My shared success with QT’ing fish

[mtraylor]

Good info, for if/when I add fish to my system again, but hold the phone! ;Stop.....Drain on the tank?....Brilliant!! You could even drill another at the level of the % water change you expect to do regularly and just open it up and walk away. It would only empty to the level of the drain. I have an old 29 gal on the back porch that I might have to experiment with.

Great idea. Also I forgot to share. When I perform water changes on the tank. I take a hose and hook up to the internal drain and it makes it easy to vacuum the bottom of the aquarium while you remove water. That way you get all the waste etc out with your water change and you don't have to worry about a fish swimming in front of the valve. Works great.

 

[RtomKinMad]

I have a secondary bacterial infection in my QT and want to know if I can use eurythomiacin and copper together. I have treated bacteria with success with antibiotics but never while copper in tank. Any suggestions

 

[MnFish1]

I have a secondary bacterial infection in my QT and want to know if I can use eurythomiacin and copper together. I have treated bacteria with success with antibiotics but never while copper in tank. Any suggestions

do you mean erythromycin? - and that is not the best 'broad spectrum' antibiotic unless you know what you're treating...?

 

[RtomKinMad]

do you mean erythromycin? - and that is not the best 'broad spectrum' antibiotic unless you know what you're treating...?

Yes, sorry my spelling sucks, and I know it’s not the best for broad spectrum, but for the fun tot that appears to be affecting the fish , it should be fine,

Again, just need suggestions on weather in can be used in conjunction with copper

 

[RtomKinMad]

Yes, sorry my spelling sucks, and I know it’s not the best for broad spectrum, but for the fun tot that appears to be affecting the fish , it should be fine,

Again, just need suggestions on weather in can be used in conjunction with copper

Fin rot*

 

[MnFish1]

there is a thread on r2r - seems ok....

 

[RtomKinMad]

there is a thread on r2r - seems ok....

Ok thank you. Have to try the erythromycin because it’s the only thing we have on hand or can get today. LFS out of Furon or anything else. Thank you for your help.

 

[Silverfish]

Well after seeing several posts in threads about losing fish. I thought I would put together a little article to share my experiences with QT’ing fish.

Over the last several years, there seems to be a higher need to QT your fish. Most of the fish I receive on line have internal parasites. This is found by watching for white poop in your fish. About 60% of the fish I get these days have internal parasites. This is not an issue with the fish. The fish come from all the same place…..the ocean.

I don’t believe that the fish have very many issues straight from the ocean. Once they are collected they are placed on holding facilities and they are introduced to all these parasites and diseases that we are seeing in our trade. Maybe one fish may have had something here and there and once it gets to a holding facility its spread like wild fire. That’s why we see so many issues with the fish.


I personally setup a 20 gallon aquarium for QT purposes. I only set it up when I need it. I drilled the side of the aquarium to make it easy to remove water from the aquarium. This makes it nice for water changes. Highly recommend.

When I setup the aquarium. In this instance I actually placed some sand in the bottom for some wrasses and tiger goby to make them comfortable. This is not needed normally, but I used live sand in a bag for this purpose and a scoop from the display.

When I setup the QT tank. I like to set it up at least 48 hours before my fish arrive. This is what I do.

SETUP

1. Remove a couple pieces of Live rock from sump and place in QT tank.
   
   
2. In this case, I also added new live sand and seeded it from display.
   
   
3. Fill QT tank with water from Display
   
   
4. Add heater and bubble strip to QT.
   
   
5. I place one pin wheel filter on each side of aquarium for water movement and pre filtration.
   
   
6. Since I had wrasses that only eat pods, I placed order for pods to place in QT.
   
   
7. Grab algae from refuge and place in QT for pod growth.
   
   
8. Place several 2 Inch PVC tubes in aquarium for fish to hide when they want too.

Once all filled up I found this wonderful product by Brightwell called NeoCarbonit-Z.

I place about 2 teaspoons of this stuff into filter bag and place in the filter. This stuff is the bomb! It removes ammonia and keeps nitrates at bay. Since I have been using this stuff, the QT tank really does not even cycle. Keeps everything at bay. Awesome product. I no longer use Prime. This is helpful with some medications.

Once the fish come in, I put the fish in QT and observe them for 4 to 5 days and let them start eating and get a little comfortable before I do anything.

This is what the QT looks like. Notice the drain valve for ease of water change out.

This is a hiding place for copepods if you need an area.

