Does everyone REALLY go the length to prevent ich with multiple tanks and a dedicated QT for everything?

[LPS Bum]

I'm sure there are people on this forum who QT everything that is wet (including corals and inverts), but I've never met anyone who does that. I absolutely QT all of my new fish and treat prophylactically with copper power, but I never QT corals or inverts.

Is there a risk in not doing so? Sure. But that just seems exhausting. And after 20 years in the hobby it hasn't bitten me in the butt yet, so no plans to change.

 

[kenchilada]

Just took this. The part hanging out of the rock is over 1 foot long. Not sure how much more of him is in there. Maybe @Dierks wants him.

So yeah, quarantine is a good idea guys.

 

[kenchilada]

By the way that is a 5 gallon IO bucket.

Huge bobbit! I can’t believe this, never had one in 30 years doing this. Super lucky he didn’t make it to my display.

edit: the head makes me think bobbit but maybe it’s a huge polychaete worm… do they get this big?

 

[darrick001]

I have 2 Qt tanks 1 for coral and inverts 1 for fish. I QT everything wet. Most tanks have ick in them. I know I have it in mine. I just downsized and my tang had 1 spot on him for a few days then 2 spots then it disappeared and hasn't came back. When you get new fish or coral they become stressed . A stressed animal can very easily become suseptible to ick or other things. Fish I Qt for at least 4 weeks if everything looks good. If they get sick I QT for 4 weeks after they are healthy. Coral they get a treatment on day 3 and 7. If I find anything they get another on day 10 and 14 on day 21 they get one more and if it's clean they get moved to the display. The fish treatment tank is only setup when new fish are being added. The coral tank runs all the time. I turn the heater and lights off when there is no coral in it.

 

[PapaFishRocks]

I have a full time QT setup. Fish: yup, in the QT. Corals and inverts: straight to the DT. But I did it mostly as an excuse to buy another tank. LOL

 

[Dierks]

Just took this. The part hanging out of the rock is over 1 foot long. Not sure how much more of him is in there. Maybe @Dierks wants him.

So yeah, quarantine is a good idea guys.

@kenchilada why you got to go and pick on me!?! Haha!!

Gosh I hate all thee nasty worms in our tanks...

 

[kenchilada]

@kenchilada why you got to go and pick on me!?! Haha!!

Gosh I hate all thee nasty worms in our tanks...

Well I thought you might be bored with all those fish, I mean look at these adorable… face tentacle things?

 

[ReefPig]

I’m 16 weeks into stocking a new 2000L tank, and I have the space, so I setup two fish QT’s.

So far I’ve successfully completed 7 full cycles of quarantine, which is 23 fish.

Each cycle is 30 days, no matter if the fish looks sick or not, they go through Copper Power at 2.5ppm (with only minor exceptions of wrasse), during the 30 days they get two full treatments of API General Cure for external parasites, and 4 treatments of Metroplex soaked food for internal parasites (more depending on the fish).

Is it perfect? No! Things could still get through the net, but it’s a 80/20, relatively low stress approach for the fish, and easy to follow.

As for dealing with ammonia, I have a twice oversized hang on filter, packed with Seachem Matrix, which I pre soak with Fritz Turbo.
Each QT cycle, I take everything down, sterilise and scrub, then refill with the soaked Matrix, and do a heavy dose of Fritz into the water. Next day I put fish in and off we go again. I rarely water change during the 30 days, unless it really dirty.

 

[AquaLogic]

How about bobbit worms? Is that a good reason to quarantine? I literally JUST found what I’m pretty sure is a bobbit worm in my coral quarantine tank!

I’ve been mysteriously losing new snails in this tank during QT, and I picked up a rock and there’s a huge worm 8” long worm hanging out of the rock. I’ll try to get some pictures of it.

Gross.

 

[Spare time]

I’m 16 weeks into stocking a new 2000L tank, and I have the space, so I setup two fish QT’s.

So far I’ve successfully completed 7 full cycles of quarantine, which is 23 fish.

Each cycle is 30 days, no matter if the fish looks sick or not, they go through Copper Power at 2.5ppm (with only minor exceptions of wrasse), during the 30 days they get two full treatments of API General Cure for external parasites, and 4 treatments of Metroplex soaked food for internal parasites (more depending on the fish).

