Do you quarantine?

[mattzang]

so i can weigh in a little thoroughly after QTing a couple batches of fish now

i won't lie, success level is poor. i've lost a lot of fish that i don't really know where to place the blame. me? probably, although i've tried to be careful, hanna test for copper raise slowly etc. wrasses seem particularly difficult, i might try to observation qt them in the future. so that has been a bummer. plus i have a royal gramma that has a nasty bacterial looking growth, which might be from copper exposure apparently

but that said, i also lost a starcki damsel to what i suspect was uronema. so i mean, good thing that happened in the QT and not my DT. can't put the genie back in the bottle on that disease.

i just did my first hydrogen peroxide dip today and that seems really promising. i wonder if i could've saved the starcki if i did an initial peroxide dip.

so all in all, QTing sucks but it still makes the most sense to me. unfortunately despite extensive research and not going cheap with preparation, it's still quite difficult.

plus i gotta say now that i'm using anti biotics for the gramma, it astounds me how expensive it is. QTing is definitely not cheap. i'm doing furan 2 + kanaplex + metroplex right now and will probably run out of all 3 just to treat this one fish. each one is like $10. sure not that expensive, but when you factor in that the fish was like $30 and there's no guarantee at all this will even work, it's pretty discouraging. i feel like evertime i turn around there's a need for another tank or another heater or another medication and that crap all adds up quickly. i think i could've saved the money and just paid extra for others to QT fish for me lol

 

[JoeJoesonoma]

I havent put any of my fish in quarantine for 3 yrs now. But i do overlook everyone i purchase. Until the day I purchased a powder brown tang that had flukes. Lessoned learn and set up a quarantine tank.

 

[Punchanello]

so i can weigh in a little thoroughly after QTing a couple batches of fish now

i won't lie, success level is poor. i've lost a lot of fish that i don't really know where to place the blame. me? probably, although i've tried to be careful, hanna test for copper raise slowly etc. wrasses seem particularly difficult, i might try to observation qt them in the future. so that has been a bummer. plus i have a royal gramma that has a nasty bacterial looking growth, which might be from copper exposure apparently

but that said, i also lost a starcki damsel to what i suspect was uronema. so i mean, good thing that happened in the QT and not my DT. can't put the genie back in the bottle on that disease.

i just did my first hydrogen peroxide dip today and that seems really promising. i wonder if i could've saved the starcki if i did an initial peroxide dip.

so all in all, QTing sucks but it still makes the most sense to me. unfortunately despite extensive research and not going cheap with preparation, it's still quite difficult.

plus i gotta say now that i'm using anti biotics for the gramma, it astounds me how expensive it is. QTing is definitely not cheap. i'm doing furan 2 + kanaplex + metroplex right now and will probably run out of all 3 just to treat this one fish. each one is like $10. sure not that expensive, but when you factor in that the fish was like $30 and there's no guarantee at all this will even work, it's pretty discouraging. i feel like evertime i turn around there's a need for another tank or another heater or another medication and that crap all adds up quickly. i think i could've saved the money and just paid extra for others to QT fish for me lol

This is the truth, it's not easy and you quite often learn because a fish died. That's pretty brutal economics right there. Yet, it's quite likely you've already saved your tank once from uronema. What price on that?

I buy from 'reputable' and varied sources and I haven't had a fish come in without having at least a case of ich or flukes or bacterial infection in 2 years. I expect it. I mean, the supply chain delivering to the 'reputable' LFS is the same delivering to the dodgy one across the street with hundreds or thousands of fish making contact with the same holding systems. And once they are at the LFS it can be difficult to detect illness because they use copper and freshwater dips to suppress it. If your whole method is 'pick a healthy looking fish', good luck.

 

[biecacka]

Can you share your reputable and varied sources? It’s not that I don’t believe it, in fact it’s the opposite. I’m looking for one. I used to purchase from LA but they are part of the reason I would QT, so if my fish die it’s not in my tank and I can get credit back for them. Sad that it’s came to that but my last few orders haven’t had much success while other fish in my tank at 5-7 years old or older.


corey

 

[MnFish1]

Can you share your reputable and varied sources? It’s not that I don’t believe it, in fact it’s the opposite. I’m looking for one. I used to purchase from LA but they are part of the reason I would QT, so if my fish die it’s not in my tank and I can get credit back for them. Sad that it’s came to that but my last few orders haven’t had much success while other fish in my tank at 5-7 years old or older.


corey

I PM'd you

 

[stanleo]

I never have. I usually (with one exception) watch the fish at the store for a few days to a week (hoping no one buys it in that time) and ask all the questions: How long have you had it, is it eating well, will you feed it while I am here? I also only get them from one store that I trust and I know what they keep their tanks at and what their procedures are.

That said, I know I am taking a risk not QTing. I just don't currently have the space for it. I am in the planning stages though of building a fish room in the basement with a frag and QT tank so I will be doing it and I will wait till then to get the more sensitive species on my list.