Once I get them eating, I immediately start running prazipro and treating their food with focus. Dont forget to remove NeoCarbonit-Z before you start Prazipro. Follow directions on bottle for how much prazipro to use and how long to run.

I do not add the recommended dose all in one swoop. I spread the dose out over 4 additions with 3 to 4 hours between each dose. This helps the fish get used to the prazi allot easier as it strips oxygen and can stress gentle fish like wrasses to death. The bubbler is essential IMO.

I run the fish through 2 cycles of prazipro treatment per the bottle’s instructions. In between the 2 treatments I run NeoCarbonit-Z for 24hours to remove the previous treatment and perform 50% water change. For the internal parasites, I stop feeding the fish focus when the infected ones stop pooping white.

This method of QT has worked really well for me. Just the 2 treatments catch most of the issues I see with fish coming in from online or LFS. If I need to medicate fish for anything else, I will bind the medication with the focus for the issue. I hope this helps.


Be patient and take everything slow while in QT. This fish need to be stress free and contaminate free before you introduce them to your display. Healthy fish make it allot better in your display and you don’t have to worry about killing any of your long term inhabitants in the main display.

Thanks! Good job on the article. Very informative. So hard to invest more in a QT tank until you learn a grave lesson. Your article breaks it down and makes it a little easier pill to swallow.

 

[Forsaken77]

Hows your success been with prazi? I had two clowns in QT for a month. After they were eating and comfortable i ran two rounds of prazi a week apart. Before the prazi i never noticed any scratching or strange begavior but figured i would run it anyways. Both times during the first 24-36 hours of prazi the fish were scratching here and there but continued to act happy, normal, and they ate well. I assumed they must of had some flukes and the prazi was doing its job. Fast forward a few weeks and they are in my DT doing just fine. On one occassion i noticed one fish scratch on the sand. And the other fish kind of freaked out during my first WC with them in the tank. It appeared that the dust stirred up from the sand irritated his gills for an hour or so or maybe i didnt airate the new water enough and it dropped the O2 levels enough to bother the fish. Either way they both seem perfectly fine. But it begs the question that maybe some flukes lived? I was halfway debating pulling them and putting them back in QT for more prazi or metro but i think thats extreme. Anyways, have you ever had to run more than 2 rounds of prazi? I think im just being paraniod, after all, i have observed them for hours and have only seen one fish scratch itself once or maybe twice in the past 3 weeks after the prazi. Fish can itch without having a parasite from time to time right? What bugs me is they were in QT for 2 weeks after prazi and i never saw any scratching at all but then i put them in the DT and saw it those couple times and my heart kind of sank to the floor...

The scratching (flashing) is usually caused by a parasite like ich. Prazipro doesn't address ich or velvet, which are worse than worms.

If they, or other fish, continue to rub, I would look for ich (very tiny sugar grains on the fish). If it has gotten into your main tank, you're in for a headache.

Copper is a much more useful med for new QT fish if they can handle it. Run copper, then Prazi.

Also, I don't believe you're supposed to separate the Prazi doses by a week. They should be back-to-back iirc.

 

[FinnyGyrrl]

Thank you for sharing. Very new at this, and searching for "tried & true" qt process. Have had more liveability, sadly, with "dump and hope" than preventive copper qt "whether it needs it, or not." Perhaps losing fish in copper prevents anything from entering the display: presto! Now disease-free!! Because it's Fish Free!
You can believe I hope to incorporate your method for future quarantine!! Thanks

 

[joe0813]

What do you do for ich? Especially on wrasses that can't tolerate a lot of copper

 

[mtraylor]

I do not submit my fish to a regiment of copper treatment as a fail safe. If a fish warrants a copper treatment then of course I will administer. TBO, I have never had too.
I keep an assortment of meds on hand so I have had to help local reefers with fish with velvet and ich, but none of my ordered fish have had these issues. Wrasses are very
delicate and all the wrasses that are in my display have never been treated with copper by me. They have had flukes and internal an external parasites and that is about it.

A mild case of ich can be ridded by getting the fish healthy. Basically cleaning the fish up from those internal and external parasites and flukes if they have them and providing
them with a stress free environment while treating. My main top 3 meds are the prazipro, focus and metroplex. The metroplex does really well. Highly recommend.

A real aggressive case of ich will have to be treated aggressively and swift to ensure the fish's health. For any of the fish I have helped treat for say aggressive ich or velvet, I always
start with a fresh water dip to give some immediate relief for the fish.