Second Guessing My Approach

C

ca1ore

Grizzled & Cynical
I've been having a run of unfortunate luck with new fish. Curious what others experiences are at getting fish through QT (pls be honest). My 'stats' are as follows:

1. Fish through initial QT and any required meds - about 70%
2. Fish through subsequent observation/fattening up - about 80%
3. Successfully moving fish to the display - 95% plus

I'd expect to have some losses during the I total QT process! and have a high success rate into the DT; but I'm somewhat baffled by the interim step losses and am thinking about skipping it. Recently had a peppermint basslet go through full meds, and then disappear during observation. Very strange.
 
ca1ore said:
1. Fish through initial QT and any required meds - about 70%
2. Fish through subsequent observation/fattening up - about 80%
3. Successfully moving fish to the display - 95% plus
Click to expand...

Is this your success or loss rate? I'm batting close to 100% success over the past two years when buying online (from either LA or Bluezoo). I've had a couple of wrasses jump out of QT, but that was my own fault for not covering the tank. I've since remedied that problem by making "eggcrate" tops for all my QTs.

Now, when I buy from my LFS, it's less than 50% success. Granted two losses were CBB, a notoriously difficult to keep fish. But I bought a MI from regular LA, and that bad boy was eating live blackworms the same day I got him. :D So, I think it's a wholesaler issue. Some of the fish I lost from my LFS didn't even make it 2-3 days. They never ate, so I never got a chance to even begin meds on them. :( I've since pretty much stopped buying livestock from my LFS... the rolled eyes I got from him the last time I asked him to feed the fish before I bought it was the nail in the coffin.
 
I have pretty good luck with 20g tank transfer- we have done 2 Achilles , 1 Achilles hybrid , gem, aberrated white/yellow, black , black hybrid, powder blue , queen angel and 2 blue spot tamarins - - with no loss- only thing we have lost are red tail tamarins and a choati -
We follow the t t on the disease section + prazipro on the last 2 tanks -
Andddd now I think tamarins should be left in the ocean and my girl thinks tangs are super easy
 
bobkill said:
I have pretty good luck with 20g tank transfer- we have done 2 Achilles , 1 Achilles hybrid , gem, aberrated white/yellow, black , black hybrid, powder blue , queen angel and 2 blue spot tamarins - - with no loss- only thing we have lost are red tail tamarins and a choati -
We follow the t t on the disease section + prazipro on the last 2 tanks -
Andddd now I think tamarins should be left in the ocean and my girl thinks tangs are super easy
Click to expand...

Anampses and choati leopards are difficult. Needs exactly the right environment and a LOT of luck. TT works well.
 
^^^ yeah I have a red tail, 2 blue spots and 2 yellow tails a really wanna pair the last red so we can get some clown head action/ the choat made 3 transfers then poof dead- water was perfect (?) - I was devastated - BUT SO PARANOID about ich , I don't want to ever go back there again .
 
I also only buy online from LA or DD any more. Assuming something doesn't happen in shipping (missed flights or leaks), my success rate with those is close to 100%.
 
QT always seemed to be a death trap for me. I stopped doing it and just did a fresh water dip with methylene blue and went right to DT and that worked much better for me. For my next tank, I'll just source my fish from one place, probably LA. If I was trying to do something difficult like a Leopard Wrasse, or a known ich magnet like a powder tang I'd probably have to reconsider and try to QT again.

Other then that, I just don't buy expensive fish.
 
HumbleFish said:
Is this your success or loss rate? I'm batting close to 100% success over the past two years when buying online (from either LA or Bluezoo). I've had a couple of wrasses jump out of QT, but that was my own fault for not covering the tank. I've since remedied that problem by making "eggcrate" tops for all my QTs.

Now, when I buy from my LFS, it's less than 50% success. Granted two losses were CBB, a notoriously difficult to keep fish. But I bought a MI from regular LA, and that bad boy was eating live blackworms the same day I got him. :D So, I think it's a wholesaler issue. Some of the fish I lost from my LFS didn't even make it 2-3 days. They never ate, so I never got a chance to even begin meds on them. :( I've since pretty much stopped buying livestock from my LFS... the rolled eyes I got from him the last time I asked him to feed the fish before I bought it was the nail in the coffin.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sucess rate. I guess my initial post was stunningly unclear :lol:

Funnily, I'm doing quite a bit worse than you with online, but better with LFS. Really not much difference in it for me.