Is it perfect? No! Things could still get through the net, but it’s a 80/20, relatively low stress approach for the fish, and easy to follow.

As for dealing with ammonia, I have a twice oversized hang on filter, packed with Seachem Matrix, which I pre soak with Fritz Turbo.
Each QT cycle, I take everything down, sterilise and scrub, then refill with the soaked Matrix, and do a heavy dose of Fritz into the water. Next day I put fish in and off we go again. I rarely water change during the 30 days, unless it really dirty.

General cure has metro in it so I would think that to be repetitive, no?

 

[kenchilada]

4 treatments of Metroplex soaked food for internal parasites

Consider switching this to General Cure. May need to feed longer and more frequently too. I follow this guide.

General Cure Food Soak

I have multiple QT tanks going with a variety of different fish. I have 3 tanks with clownfish that are displaying white stringy feces. I have General Cure and will do food soak starting tomorrow. My first question is if Focus is needed when not food soaking for a DT where coral is present...

humble.fish

I mix in an ice tray and freeze, feed daily 2-3 weeks.

 

[AaronFReef]

Yes I do follow strict bio security in my display. I maintain a constantly running fishless invert and coral QT and run snails through in batches of 45 days (75 is unnecessary according to Humblefish from what I believe I read last). All my fish either go through prophylaxis by myself or vendors or come from places generally considered to be strict enough in their own bio security to avoid the need such as Biota. I'm not an expert at this stuff, but it is doable and with 30 fish in my DT a recent aquabiomics test registered no fish pathogens. So it is possible if you choose to play the game this way. It's a choice and if you enjoy the journey it can be done. QT is a hobby in itself and I think the best thing to do for these amazing tropical creatures flown halfway around the world with guilt inducing survival rates to do the best we can for them all. If you don't QT, I understand but my choice was to QT for these reasons.

 

[MnFish1]

Just a comment on multiple drugs used in QT at the same time. If you do that - it may shorten the overall time in QT - but - it also 1) means you can't tell what drug is responsible for any side effects and 2) may be more stressful for some fish (i.e. not tolerating 2 or 3 drugs at a time. 3) its possible for some drugs to lessen the effectiveness of others in some fish.

Generally speaking these are not benign treatments - there can be multiple effects on immune function and other organs - and each added medication makes these problems more likely. Putting medication in fish food requires careful measurements - and if the given fish in QT is not eating - they will not be getting any mediation. If a fish is eating more than average - they can be overdosed. I would avoid that.

I personally would not use other 'dips' prophylactically for fish, though I know they are out there. It comes down to effectiveness vs stress of doing the dip.

Anyone can do what they want - not criticizing - these are just my feelings on it. I tend to believe the protocol we recommend - which is 30 days of copper (chelated), with copper levels, followed by 2 8 day prazipro treatments.

 

[mrjoe]

nope.... don't QT anything, but I do dip my corals which btw still hasn't stopped me from getting aptaisia.... I just don't have the room so I only buy from reputable online companies... YMMV

 

[carbasaurus]

Well I thought you might be bored with all those fish, I mean look at these adorable… face tentacle things?

Well I thought you might be bored with all those fish, I mean look at these adorable… face tentacle things?

Looks like a bobbit to me. I had one years ago in a new tank. Came in on the live rock. Caught it munching on a mushroom of all things. Had to remove the rock to get him out

 

[nano7g]

No, I don’t. But I just have a 7g. I might regret it, but I’m not likely to have any more than 3 fish that are inexpensive. And I just don’t want a second tank set up just for quarantine. The only mitigations I take are buying from a well-kept LFS and inspecting the place and tanks I’m buying from.

I dip my corals though, and cut off and sand down most of the original plug before adding it.

 

[nano7g]

Had to look up what these bobbit things were. Seriously what the heck. You just know horror movies and Dune probably used these things for inspiration. These are the nightmares that kept me away from cycling with live rock.

 

[AydenLincoln]

No!

 

[MnFish1]

Had to look up what these bobbit things were. Seriously what the heck. You just know horror movies and Dune probably used these things for inspiration. These are the nightmares that kept me away from cycling with live rock.

Just think about walking around on the sand

 

[dochoot]

Agree, sci fi movies have nothing on weird sea life.