my then-husband knew i had wanted one for a long time so he went to the LFS, unbeknownst to me, and bought the tank, hood, lights, everything the LFS guy told him he needed including a **gasp** skilter.

i knew absolutely nothing. zilch. zero. nada. i filled that puppy with saltwater, let it run for a few weeks and then went to st. louis and spent a small fortune on fish. fish, fish, fish. sure, the LFS guy said, you can go ahead and pick out 8 fish, you'll be fine. so, that's what i did.

yellow tang, hippo tang, picasso trigger, cleaner wrasse (he said i'd need that in case i ever got ich in my tank), among others. two weeks later, ich. the cleaner wrasse wasn't *doing his job*. LFS overnighted some $30+ of medicine. i lost every fish in the tank. and several hundred dollars.

i qt everything wet. everything!!

Im sorry that you had to experience that. Lickily it didnt deter you from pursuing it!

I was looking for the 13 1/2 floor lolol


I guess ill come lounge soon i didnt want to jump in there without s proper invite. Haha

 

[Salty Cracker]

With six tanks going now I will NEVER place a new fish in the DT with out 32 days of QT. I have a 55 and 29 QT going just in case. Also have a QT for my corals.

 

[woodnaquanut]

louisiana? i'm in illinois. and apparently, you don't frequent the rc lounge. the lounge is on the 5th floor which is where many hospitals house their psych patients. you should come on over sometime.

Oh good, now I know what that 5th floor reefers to! I've been wondering.

I guess I'm not Lounge material.

 

[woodnaquanut]

Not sure I entirely agree with you Sk8r. Yes, absolutely QT the first, and all subsequent, fish, but if ich can hide in a fish's gills, thus not manifesting symptoms, not treating seems questionable. At least do TTM. Some years ago I had some anthias, with no symptoms, infect my display even after 12 weeks in QT. Spitting tacks I was. As I have built up a larger population of fish, I'm more inclined to treat prophylactically (though, I do understand this thread was about the first fish )

I'm going to jump on the disagree with Sk8r bandwagon too. :worried:

I treat all newcomers for Ich (chloroquine phosphate) and parasites (PraziPro). They seem to be the most harmless (to fish) treatments and go after the internal problems.

It's all a risk vs reward deal.
No QT= high risk + low reward.
QT = low risk + high reward.

 

[Nina51]

I was looking for the 13 1/2 floor lolol

I guess ill come lounge soon i didnt want to jump in there without s proper invite. Haha

most loungers can't count past 5 so...

nah, you don't need an invite to the lounge. it's a free-for-all. warning though, once you check in, you can never leave.

Oh good, now I know what that 5th floor reefers to! I've been wondering.

I guess I'm not Lounge material.

all you need is a sense of humor and a thick skin because there's lots of unmerciful kidding that goes on pretty much daily. but there are also lots of serious topics we address.

I treat all newcomers for Ich (chloroquine phosphate) and parasites (PraziPro). They seem to be the most harmless (to fish) treatments and go after the internal problems.

while i do follow quarantine "rules", i don't treat with anything. i dunno...i've just always hesitated because i'm so afraid i'll either overdose or not dose enough. i have copper and a test kit and a bottle of prazi. i just haven't taken the jump yet.

 

[woodnaquanut]

So.. I've been doing saltwater fish since 1997.. I've never had a fish with disease. Always bought from LFS, never online, they both had really clean/nice displays, ran UV.. They guaranteed their fish and would only sell them if they were eating well and looked healthy.

You have been extremely lucky. My LFS gets between 25 - 50 new fish every week. Tanks are all on the same system. No way they can guarantee disease free. Diver's Den doesn't and they might be the best in the biz.

The other big positive a QT does for new fish is it gives them a chance to recover, regain weight and de-stress after their trip half way around the world.

Think of it in human terms. You were chillin on the beach in Fiji, drinking an adult beverage beer, pigging out on the local foods. Along comes this dude in a mask, nets you up and tosses you in a bucket. You are carried around in the bucket for a day, then put in this box with some other unfriendlys, not fed, and NO :beer:. A day or two later you are stuffed in a dark box and flown off to somewhere you've never been before. It's cold, dark,smells and tastes like your own pee! Next you are back in a box with other unfriedlys. Still no food and no :beer:!

OK now you are back in the dark box, after a while the lights come on and you are in the SuperBowl with snarling big dudes ready to clean your clock! You'd be stressed and might not survive.

QT

Always QT!

