Can I skip quarantining?

[hds4216]

Can you skip quarantining if you order from an online place that pre-quarantines for you? Is this effective/safe? For example, this site: https://drreefsquarantinedfish.com/quarantined-fish/


Thinking about ordering from them. Anyone have any thoughts/experience with this?

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Personally I don’t QT (anymore) but if your goal is to keep a 100% disease free tank I’m going to say no. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it properly.
Then again, do you QT everything wet (corals/inverts etc) that goes in to the tank for a minimum of 76 days?
If not you’re already rolling the dice and in that case I wouldn’t be to adverse to skip QT in this instance.

 

[RedFrog211]

I use a copper treatment on fish and QT them for 2 weeks

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I never have quarantined any new fish, guess I have been lucky all these years not to have had a problem.....

 

[Jeffcb]

I have never quarantined any thing. I usually dip corals but that's it. Looks interesting.

 

[nereefpat]

OP isn't looking to debate QT v non-QT.

There are certain sites that do actually sell properly quarantined fishes. Looking through their protocol, that looks to be a place where they QT with copper or CP, then several deworming meds and antibiotics.

 

[JGT]

I think the question becomes, if a fish has been properly QT, could the stress/changes/shipping from their QT environment to your DT tank, still cause them to come down with disease. I wondered this myself.

 

[icedearth15324]

I don't quarantine except for tangs personally. The issue with buying a fish that has been quarantined is more of if your current fish have something, the new fish can get it.

 

[nereefpat]

I think the question becomes, if a fish has been properly QT, could the stress/changes/shipping from their QT environment to your DT tank, still cause them to come down with disease. I wondered this myself.

If there is disease in your display tank, yes. If not, no.

 

[alain Bouchard]

I dont quarantine either, but when I add a fish, I try to take one that is known to be hardy or is mature enough to fight a possible disease outbreak. Plus, I use a UV filter to help limit the level of possible disease outbreak. I am in team "quarantine stress a fish, thus lower its natural immunity system"....and I try to instruct all my fish to keep a social distancing of 2 meters, and they wear a mask at all time.

 

[Rickybobby]

Years ago never qt. Never lost fish to parasites. Fast forward 15 years. Tried no qt. Velvet came in wiped out my 3 fish. So now I qt corals and inverts in one tank and fish in another. Can’t take a chance anymore

 

[stauzin]

I have quarantined all of my fish with copper and prazi-pro treatments. Any new fish I would purchase I might go with the pre-quarantined fish from a reputable seller who does the quarantine process but I would still run them through safety stop at least before adding them to my main display tank.

 

[JGT]

If there is disease in your display tank, yes. If not, no.

Various opinions would have you believe that there is disease in virtually all tanks, but in good/stress free environments it remains dormant or minimized. Not sure I support this belief, but discuss amongst yourselves.

 

[DaddyFish]

Years ago never qt. Never lost fish to parasites. Fast forward 15 years. Tried no qt. Velvet came in wiped out my 3 fish. So now I qt corals and inverts in one tank and fish in another. Can’t take a chance anymore

I had the same thing happen recently. Fish was carrying Velvet and wouldn't eat. Species was known for being a finnicky eater so after a couple days I decided to transfer it to DT so it would eat. It never ate and the Velvet killed off about six other fish before I figured out what was happening.

I dont quarantine either, but when I add a fish, I try to take one that is known to be hardy or is mature enough to fight a possible disease outbreak. Plus, I use a UV filter to help limit the level of possible disease outbreak. I am in team "quarantine stress a fish, thus lower its natural immunity system"....and I try to instruct all my fish to keep a social distancing of 2 meters, and they wear a mask at all time.

I UV at high/parasite level in all my tanks. Yet the aforementioned Velvet attack got me. What the UV did do was provide time to determine the disease, capture the remaining fish and start treatment.
I agree that QT stresses fish, especially certain species or larger fish (in a small QT). But more and more nowadays it seems almost every fish arrives stressed and infected with something, especially puffers.

Anything shipped has been through hell by the time it arrives. QT gives the fish a chance to recover before it also has to deal with other fish that are potential bullies.

 

[kenchilada]

I think the question becomes, if a fish has been properly QT, could the stress/changes/shipping from their QT environment to your DT tank, still cause them to come down with disease. I wondered this myself.

There’s still bacterial infection, HLLE, etc that can afflict a properly quarantined fish. It’s however not difficult to quarantine fish and completely prevent ich, velvet, brook, and uro from existing in your display, which is probably most peoples goal.

What I think is the bigger problem is avoiding bringing in protozoans later via coral/inverts.

 

[Paul B]

I think quarantine is the silliest thing us Geezers came up with when the hobby started.
I have not quarantined anything in almost fifty years. No problems yet but maybe after fifty one years I will have a problem. :)

 

[vetteguy53081]

I do not quarantine but it is recommended especially if you are buying fish that are shipped and you have not seen their eating or breathing behaviors prior to arrival. This turns to risk.
Risk is not only with new acquistion but all others in the tank that are subject to disease or parasite.

 

[User1]

Can you skip quarantining if you order from an online place that pre-quarantines for you? Is this effective/safe? For example, this site: https://drreefsquarantinedfish.com/quarantined-fish/


Thinking about ordering from them. Anyone have any thoughts/experience with this?

No, I have not ordered from them nor have any experience. However, if you widen your search you will find a few online retailers who quarantine fish. Some the selection is focused on the more common fish others will take your order, source the fish, QT using their protocols, and then ship directly to you. If you are looking for quarantined animals then I would strongly suggest you go this route. Place your order, let them source and ship to them, then they send to you.

There is still the stress factor of shipping but one thing different when using people that focus on this is that it is at least a "known" process and eating. If it isn't eating prepared foods then it doesn't leave.

I PM'd you a name to look for and go from there.

 

[nereefpat]

Various opinions would have you believe that there is disease in virtually all tanks, but in good/stress free environments it remains dormant or minimized. Not sure I support this belief, but discuss amongst yourselves.

Spontaneous generation was disproven hundreds of years ago.

That's not what this thread is about.

 

[ca1ore]

Various opinions would have you believe that there is disease in virtually all tanks, but in good/stress free environments it remains dormant or minimized. Not sure I support this belief, but discuss amongst yourselves.

This made me chuckle. Depends on whose opinion you favor, the ‘various’ crowd or your own. Unless, of course, you’ve done extensive testing to support yours.

Depends, I suppose, on what is meant by disease. Every tank contains a large variety of bacteria which can opportunistically infect fish. If you mean something like ich, then I suspect more tanks have it than not, particularly if you’ve not used any kind of QT. It is not unusual for a tank that is asymptomatic to suddenly display ich upon the introduction of a canary.