I tend to run every new fish through about a 6-8 week period of meds after which they ought to be in the clear, yet they're not. Combining both online and local, I can get about 3/4 through meds sucessfully, but then I'm losing fish post meds in my observation period. Just thinking out loud whether I ought to skip that and just go straight to DT post meds.
 
ca1ore said:
Yeah, sucess rate. I guess my initial post was stunningly unclear :lol:

Funnily, I'm doing quite a bit worse than you with online, but better with LFS. Really not much difference in it for me.

I tend to run every new fish through about a 6-8 week period of meds after which they ought to be in the clear, yet they're not. Combining both online and local, I can get about 3/4 through meds sucessfully, but then I'm losing fish post meds in my observation period. Just thinking out loud whether I ought to skip that and just go straight to DT post meds.
Click to expand...

I've noticed the longer a fish is in QT, the more "stressed" it seems. Or maybe it's just me getting stressed. ;) For that reason, I've been employing TT more & more. It actually seems less stressful on the fish than all the meds. On transfers 2 & 4 I dose Prazi, and then just observe for 1 month after TT has completed. Sometimes I move the fish to a more permanent QT for observation; sometimes I just leave a small fish in the 10 gal TT QT and do WCs. But in any case, 6 weeks total and the fish is safe to go into the DT. And the only chemical used on them is Prazipro.
 
I think a good way to do QT is TTM into a semi-permanent QT with "real" furnishings. I've also found that putting light over the tank reduces stress substantially, as does blacking out one of the sides of the tank in addition to the back.
 
I personally dont understand what is required for QT. Im a newbie and have been doing alot of reading and researching everything. At the moment im building a 125 reef tank with 30 gal sump. I know i need QT but cant seem to understand what to do or how to make it. Some clarification and help would be appreciated bcuz i know i need one.
 
99% of my losses occur in the first 5 days and the vast majority of those in the first 48 hours. If I get a fish to the third week of qt he is pretty much certain to make it to the DT.

The lone exception was a stupid mistake on my part that cost me a beautiful Pyramid Butterfly in week 6.
 
I have no idea what my percentage could possibly be but I think it really makes a big difference on the type of fish your into. For example I know your into wrasses, more specifically leopards & your going to have a lower rate due to that. Someone who's into tangs is going to have a very high success rate because they are bullet proof.

I've actually had a poor streak of luck with wrasses in the H. Family which ticks me off since I always considered them easy. More specifically, xmas wrasse & red line.

I don't get that at all they should be very easy fish. I lost 3 red lines in qt of late. 2 ate right away & died UN expected within 2 days. One I had in observation was not interested in food. Began eating after a week or so but never great. Then died out of no apparent reason, & it wasn't skinny at all.

Many xmas wrasses doa from LA. Same with r2go who I will never order from again but they are the only online vendor to carry xmas wrasse on a regular basis. Right now I'm on a xmas wrasse from LFS which swam like it was dying for the first 3 days, now a week later it eats & seemingly doing well.

In comparison to recent bad luck with H. Wrasses, they make leopards seem easy to me. Bizarre.
 
Also would you include doa's in your percentage? I would think so because a death is a death if it takes 6 fish to get one through qt because 5 were doa before you got a good one those fish should be counted. I would bet that would drop many people's stats.
 
HumbleFish said:
I've noticed the longer a fish is in QT, the more "stressed" it seems.
Click to expand...

I completely disagree... If my nerves and impatience don't get the better of me, all my adapted eating fish in QT are for the better. :)
 
triggreef said:
Also would you include doa's in your percentage? I would think so because a death is a death if it takes 6 fish to get one through qt because 5 were doa before you got a good one those fish should be counted. I would bet that would drop many people's stats.
Click to expand...

I did include DoA in my percentages. But I've been extraordinarily lucky and not actually had one in over a year. Had a black leopard only last a day or two, but it came out of the bag alive (though barely). I'm just wondering whether I'm having fish stay in QT for too long and ought to just cut the time back.
 
HumbleFish said:
I've noticed the longer a fish is in QT, the more "stressed" it seems. Or maybe it's just me getting stressed. ;) For that reason, I've been employing TT more & more. It actually seems less stressful on the fish than all the meds. On transfers 2 & 4 I dose Prazi, and then just observe for 1 month after TT has completed. Sometimes I move the fish to a more permanent QT for observation; sometimes I just leave a small fish in the 10 gal TT QT and do WCs. But in any case, 6 weeks total and the fish is safe to go into the DT. And the only chemical used on them is Prazipro.
Click to expand...

I've started doing a similar protocol. Meds have been hit or miss for me, especially those targeting crypto (CP and/or copper). TT is much easier, and it's about as close to a 100% guarantee against crypto that it's a no-brainer.
 
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