 

[Mishri]

I think I wasn't being clear with my post. I have a quarantine tank. I was just curious about where people are getting fish with disease since I haven't seen it yet. Conditions at the LFS less than ideal(I don't trust any of the LFS I have here, I did like the ones I had in Billings, MT and Flagstaff, AZ -They knew how long the fish had been there, what it's been eating, behavior, they ran a heavy duty UV), So.. do these places sell them before they've even been fed, or do you get diseased fish mainly online from random places.. etc..

And no.. I wont take OP's advice and quarantine my first fish MUAHAHHA I'll do it for the others though. (First fish can't harm anything else in my tank anyway, so I wont lose anything)

Also.. for those of you that don't know... UV can kill just about anything. ICH is an exception unless it's an extremely powerful UV. I'll run it on my quarantine tank.

edit: actually, I guess it doesn't need to be super powerful, 336,000 uWs/cm2.. so you can run one powerful enough to kill ICH.. may consider...

I used to always run one on my FOWLR tank.

 

[woodnaquanut]

I think I wasn't being clear with my post. I have a quarantine tank. I was just curious about where people are getting fish with disease since I haven't seen it yet. Conditions at the LFS less than ideal(I don't trust any of the LFS I have here, I did like the ones I had in Billings, MT and Flagstaff, AZ -They knew how long the fish had been there, what it's been eating, behavior, they ran a heavy duty UV), So.. do these places sell them before they've even been fed, or do you get diseased fish mainly online from random places.. etc..

And no.. I wont take OP's advice and quarantine my first fish MUAHAHHA I'll do it for the others though. (First fish can't harm anything else in my tank anyway, so I wont lose anything)

Also.. for those of you that don't know... UV can kill just about anything. ICH is an exception unless it's an extremely powerful UV. I'll run it on my quarantine tank.

edit: actually, I guess it doesn't need to be super powerful, 336,000 uWs/cm2.. so you can run one powerful enough to kill ICH.. may consider...

I used to always run one on my FOWLR tank.

Good luck with that concept. What happens if the first fish brings in disease to the DT? It won't harm the other fish because there won't be any until you add another fish!

I've read quite a few stories that go something like, "My well established tank had no issues, I QT'd a new fish and as soon as it was in the DT it broke out with Ich." Usually the new fish is blamed for bringing in Ich. What is more likely is there was Ich in the DT, the resident population was healthy enough to not die from it and the new, stressed out fish had lower resistance.

You might want to read up on UV. The modern consensus is it doesn't prevent Ich because it doesn't get to all the little buggers. They have to actually go thru the UV to be killed and that can't be guaranteed.

 

[Mishri]

If I don't see any ich on my fish in the display tank, I wouldn't see it during quarantine either, so I would be in the same boat. -This frequently happens because ich can live in the gills and a healthy fish can fight it off and live with it.

Also, when ich is in the swimming part of it's life cycle you can get a lot of the buggers, so it can help.

 

[Dmorty217]

I for one QT all fish and proactively TTM fish followed by 2 rounds of PP. Losing all your effort and hardwork and money to disease is just silly

 

[FraggledRock]

I for one QT all fish and proactively TTM fish followed by 2 rounds of PP. Losing all your effort and hardwork and money to disease is just silly

Ehem Parasites.

 

[Nina51]

(First fish can't harm anything else in my tank anyway, so I wont lose anything)

indeed, it can.

If I don't see any ich on my fish in the display tank, I wouldn't see it during quarantine either

this statement doesn't even make sense.

it's a pretty simple concept...
-just because you don't see ich doesn't mean it isn't there.
-you don't see ich so you assume first fish is ich-free.
-you add first fish without qt'ing it first.
-because it could have had the dreaded "unseen" ich, you have now introduced the parasite into your tank.
-say you decide to add a tang (ich magnet). while you may have gone through proper qt with the tang, you add him to your dt and wham, he gets ich. he gets it because it was introduced to your tank by your first non-qt'ed fish.

more power to ya if you wanna take that chance.

 

[Clowny88]

If I don't see any ich on my fish in the display tank, I wouldn't see it during quarantine either, so I would be in the same boat. -This frequently happens because ich can live in the gills and a healthy fish can fight it off and live with it.

I think this statement has been misinterpreted because I have the same question/concern.

During the 4 weeks of QT "watching and observing" for some disease to rear its head before moving to DT, there's no guarantee ill see a sign of a present disease/parasite.

So as somebody asked earlier in the thread... what should I be watching for in QT?