Please help for quarantine fish from Petco

melhe · May 1, 2023

Update , the order is too late to cancel at petco. They already shipped . Interesting, the shipper is quality marine . I’ll let u know how they look tomorrow when I get them .

albano · May 1, 2023

Where did you see info about the Petco guarantee?

melhe · May 1, 2023

On their website

vetteguy53081 · May 1, 2023

melhe said:
Hi guys , good morning .

lately I am very much into wrasse . I have a little success for a couple of tamarin wrasse from a online store . They QTed them for three weeks before ship to me and those are my first experience with wrasses and those are absolutely stunning fish.

Then I start to search for leopard wrasse . Understand they are expert level , guess I was lucky with tamarin wrasse , I am ok to take the risk

I can’t find anywhere else has leopard wrasse for sale except petco shipping . I decided to order a few from petco .

here is my question how to quarantine those finicky fish.

I have one brand new 40g tank fishlesscycled for a couple of months and are fish ready . My question is those wrasses are very difficult to keep in general especially when to start to accept food, if I put them in that tank as quarantine tank . It doesn’t have established bio system , don’t have pods . Very low phosphate and nitrate levels . The environment alone could kill those wrasses especially with the shipping stress. My main DT is in perfect condition for wrasses but I don’t want to risk petco fish bring in any disease without quarantine.

The petco wrasses haven’t shipped yet . I am scratching my head trying to figure out how to quarantine them . I used to ask my tank maintenance guy to help me quarantine some discus in the past . Those discus came to me after his one month quarantine most appeared super skinny I am sure he is too busy with his business just won’t have much time to feed . Pretty much just auto feeder to drop pallets . I don’t think he has the time to nurturing leopard wrasses because those wrasses prone to starve themselves when under stress

please advise what to do in my situation. Thx a lot .

A challenge is often a tank bottom with no sand but can be improvised with adding a salad bowl with sand to compensate. As they get flukes and worms before ich- start with PraziPro and follow with Coppersafe or copper Power at treatment level 2.0 for 21 days

To(meany)Tang · May 1, 2023

From personal experience. I never recommend not quarantining but I actually got a leopard wrasse and a female melanurus also. They came super healthy and never had sickness with them. I didn't really care for quarantining at that time because it was early in the hobby and I didn't realize all the parasites that fish can have so I didn't quarantine. My leopard and melanurus are still happy and healthy today. I had a great experience with their shipping oh and sand is a must because my leopard darted like a bullet when I put her in lol. Good luck

melhe · May 2, 2023

To(meany)Tang said:
From personal experience. I never recommend not quarantining but I actually got a leopard wrasse and a female melanurus also. They came super healthy and never had sickness with them. I didn't really care for quarantining at that time because it was early in the hobby and I didn't realize all the parasites that fish can have so I didn't quarantine. My leopard and melanurus are still happy and healthy today. I had a great experience with their shipping oh and sand is a must because my leopard darted like a bullet when I put her in lol. Good luck

Did u get from petco too? I heard wrasse is difficult to quarantine. I am just worried I ended up killed them during quarantine. I found a 10 gallon tank can just used my tank water , still worried

To(meany)Tang · May 2, 2023

melhe said:
Did u get from petco too? I heard wrasse is difficult to quarantine. I am just worried I ended up killed them during quarantine. I found a 10 gallon tank can just used my tank water , still worried

Well then I have another story for you lol.. I bought so many fish from different lfs I happened to introduce ich into my display. I started coppersafe which is chelated copper and went the 30 days. No issues whatsoever with my leopard or any other fish. Found out after the 30 days that I didn't have the correct amount of copper in the tank so I started the clock over. Here's the funny part. I transfered all my fish that were in copper into my new 180 because they cleared quarantine but as I was fishing them out I transferred them all and relaxed and stared at an empty fish tank for the rest of the night. Well a couple days later I decided to buy a couple more fish and there was no way I wasn't gona quarantine after 60 days of copper. So I put the new fish in my old empty display still with copper in it and as I'm observing. A couple hours later I said "are you freaking kidding me" there goes my leopard wrasse who I'm guessing buried herself in the sand when I was catching the other fish. Also my neon goby hid in a hole in a rock..well long story short. The new fish were suspected to have a sickness so I couldn't fish out my leopard or neon in fear that the new fish's parasites mightve already got ahold of them. So guess what. My leopard got 30 more days of copper. Total 90 consecutive days. She's still one of the most beautiful fish in my aquarium super happy. Lol idk how hardy they are but to me that's pretty dam hardy. I think I heard they are more sensitive with prazi or metro treatments but I can't be sure. Also yes I purchased about 12 of my fish from petco including the leopard and they are all still alive today

all new fish get quarantined.

