Ordering Quarantined Fish

[nickkohrn]

Mike (@Dr. Reef) over at Quarantined Fish has a Six Line wrasse and Trochus snails for me, which will be the first inhabitants of my SPS frag system. This got me thinking about the services provided by vendors that offer quarantined animals and how that will affect the hobby.

I don't have fish in my frag system yet, and, based on my living situation, it makes sense for me to purchase fish and invertebrates from Mike. It would be ridiculous for me to add quarantined animals to my system and then purchase more, non-quarantined, animals from a local shop, potentially infecting my system. What I am most curious about is whether hobbyists with existing systems will purchase quarantined animals. I have no doubts that adding quarantined animals helps to protect against adding new diseases or parasites to existing systems, so I am not challenging that. Unless hobbyists have quarantined their current livestocks, does it make sense for them to spend the extra money on quarantined animals that may be infected by whatever diseases or parasites are present and suppressed in the systems that the animals will be placed into?

I understand that diseases and parasites may slip through, so I'd like to discuss this with the assumption that the new animals are guaranteed to be free of diseases and parasites.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Short answer is no. I fall into this grey category for my nano tanks where my fish have never had any visible signs of ich but I am fairly sure it exists. I largely focus on PaulB's immunity concepts and run UV. I think that adding a sterile fish to either my Evo of 40B would be a likely death sentence as the fish has a weakened immune system from travel and has not had to fight off any parasites that likely are hanging around in my tank. Not only would I not pay additional money for said fish but I would rather choose something that has no visible symptoms from a LFS and observe in a QT for 7-10 days before adding.

Before I get jumped... I do plan on doing a full QT/sterilization and fallow period on both tanks when I likely move in November but I currently have absolutely no space for any additional fish tank setup. I have boxes in the hallway from when my girlfriend moved in with no place to store them.

 

[nickkohrn]

Short answer is no. I fall into this grey category for my nano tanks where my fish have never had any visible signs of ich but I am fairly sure it exists. I largely focus on PaulB's immunity concepts and run UV. I think that adding a sterile fish to either my Evo of 40B would be a likely death sentence as the fish has a weakened immune system from travel and has not had to fight off any parasites that likely are hanging around in my tank. Not only would I not pay additional money for said fish but I would rather choose something that has no visible symptoms from a LFS and observe in a QT for 7-10 days before adding.

Before I get jumped... I do plan on doing a full QT/sterilization and fallow period on both tanks when I likely move in November but I currently have absolutely no space for any additional fish tank setup. I have boxes in the hallway from when my girlfriend moved in with no place to store them.

I absolutely understand your current practices and why this is such a hotly-debated topic. I'm not against your current practices as I think that fish with healthy immune systems are able to fight diseases and parasites, which are rampant within the hobby.

I appreciate your honesty and respect your decisions.

 

[Pickwun]

.... I have boxes in the hallway from when my girlfriend moved in with no place to store them.

That's the problem with girlfriends. There's never a good place to store them. They always end up just running loose through the house causing havoc.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

We both have pretty messy hobbies which already leaves the place cluttered. A full QT system will be the first thing I move into the new apartment haha