QT Question - Prophylactic Treatment or Observation-only?

[Biokabe]

So I'm pretty new to QT-ing... I've been in reefing for 12 years now and have never QT-ed in the past. My LFS actually takes a decent number of steps before releasing their new arrivals for sale, and in all my years of reefing I've only ever lost one fish to disease (that I know of) - a royal gramma that developed symptoms of ich (and eventually died) after several days of elevated temperatures during a heat wave. So I haven't really felt the need to QT. I tend to follow more of the management school of thought - provide good, stress-free conditions for the fish, feed them liberally, and try to promote a diverse bacterial environment in the tank.

However, with COVID hitting supply chains the way it has, it's become more difficult to find specific fish at my LFS, so I've branched out into ordering fish online. So I've set up a QT tank to deal with online arrivals, and a trio of fish (two sapphire damsels and a royal gramma) have been in it under observation for about a month now. No signs or symptoms of any diseases, and all three have been eating well and active after the first night in the tank.

I'd like to speed them along into their eventual homes, but I haven't actually done any treatments on them yet. Am I wasting their time in QT if I don't give them any prophylactic treatments, or is treating them when they don't have any signs of disease just a source of unnecessary stress? And if I do give any treatments, what should I do for them?

I don't have the space or spare tanks set up to do any type of tank transfer, but I do have Copper Power, Prazi Pro, Metroplex, KanaPlex, and general cure handy.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Observational quarantine really should only be used on a few species that you can’t run through a regular preventative quarantine. Even if done, the observational length needed is longer than most people realize. I’ve had gill flukes remain hidden in untreated fish for over 6 months.
My basic quarantine process is:
Copper safe for 30 days
Prazipro 3x seven days apart
Two weeks with no treatment
FW dip to screen for Neobenedenia flukes.
If Neo is seen, the fish get 35 days at half salinity.
Jay

 

[Suohhen]

Jay is the authority on fish health so you can't get more solid advice than that. The biggest benefit of doing an observational tank is that the fish will be associated with you as the feeder and will be able to compete with your existing fish for food and territory. Personally I think this is essential for adding any fish to an established population. If you want to treat that is an A+.

 

[PatW]

I treat prophylactically. I will let Jay’s suggestions stand as it is a veery good routine.

I have found that many fish get to me a bit stressed and thin. I like keeping them for awhile in quarantine post treatment just fattening them up and getting them used to the feeding routine. I want the fish to be read to go and able to handle the competition of the display tank.

 

[Saltyanimals]

So I'm pretty new to QT-ing... I've been in reefing for 12 years now and have never QT-ed in the past. My LFS actually takes a decent number of steps before releasing their new arrivals for sale, and in all my years of reefing I've only ever lost one fish to disease (that I know of) - a royal gramma that developed symptoms of ich (and eventually died) after several days of elevated temperatures during a heat wave. So I haven't really felt the need to QT. I tend to follow more of the management school of thought - provide good, stress-free conditions for the fish, feed them liberally, and try to promote a diverse bacterial environment in the tank.

However, with COVID hitting supply chains the way it has, it's become more difficult to find specific fish at my LFS, so I've branched out into ordering fish online. So I've set up a QT tank to deal with online arrivals, and a trio of fish (two sapphire damsels and a royal gramma) have been in it under observation for about a month now. No signs or symptoms of any diseases, and all three have been eating well and active after the first night in the tank.

I'd like to speed them along into their eventual homes, but I haven't actually done any treatments on them yet. Am I wasting their time in QT if I don't give them any prophylactic treatments, or is treating them when they don't have any signs of disease just a source of unnecessary stress? And if I do give any treatments, what should I do for them?

I don't have the space or spare tanks set up to do any type of tank transfer, but I do have Copper Power, Prazi Pro, Metroplex, KanaPlex, and general cure handy.

Going through the same dilemma on one of my 10G observation tanks. Week 3 with anthias and pair of clowns. No copper because of the anthias being not so copper friendly + getting them to eat initially, but they've been through prazi and metro with H2O2 baths when first introduced to observation tank. All signs clear and everyone happy and finally eating well so I'm considering throwing in copper for the last 1 week proactively anyways. Imagine already having spent 3 weeks and having ich/velvet introduced because I missed this step. Granted the life cycle suggest one would have seen ich/velvet after 3 week. I've read folks sharing they saw something 4-6 weeks later like @Jay Hemdal mentioned above. Kinda doing this 10G backwards in the QT process which may have issues. I could skip the copper to the final week and observe until the 30 day mark and be no worst off.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Observational quarantine really should only be used on a few species that you can’t run through a regular preventative quarantine. Even if done, the observational length needed is longer than most people realize. I’ve had gill flukes remain hidden in untreated fish for over 6 months.
My basic quarantine process is:
Copper safe for 30 days
Prazipro 3x seven days apart
Two weeks with no treatment
FW dip to screen for Neobenedenia flukes.
If Neo is seen, the fish get 35 days at half salinity.
Jay

Hey Jay, why wouldn't the prazi treat flukes? I thought that's One of its main purposes.

 

[Saltyanimals]

It's suppose to, but doesn't actually kill them rather knock them off if they're not the deeper nested gill ones. So they fall off and will die on their one over the next 12-24 hours. Problem is the eggs which nothing kills. That's why everyone does multiple rounds. So my prazi + metro which are easy to do and easy on the fish. This should in a perfect world cover everything except ich/velvet which are my only remaining concern hence the dilemma of the "why not" mini copper step

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey Jay, why wouldn't the prazi treat flukes? I thought that's One of its main purposes.

Stopping capsalid flukes like Neobenedenia has rarely worked for me. The eggs aren’t killed, and can take 30 days to hatch, so you have to dose at least 3x and get the timing perfect, else one unhatched egg will start a new cycle.
Prazi works well on livebrearing flukes, and some other egg laying species.
Jay