melhe · May 2, 2023

I got those fish today . They supposed to be all size small . Somehow all came in huge . If 5 inch anthias counts small , I am wondering what size medium look like . I threw 3 leopard wrasse ( at least 3 1/2 inch each ) and one anthias into DT because there is no way 10 G tank can hold those fish .
I know you guys think I am crazy . Let’s see how they do next a few days . Will keep u updated .
I am lazy . Trying to adopt @Paul B method . My fish have been eating all different junk food . I hope built up some immune system .

melhe · May 2, 2023

Petco wrasses

melhe · May 2, 2023

Petco anthias

melhe · May 2, 2023

To(meany)Tang said:
Well then I have another story for you lol.. I bought so many fish from different lfs I happened to introduce ich into my display. I started coppersafe which is chelated copper and went the 30 days. No issues whatsoever with my leopard or any other fish. Found out after the 30 days that I didn't have the correct amount of copper in the tank so I started the clock over. Here's the funny part. I transfered all my fish that were in copper into my new 180 because they cleared quarantine but as I was fishing them out I transferred them all and relaxed and stared at an empty fish tank for the rest of the night. Well a couple days later I decided to buy a couple more fish and there was no way I wasn't gona quarantine after 60 days of copper. So I put the new fish in my old empty display still with copper in it and as I'm observing. A couple hours later I said "are you freaking kidding me" there goes my leopard wrasse who I'm guessing buried herself in the sand when I was catching the other fish. Also my neon goby hid in a hole in a rock..well long story short. The new fish were suspected to have a sickness so I couldn't fish out my leopard or neon in fear that the new fish's parasites mightve already got ahold of them. So guess what. My leopard got 30 more days of copper. Total 90 consecutive days. She's still one of the most beautiful fish in my aquarium super happy. Lol idk how hardy they are but to me that's pretty dam hardy. I think I heard they are more sensitive with prazi or metro treatments but I can't be sure. Also yes I purchased about 12 of my fish from petco including the leopard and they are all still alive today all new fish get quarantined.

Isn’t ich is natural in all tanks ? They attack fish under stress or weak ? If fish are healthy . They fight off the ich themselves ?

To(meany)Tang · May 2, 2023

Here's mine at almost day 90 of copper lol

melhe said:
Isn’t ich is natural in all tanks ? They attack fish under stress or weak ? If fish are healthy . They fight off the ich themselves ?

This is incorrect.. ich is brought in a tank by an infected fish or coral or invertebrate.. if you treat a fish for parasites and kill them and then move them to your display tank. Are you still worried about ich? No because you know you killed it. I got ich from 1 fish and it infected all my fish. Since quarantining them with copper I've never seen a ich spot since. My display does not have ich to this day. I had all my fish for 5 months super healthy before I introduced a 2 inch emperor snapper. And the next day I saw white spots all over him. Took him out immediately and took him back to the lfs. Didn't matter all my fish started breaking out with spots and they never had them prior.

To(meany)Tang · May 2, 2023

melhe said:
Isn’t ich is natural in all tanks ? They attack fish under stress or weak ? If fish are healthy . They fight off the ich themselves ?

Now if a tank has ich. Yes they can build up an immunity to it and live perfectly fine given a well fed diet. But it's unsightly to look at and also knowing there's something in your tank latching onto your fish doesn't sit right with me lol

melhe · May 2, 2023

To(meany)Tang said:
Here's mine at almost day 90 of copper lol

This is incorrect.. ich is brought in a tank by an infected fish or coral or invertebrate.. if you treat a fish for parasites and kill them and then move them to your display tank. Are you still worried about ich? No because you know you killed it. I got ich from 1 fish and it infected all my fish. Since quarantining them with copper I've never seen a ich spot since. My display does not have ich to this day. I had all my fish for 5 months super healthy before I introduced a 2 inch emperor snapper. And the next day I saw white spots all over him. Took him out immediately and took him back to the lfs. Didn't matter all my fish started breaking out with spots and they never had them prior.