 

[PicassoDan]

Quarantine is a catch-all term that is likely too general to be able to make specific claims of success. I'm only going to comment on the Tank Transfer Method and cryptocaryon irritans. I've never used copper, because I've never needed to, and because it can kill fish if not done correctly as shown in the study above.
I've had a 100% success rate with keeping ich out of the display tank using only the TTM.
I've had a 100% long-term survival rate (>30 days) of fish that have gone through the TTM.
I've never done an extended QT period after the TTM period.
Over the several years doing it, and different tanks, the fish that successfully went through the TTM were yellow tangs, powder brown tang, hippo tangs, solarensis wrasse, flasher wrasse, several clowns, starry blenny, algae blenny, coral beauty dwarf angels, flame angel, and others I can't remember.
The list of fish I've lost to ich by just "dropping them in" is sadly a much larger list, likely 2 to 3 times larger as I slowly learned the expensive lesson that not QTing fish for ich is a really bad idea. Two separate times I've lost an entire tank (8+ fish) to ich after "dropping in" a nice healthy looking fish. Two times I've had to let the tank go fallow for 72 days to get rid of it. I will never ever just drop a fish into the DT again.

I would suggest that if you're losing fish in QT it's because you're doing something wrong.

 

[MnFish1]

Quarantine is a catch-all term that is likely too general to be able to make specific claims of success. I'm only going to comment on the Tank Transfer Method and cryptocaryon irritans. I've never used copper, because I've never needed to, and because it can kill fish if not done correctly as shown in the study above.
I've had a 100% success rate with keeping ich out of the display tank using only the TTM.
I've had a 100% long-term survival rate (>30 days) of fish that have gone through the TTM.
I've never done an extended QT period after the TTM period.
Over the several years doing it, and different tanks, the fish that successfully went through the TTM were yellow tangs, powder brown tang, hippo tangs, solarensis wrasse, flasher wrasse, several clowns, starry blenny, algae blenny, coral beauty dwarf angels, flame angel, and others I can't remember.
The list of fish I've lost to ich by just "dropping them in" is sadly a much larger list, likely 2 to 3 times larger as I slowly learned the expensive lesson that not QTing fish for ich is a really bad idea. Two separate times I've lost an entire tank (8+ fish) to ich after "dropping in" a nice healthy looking fish. Two times I've had to let the tank go fallow for 72 days to get rid of it. I will never ever just drop a fish into the DT again.

I would suggest that if you're losing fish in QT it's because you're doing something wrong.

This is interesting - Curious - what do you ascribe your success against other pathogens? Since the TTM method won't really help many of those things.

 

[PicassoDan]

I'm not sure why I haven't encountered other pathogens that are "common." I've only ever bought fish from local stores or fellow reefers.

*edit: I have encountered flukes on a yellow tang once and treated with praziquantel (PraziPro brand)

 

[Punchanello]

Quarantine is a catch-all term that is likely too general to be able to make specific claims of success. I'm only going to comment on the Tank Transfer Method and cryptocaryon irritans. I've never used copper, because I've never needed to, and because it can kill fish if not done correctly as shown in the study above.
I've had a 100% success rate with keeping ich out of the display tank using only the TTM.
I've had a 100% long-term survival rate (>30 days) of fish that have gone through the TTM.
I've never done an extended QT period after the TTM period.
Over the several years doing it, and different tanks, the fish that successfully went through the TTM were yellow tangs, powder brown tang, hippo tangs, solarensis wrasse, flasher wrasse, several clowns, starry blenny, algae blenny, coral beauty dwarf angels, flame angel, and others I can't remember.
The list of fish I've lost to ich by just "dropping them in" is sadly a much larger list, likely 2 to 3 times larger as I slowly learned the expensive lesson that not QTing fish for ich is a really bad idea. Two separate times I've lost an entire tank (8+ fish) to ich after "dropping in" a nice healthy looking fish. Two times I've had to let the tank go fallow for 72 days to get rid of it. I will never ever just drop a fish into the DT again.

I would suggest that if you're losing fish in QT it's because you're doing something wrong.

TTM on ich has worked really well for me too. I expect ich on pretty much every single fish so it's my go to. I'll only use copper if the fish is a tang, otherwise looking fairly healthy and I know I'm not going to have time for TTM.

 

[Murica]

Bump

 

[WVNed]

I keep my fish in a tank away from all the other fish so yes.

 

[Murica]

I PM'd you

Do you, or anybody have a step by step process how to qt with medicine

 

[crawling junk]

i do not, but I bought my clowns from a breeder and my tang from a fellow local reefer

 

[Murica]

Do you, or anybody have a step by step process how to qt with medicine

And how to qt inverts

 

[MnFish1]

Do you, or anybody have a step by step process how to qt with medicine

@HotRocks has one - and @Humblefish has one - you can search for them on the site.

 

[MnFish1]

And how to qt inverts

The question would be - do you mean QT For 'parasites' or QT for invert diseases. I have seen little risk of 'fish disease' from inverts - but if you want to QT them - just put them in a tank without fish for 76 days

there are various dips people use as well as observation, cutting plugs, scrubbing areas to QT inverts to prevent them from causing problems for the inverts in your tank.

 

[Murica]

The question would be - do you mean QT For 'parasites' or QT for invert diseases. I have seen little risk of 'fish disease' from inverts - but if you want to QT them - just put them in a tank without fish for 76 days

there are various dips people use as well as observation, cutting plugs, scrubbing areas to QT inverts to prevent them from causing problems for the inverts in your tank.

awesome thank you. a lot of people have referred me to quarantinedfish.us.
Knowing myself I’d probably be too impatient to qt fish, so this may be what i start to do for now on. Do you qt inverts?

 

[MnFish1]

awesome thank you. a lot of people have referred me to quarantinedfish.us.
Knowing myself I’d probably be too impatient to qt fish, so this may be what i start to do for now on. Do you qt inverts?

No - I only buy from an LFS - that has a QT system- and I've never had a problem. I inspect them carefully though

 

[Murica]

Any other opinions? So little posts for such a controversial topic ;Hilarious