So what the difference between a short and long QT process

[DEE’S reef]

So I’m going to be quarantining a long nose hawkfish and a 6 line wrasse and I was wondering if I should do a 30 day qt period which I was told is a rush quarantine. Or the a 80 day or long quarantine process. What’s better and what are pros and cons of each.
I’ve quarantine my clown and gobie but it was around 5 weeks in qt. Should I do the same or do a different amount of time.

 

[mcarroll]

Wondering if there's a reason you are questioning what you did in the past since apparently it worked?

 

[fishface NJ]

90 days if you want a proper QT. Gives you time to observe after meds are done and to fatten up

 

[Fish Fan]

So I’m going to be quarantining a long nose hawkfish and a 6 line wrasse and I was wondering if I should do a 30 day qt period which I was told is a rush quarantine. Or the a 80 day or long quarantine process. What’s better and what are pros and cons of each.
I’ve quarantine my clown and gobie but it was around 5 weeks in qt. Should I do the same or do a different amount of time.

Here's the deal: I know you had a couple threads asking about QT'ing a hawkfish, and @Jay Hemdal replied to at least one:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-are-common-disease-that-hawk-fish-get.1151652/post-14236648
From Jay's post above:
"[Hawkfish] can get ich, velvet and especially flukes, but don’t get Uronema or Brooklynella."

With that in mind, I would follow the R2R QT protocol at the link bellow (at least for your Hawkfish). This calls for a full 30 days of copper for Ich, etc., and then another 21 days of PraziPro, which is specifically for flukes. If you cut the QT time short, down to 30 days, you'd be skipping the treatment for flukes that Jay said these fish are particularly prone to. I personally wouldn't do that

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/
Good luck!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Here's the deal: I know you had a couple threads asking about QT'ing a hawkfish, and @Jay Hemdal replied to at least one:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-are-common-disease-that-hawk-fish-get.1151652/post-14236648
From Jay's post above:
"[Hawkfish] can get ich, velvet and especially flukes, but don’t get Uronema or Brooklynella."

With that in mind, I would follow the R2R QT protocol at the link bellow (at least for your Hawkfish). This calls for a full 30 days of copper for Ich, etc., and then another 21 days of PraziPro, which is specifically for flukes. If you cut the QT time short, down to 30 days, you'd be skipping the treatment for flukes that Jay said these fish are particularly prone to. I personally wouldn't do that

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/
Good luck!

I'm working on the 2026 update to our quarantine protocol. It's being reviewed by the Fish Medics right now. I'm introducing two new options that cut the time a but, but increase the risk a bit as well. The primary quarantine method remains the same though......

 

[Fish Fan]

I'm working on the 2026 update to our quarantine protocol. It's being reviewed by the Fish Medics right now. I'm introducing two new options that cut the time a but, but increase the risk a bit as well. The primary quarantine method remains the same though......

Thanks for keeping the QT protocol up to date!

 

[Fish Fan]

I'm working on the 2026 update to our quarantine protocol. It's being reviewed by the Fish Medics right now. I'm introducing two new options that cut the time a but, but increase the risk a bit as well. The primary quarantine method remains the same though......

Considering the OP wants to QT a Hawkfish that you mentioned is particularly prone to flukes, would you consider this situation one of the times that the QT time should not be cut short? Would it not be best to run a Hawkfish through the full QT?

Thank you for your help!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Considering the OP wants to QT a Hawkfish that you mentioned is particularly prone to flukes, would you consider this situation one of the times that the QT time should not be cut short? Would it not be best to run a Hawkfish through the full QT?

Thank you for your help!

I would definitely treat the hawkfish for flukes - a full quarantine is always best, but the two alternate methods are: combining copper and prazi at the same time to cut the time back a bit (but increased stress on the fish) or running two weeks of copper followed by 4 weeks of hyposalinity.

 

[DEE’S reef]

I think I’ll do the full quarantine

 

[fish_collector]

I wouldn’t put your wrasse through a copper treatment. Prazi and metro are good, and 30 days is long enough for ich to show up if it were present. If ich does show up, tank transfers would be my treatment of choice for a wrasse. Others may disagree.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I wouldn’t put your wrasse through a copper treatment. Prazi and metro are good, and 30 days is long enough for ich to show up if it were present. If ich does show up, tank transfers would be my treatment of choice for a wrasse. Others may disagree.

Coppersafe or copper power are fine with wrasse. You do need to be careful using Prazipro on wrasse, but they are fine with regular prazi powder.

 

[DEE’S reef]

So the hawkfish is eating right away the wrasse seem to eat slowly

 

[DEE’S reef]

Also @Jay Hemdal how to these two look

Also sorry for the blue the light is at the least blue setting it didn’t look this on the camera when I took it.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Also @Jay Hemdal how to these two look

Also sorry for the blue the light is at the least blue setting it didn’t look this on the camera when I took it.

They both look good - full bodied, no blemishes.

 

[DEE’S reef]

Would it be possible to not dose medication for a day or 2 during quarantine because I plan on going on vacation for a couple days in a week or so and I was wondering about the quarantine process while I’m away. @Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Would it be possible to not dose medication for a day or 2 during quarantine because I plan on going on vacation for a couple days in a week or so and I was wondering about the quarantine process while I’m away. @Jay Hemdal

Going on vacation during a quarantine run always has some potential for issues that can crop up with nobody available to react to them properly. However, our quarantine process has a lot of time built in where there really isn't anything proactive that needs to be done once the copper dose is hit, but before the set praziquantel doses begin. A few days shouldn't matter - I leave tanks alone for 3 to 5 days with no real issues.

 

[DEE’S reef]

So @Jay Hemdal would you know how much formalin to dose in bare bottom 10 gallon tank for 30 would you still do 1ml a day of formalin or would you cut the dose in half

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So @Jay Hemdal would you know how much formalin to dose in bare bottom 10 gallon tank for 30 would you still do 1ml a day of formalin or would you cut the dose in half

I don't suggest using formalin. I used it for 40+ years, but the human health risk simply isn't worth it.

That said, formalin dosing is temperature/time/concentration based. The range for tropical fish is 25 ppm for 24 hours to 150 ppm for one hour. I've seen doses as high as 250 ppm or even higher, but that is just plain wrong. Those doses were developed for cold water fishes, and that figure somehow got applied to tropical marine fish, but that is too high of a dose.

 

[fish_collector]

Coppersafe or copper power are fine with wrasse. You do need to be careful using Prazipro on wrasse, but they are fine with regular prazi powder.

I totally respect your authority on the subject. Keeping wrasses out of copper has always been something I’d thought was a general rule. Perhaps I’ve misunderstood the process with wrasses. I’ll consider your recommendations for future wrasse QT needs.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I totally respect your authority on the subject. Keeping wrasses out of copper has always been something I’d thought was a general rule. Perhaps I’ve misunderstood the process with wrasses. I’ll consider your recommendations for future wrasse QT needs.

Some wrasses have issues with ionic copper, but that is a different type of copper. It used to be used more commonly used, and the idea about copper & wrasses has sort of stuck around ....