Quarantine help

[LandlockedZissou816]

Ok people, I need some help.
I have a quarantine tank set up with all the basic necessities (heater, small HOB filter, bubble stone, and Seachem ammonia alert.)
I CANNOT seem to keep any fish alive longer than 2 weeks. The last fish I had was a Talbots Damsel. I drip acclimated, let it settle for a few days, then slowly dosed cupramine over a period of a week. By the time it got to 1.33 ppm, my fish was in bad shape. I did an emergency water change (50%), paused the copper treatments, and closely monitored the fish over the next few days, but unfortunately he wasn't able to recover. I cannot seem to crack the code when it comes to quarantine procedure. I have been using "Current Quarantine Protocol" by Jay Hemdal and "How To Quarantine" by Humble fish as a guide, but am wondering what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas??

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Ok people, I need some help.
I have a quarantine tank set up with all the basic necessities (heater, small HOB filter, bubble stone, and Seachem ammonia alert.)
I CANNOT seem to keep any fish alive longer than 2 weeks. The last fish I had was a Talbots Damsel. I drip acclimated, let it settle for a few days, then slowly dosed cupramine over a period of a week. By the time it got to .64 ppm, my fish was in bad shape. I did an emergency water change (50%), paused the copper treatments, and closely monitored the fish over the next few days, but unfortunately he wasn't able to recover. I cannot seem to crack the code when it comes to quarantine procedure. I have been using "Current Quarantine Protocol" by Jay Hemdal and "How To Quarantine" by Humble fish as a guide, but am wondering what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas??

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The primary issue that I see is people acquiring poor quality fish to start with - that puts you at a disadvantage from day one. Buying pre quarantined fish helps weed out the poor doers (but I always requarantine them anyway).
There are a myriad of other problems that I see folks run into - raising salinity too far when bringing a fish home, using ammonia removers in conjunction with Cupramine, taking too long to get to a proper dose of copper.
In the case of your Talbots, it should have handled the copper just fine, something else was going on with it.
Jay

 

[brandon429]

Wanted to relay something neat I’m placing in my cycling threads regarding quarantine

look how they handle and prep the currently most expensive anthias fish one could own

https://reefbuilders.com/2021/07/06/first-ever-tosanoides-flavofasciatus-for-sale-in-the-u-s/

that team of scientists and experts agree the practices used here in the forum are top of the line, they’re using delicate qt and tank transfer methods to ensure safety.. Cutting edge stuff yep.

 

[LandlockedZissou816]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The primary issue that I see is people acquiring poor quality fish to start with - that puts you at a disadvantage from day one. Buying pre quarantined fish helps weed out the poor doers (but I always requarantine them anyway).
There are a myriad of other problems that I see folks run into - raising salinity too far when bringing a fish home, using ammonia removers in conjunction with Cupramine, taking too long to get to a proper dose of copper.
In the case of your Talbots, it should have handled the copper just fine, something else was going on with it.
Jay

I was beginning to question the quality of the fish. Thanks Jay!