How did u get the fish out so easier . I have 7 chromis when I started tank to create bioload to cycle the tank . Now they all alive and keep growing . I have trouble to get single one out . I feel once the fish get into tank. It’s impossible to get them out unless they die . Btw, my tank is 300 g.

melhe · May 2, 2023

To(meany)Tang said:
Now if a tank has ich. Yes they can build up an immunity to it and live perfectly fine given a well fed diet. But it's unsightly to look at and also knowing there's something in your tank latching onto your fish doesn't sit right with me lol

When my tank was 3 months old . I had one velvet episode wiped out a lot of fish . I am sure there are icp too because I saw them on the fish . Since I read @Paul B ’s thread . I tried to feed them a lot of different food , frozen , live mix with garlic extreme and vitamin . I dose liquid mud from moonshiner daily . I figure my tank already had ick and velvet . I have so many corals . Can’t really put in any copper or meds. Since i changed way of feeding . I haven’t lost any fish . I guess I was lucky . This time I think I am pushing my luck because I added 7 fish from two sources today including PBT. Will keep u updated in next a few weeks . Use my DT as an expensive experiment

vetteguy53081 · May 2, 2023

melhe said:
Isn’t ich is natural in all tanks ? They attack fish under stress or weak ? If fish are healthy . They fight off the ich themselves ?

wow. . . . most wild fish are exposed to low levels of parasites and are often unable to fight off the infections without becoming ill and their immune systems weaken making them susceptible to infections and parasites like ich and often a decrease in water quality, stress and temperature changes which cause stress will allow the disease to progress,
FISH DO NOT BECOME IMMUNE TO DISEASE . . BUT RATHER RESISTANT when good water quality and diet are provided.
Its the same with us humans who carry viruses and are overcome when our immune system become weak and we get cold, flu, etc.

melhe · May 2, 2023

Btw, I think chromes immune to velvet . Maybe because they have scales ? During velvet episode , none of the chromes died

vetteguy53081 · May 2, 2023

melhe said:
When my tank was 3 months old . I had one velvet episode wiped out a lot of fish . I am sure there are icp too because I saw them on the fish . Since I read @Paul B ’s thread . I tried to feed them a lot of different food , frozen , live mix with garlic extreme and vitamin . I dose liquid mud from moonshiner daily . I figure my tank already had ick and velvet . I have so many corals . Can’t really put in any copper or meds. Since i changed way of feeding . I haven’t lost any fish . I guess I was lucky . This time I think I am pushing my luck because I added 7 fish from two sources today including PBT. Will keep u updated in next a few weeks . Use my DT as an expensive experiment

PBT are susceptible to ich and velvet and I recommend Quarantine of at least 21 days with coppersafe.

melhe · May 3, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
wow. . . . most wild fish are exposed to low levels of parasites and are often unable to fight off the infections without becoming ill and their immune systems weaken making them susceptible to infections and parasites like ich and often a decrease in water quality, stress and temperature changes which cause stress will allow the disease to progress,
FISH DO NOT BECOME IMMUNE TO DISEASE . . BUT RATHER RESISTANT when good water quality and diet are provided.
Its the same with us humans who carry viruses and are overcome when our immune system become weak and we get cold, flu, etc.

What if my tank already have velvet and ick ? my previous purchase from online , they helped me hold a few weeks and quarantined fish already . Todays petco fish is not quarantined. Dispute I called quality marine . They claimed they have strict quarantine process before ship out . not sure how much I believe it.

last time velvet episode are because my tank was still new . My tank maintenance guy brought some fish from someone’s private home . Told me no need to quarantine since it’s not from store . ended up those fish from someone’s home carries velvet . I am sure if someone take fish from my tank might cause velvet outbreak too because it’s already in my system and I can’t treat the tank because of the corals .