Quarantining? More like rehabilitation.

[Fish_Sticks]

What do you do when you see your local petco having a %50 off sale of 75 gallon aquariums? Buy one and make it into a DIY sump, ofcourse. While purchasing this new sump I came across a lawn mower blenny and maroon clown marked %50 off due to the store closing for remodel (and two 5gal buckets of coralife salt for 50% off :D). Unfortunately, both of these fish were under the effects of extreme stress as they were obviously wild caught and had a long journey. The store clerk taking 15 minutes to catch them only made this much worse (given the clerks best efforts).

A hot topic for discussion this January has been whether or not you can get away with skipping the quarantine process for diseases control. Having just purchased a Lawn Mower blenny who was on the verge of a shock related coma, I now understand how much Quarantining, perhaps better called rehabilitation, is a necessary step of the acclimation process. Nothing increases a fish's chance of success in a main display more than the opportunity to nurse a stressed fish back to their full strength, before making them find space in a tank with other fish; especially if your display consists of any aggressive species.

Hopefully this perspective encourages you to follow a proper rehabilitation process.

 

[Big G]

Well said. Nice ;) Great job rescuing the blenny and clown. Awesome. Did the same thing for a sad looking Foxface at my local Petco a couple of months back. It's happy and healthy in my DT after a nice stay in the QT.

 

[saltyhog]

It's a vital part of the process of keeping fish for me. Not only does the fish get healthy, learn to eat prepared foods and put on weight without competition....it becomes much more tame/calm and learns to associate me with good things (food). If you need to catch your fish if will be much easier if they learned not to be afraid of you in QT.

Think I can catch that Labout's ?:p

 

[ca1ore]

Ive argued this for over a decade. QT isn’t just for disease prevention, but also to allow a fish to recover from shipping stresses in a calm, uncompetitive environment. Increases the chances of a successful display introduction ten fold.

 

[Fish_Sticks]

Well the fish are still doing fine in QT. I've sacrificed some old LR so the mower has some fresh food. I took this with a remote camera because otherwise he wouldn't come out, up until recently.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Good find. Our local Petco make me nervous. I think they should stop selling the fish and start selling all the parasites and other nasties they just let multiply in their tanks.

But, I have gone of topic. Where was I, oh good score and another good read.;Joyful