Did you have to go as far as bragging about spawning?
Do you Quarantine Your Fish?
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Did you have to go as far as bragging about spawning?
jtl
Well-Known Member
Seems to me that unless you start from day one with dry rock and quarantine everything including, inverts and corals you always have the possibility of disease in your DT. Having said that I recently purchased a couple of fish and set up a qt with copper and metroplex. After 9 days (7 at therapeutic levels) the ammonia was moving the color of the ammonia alert, not much though. I tested for ammonia and to my surprise it was high so I did a 50% water change, barely changed it so I threw in the towel and put them in the DT. They were showing no signs of anything, I should have checked for flukes but in my haste I forgot, at least this is something I can treat in the DT if necessary. So far so good and they are enjoying their new home and tank mates. Everything is a risk and subjecting animals to chemicals is no exception.
Nburg's Reef
High-Rise Reefer
Copper power monitored with a Hanna Checker for at least 14 days if they seem fat and healthy, 2 rounds of prazi. Copper to 1.75 ppm right away, so when i stop, i still have 14 days of observation after i end copper. Minimum 4 weeks. If they seem healthy and eat right away, I'll add to DT at that point. If anything seems funny, I'll observe longer.
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Oshengems
Valuable Member
You know what I don’t get with quarantine which was one of the reasons I’ve never done one and live in a apt don’t have the spAce..... we are told a tank needs to be “mature” before anything alive goes in but does not apply to quarantine, Also it’s in humane to keep a tang in a 75g but quarantine one in a 40g breeder it’s ok ? Isn’t this more stress on a fish that’s already stressed? I’ve seen lately several post “ fish was doing excellent in medicated qt tank woke up in the morning he’s dead”
ca1ore
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Tossed all my FAMA years ago - including the ones in which I had published articles. Should have at least kept those.
ca1ore
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Observation is QT as well - are you saying you now treat prophylactically?
Yes.. Ever since I lost big chunk of my fish...
I ended pulling everything out to treat.
Schnizzle
Well-Known Member
I did the observe and treat if needed method. Then I had a slip and shortened the observation period once and it failed. I will now be catching all my fish this weekend to treat for crypto and go fallow in my DT for 76 days. I will now be treating any and all new additions before they go in the tank.
I haven't quaranteed a fish in the 30+ years I've been keeping fish tanks. I'm fortunate to have some good lfs's around me. There was a learning curve for the 1st few years or so but after that have never found a need to.
All of my fish , except the last 2 additions, have had FW dip, then TTM, then Prazi , followed by 30 day observation. Last 2 came from long established tanks with no history of disease, I did treat them with Safety Stop before putting into DT.
Before the 2 new ones came , I did see white stringy poo from 2 fish that I've had for nearly 2 years, so am feeding GC + Focus, seems to be doing the trick.
Before the 2 new ones came , I did see white stringy poo from 2 fish that I've had for nearly 2 years, so am feeding GC + Focus, seems to be doing the trick.
Scorchx1245
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I have no room for qt... sigh.
kkiel02
Active Member
I think quite a few of the members here have already learned their lesson with not quarantining their fish. When I asked this on a local forum I only got one other person in the group. It would definitely be better for the hobby if they were quarantined prior to purchase but I know it’s an expense most lfs will not take.
kkiel02
Active Member
There are suppliers on here that will do it for you. I’m getting all my fish quarantined and just have a 20g setup for watching corals for 80 days. That’s all the wife would let me add. Haha
ShaunRobinson
Active Member
A quarantine tank would ideally be seeded with a sponge or other bacteria populated media that has come from the display tank thus making it as ‘mature’ as possible in a short space of time. The use of a bottled bacteria is also a must for me.
As far as size goes, my opinion is that for a short quarantine a smaller tank is acceptable for many fish as long as there is sufficient hiding places to reduce stress levels. I obviously wouldn’t put a fish in a qt tank that wasn’t big enough for it to turn round in though.
Finally a quick observation on your final point of fish being fine in quarantine then suddenly dropping dead. Due to the usual size and immaturity of a quarantine tank, Ammonia build up is a huge risk. Many people do not realise this and continue to feed just as they would any other tank without a thought to anything else. I firmly believe most sudden deaths in quarantine are related to ammonia levels in the tank.
BigBossReefer
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I do not quarantine any of my new fish simply because of the high mortality rate that I’ve experienced while doing so. I’ve lost 3 out 5 fish that I’ve tried quarantining, maybe due to inadequate filtration...it’s a small 10 gallon QT tank. I purchased a Pentair HO 50 watt UV sterilizer for my 175 gal DT and I have had no issues with any new fish I’ve thrown directly in the tank. The disease that I am most afraid of is velvet (amyloodinium) but it has not been a problem with this setup so far...knock on wood. My powder blue gets ich occasionally but fights it off pretty quickly. Usually when I slack on maintenance and let organics & nitrates get high. As long as you correct any water parameter issues and keep them stable, ich should never result in mortality. On the other hand velvet, bacterial infections, and fungal infections are another matter. Having a strong UV sterilizer and an efficient skimmer goes a long way in reducing these threats.
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Fish = 14 day TTM. I fatten them up with live food. Add 2 doses of Prazi Pro and some MetroPlex. If I dont see anything they are good to go in the DT
PookieGV
Active Member
I always QT and have begun to treat prophylactically. I don't love it. I had a bad experience where a clown developed a wicked bacterial infection on the fourth week of copper treatment. With my last batch, I treated with general cure and prazi, then a 30 day observation, then 2 weeks in copper. That batch is set to come out of QT on Tuesday. I am tempted to go back to observe and treat if necessary.
I think it really matters where your getting your fish from, online seems to be a disease factory from what I read on here, crappy lfs’s are also a disease factory. The 2 I’ve been going to for over 30 years definitely have good practices and sell healthy fish or my tank water magically kills any parasite after floating and plopping them in, but in the 3+ years I’ve had my current tank setup I’ve had no deaths, I have just exchanged a couple for something I really wanted since I’m really maxed out on fish, Float and plop has been working for me for decades, just a fact no bs. Ich to me is a like an itch on your nose no biggie, velvet I haven’t encountered in 20 years. Guess I’m just lucky.
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