To quarantine or not?

[ctylermast]

I had discussion with LFS and was gonna set up a QT tank for some new fish. Tank is about a year and a half old. I started with pair of clowns, one died after a few months i believe from starvation, anyways I’ve had two clowns and a tail spot for about a year. Just lost my tail-spot to my powerhead. LFS is saying really is pointless to QT any new fish at this point because yes I don’t have sick fish now, but the sickness could still be in tank waiting for a weak fish. I know that it can stay in water column but the way I think of it, every unquarentoned fish adds another chance of exposure. Should I go with there mindset or continue to qt new fish

 

[flashsmith]

Just purchase already quarantined fish. Dr Reef is excellent. However nothing is guaranteed when buying any livestock. My biggest learning curve in this hobby has been buy once cry once. Yes they’re more costly but compared to keeping a 2nd tank just for trying to quarantine livestock I’ll pay that premium every time.

 

[mfinn]

So my question would be, did you have a disease in the tank that killed any fish?
I would never add a fish without going through a full medicated quarantine.

Seems like if you buy a fish from that store and something breaks out in the tank, that store could say it must have been from something in the tank. Whether it was from the new fish or not, you give them a pass.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

How did you lose a tailspot to a powerhead? Keeping a fish alive for one year is hardly success IMO, and you lost 2 in the past year. It gives me the impression you are still learning and IMO you should not cut corners now. We don't know your tank size or any of your maintenance habits or anything at all which makes it even harder to agree to skip qt in this case IMO.

 

[ctylermast]

How did you lose a tailspot to a powerhead? Keeping a fish alive for one year is hardly success IMO, and you lost 2 in the past year. It gives me the impression you are still learning and IMO you should not cut corners now. We don't know your tank size or any of your maintenance habits or anything at all which makes it even harder to agree to skip qt in this case IMO.

Brother, your missing the question maybe I gave too much info. In simpler terms. If you have non qt fish that you’ve had healthy for over a year, would be an indicator of no illness. Does it make sense to just not qt any additional fish because you’ve already “exposed” your tank.

I’ve been knuckle deep into hobby for about 2 years , 40g display with 55g total system. In my opinion my maintenance habits are on par with what I need to do to keep my parameters correct.
Lost the clown like 3 months on because I was so scared to over feed and raise phosphates. The blenny had a bad habit of trying to pick algea off of the powerheads and I was scared this was going to happen

 

[ctylermast]

Brother, your missing the question maybe I gave too much info. In simpler terms. If you have non qt fish that you’ve had healthy for over a year, would be an indicator of no illness. Does it make sense to just not qt any additional fish because you’ve already “exposed” your tank.

I’ve been knuckle deep into hobby for about 2 years , 40g display with 55g total system. In my opinion my maintenance habits are on par with what I need to do to keep my parameters correct.
Lost the clown like 3 months on because I was so scared to over feed and raise phosphates. The blenny had a bad habit of trying to pick algea off of the powerheads and I was scared this was going to happen

He entered the power head when it was running….lead to death

 

[winxp_man]

Brother, your missing the question maybe I gave too much info. In simpler terms. If you have non qt fish that you’ve had healthy for over a year, would be an indicator of no illness. Does it make sense to just not qt any additional fish because you’ve already “exposed” your tank.

I’ve been knuckle deep into hobby for about 2 years , 40g display with 55g total system. In my opinion my maintenance habits are on par with what I need to do to keep my parameters correct.
Lost the clown like 3 months on because I was so scared to over feed and raise phosphates. The blenny had a bad habit of trying to pick algea off of the powerheads and I was scared this was going to happen

It’s how I stated. Then velvet came scene two years ago. QT everything and it’s mum it was.

 

[ctylermast]

It’s how I stated. Then velvet came scene two years ago. QT everything and it’s mum it was

So moving forward, even if I have two fish that were not QT already, still QT moving forward

 

[exnisstech]

Only way to be sure is remove the fish you have and QT with medication and run the tank fallow. At least that's what I would do if I ran a medicated QT but I observe only.
PS. Don't starve your fish based on a test result. That's like starving a dog because you don't want to scoop poop. High nutrients has never be been a problem in my tanks. Low nutrients have caused problems.

My last Sundays test results. I run a little GFO when I see a flashing 0.9 on my Hanna ULR PO4 tester.

The tank.

 

[mfinn]

Only way to be sure is remove the fish you have and QT with medication and run the tank fallow. At least that's what I would do if I ran a medicated QT but I observe only.

I didn't think far enough ahead to consider this option.
I completely agree, but that means running the display tank for the fallow period of 45 days.
But that's not too much longer than a full medicated qt run.

I used to do a full medicated quarantine on all fish.
But now I get quarantined fish from Dr. Reef.

 

[exnisstech]

I didn't think far enough ahead to consider this option.
I completely agree, but that means running the display tank for the fallow period of 45 days.
But that's not too much longer than a full medicated qt run.

I used to do a full medicated quarantine on all fish.
But now I get quarantined fish from Dr. Reef.

I figure if the OP is going to take the time to medicate new fish they may as well fallow the DT and start with a clean tank. I think medicating is all or none, no half measures.
There could be disease present and the current fish are resistant. A few years back I ran a powder blue through copper and 48 hours after adding it to the DT it became covered in ich. All other fish including 4 tangs showed no signs so I can only assume they were able to fight it off and the PB was not. The other fish had not been treated before adding.