Are those multiple powder blue? Definitely a top 3 fish for me but everyone tells me to stay away for both their aggression as well as being ich magnets, how long have you had them and how has your experience been?A 150 setup for QT. 18 fish.
All are in a 300 now doing really well! The maroon pair were the new addition. Had them QT in another tank, but moved them to put a pair of SB Onyx Perculas in.
The question. Quote "how do you quarantine" so do you do it or somebody else (if at all). If somebody else does it for you like an LFS then you don't do it they do. Now if an LFS says they QT for you how do you know how they do it. For instance, with other fish, in isolation, how long etc etc and how can you be sure they are QTing the way you would like or are told.
I was the same way, until I lost all my fish to Velvet. After that I got a little 10 gallon breeder and QTd everything. I was really sold when my LFS told me they run a low dose of copper in all their tanks. So I figured fish would be already sorta used to it. Bought a fish, 4 weeks in QT with copper, 50% water changes weekly. Then kept up the 50% changes for 2 more weeks without adding copper. Then in the display tank. Brought copper in QT back up to 2.0 and bought another fish. Repeated until I restocked my DT. Over a year later and no sign of disease.
Thats amazing how large is your tank and how many total fish do you have in there?I have 6 powders haha. Two blue’s, two hybrids with white cheek powders, and one hybrid with gold rim ( I can’t chose a favorite. In the moment discussion yes haha, but if I ponder on it for a few mintues I just can’t say haha!). They have the typical banter between each other. Large tank, and lots of rock work and caves, and to be fed well makes it work for me. I introduced them at the same time and so they have a pecking order that works for them now. Also have 5 zebrasoma’s. They also all get along.
Depends on the fish. Some fish are furious at being scooped up every three days, others couldn't care less. Some fish tolerate copper and other meds just fine, others less so.
They do this because it suppresses disease which is the same reason many run low salinty in addition to saving money. Neither do anything to kill disease, only hide it until the fish are placed in normal salinty then the disease becomes active. It's the reason I try to only buy fish from tanks containing coral and or inverts. It's a poor practice that unfortunately has become common practice. Many LFS will flat out lie and call low salinity hypo and state low level copper cures disease.
I'll add my 2 cents on TTM -- and specifically hybrid (HTTM) with 2 hydrogen peroxide baths and 2 doses of Praziquantel. I'm not saying it's superior to other methods necessarily, but I think it has an undeserved reputation for being complicated and time consuming. It's actually dead simple, just repetitive so it seems like a lot. The time difference compared to traditional methods is negligible; you're just cleaning tanks instead of performing copper tests and water changes. And you don't need a cycled QT so that's another simplification.
Not sure what price has to do with wanting healthy fish. I like my $8 chromis to be healthy.
