VERY HIGH quarantine for VERY LOW quality fish

[LaloJ]

Hello everyone, I have mentioned on a few occasions that unfortunately you cannot get good quality fish here in my area. I live in Mexico. The distributors handle tanks where the fish arrive and leave immediately. The fish arrive extremely stressed and in poor condition and are sold to hobbyists in the same way. It's a place where the fish move quickly and they are holding tanks that are never sterilized, resulting in a wide variety of parasites and bacterial agents that sneak directly into the tanks of us aquarists. Some specialists here in Mexico have even come to the conclusion that these parasites have mutated in the distributors' tanks and are more difficult to eradicate. These fish are exposed to parasites of this type when they are imported and placed in these tanks while awaiting sale. I have had the opportunity to talk with very experienced aquarists here in Mexico, doing long quarantines for fish that are imported particularly and don't go through the distributors' tanks, they have eliminated diseases based on copper and some antibiotics for bacterial infections, however they have different opinions about various medications that are offered in the market, according to what I was able to gather I got the following:
Cupramine: Works fine
Cooper power: Works fine
Ruby reef Rally pro: It's useless
Kick ich: It's useless
Prazipro: Works fine
Formalin: Works fine
Hydroplex: It's useless
Paraguard: It's useless
These advanced aquarists mention that the medications that "useless" are credited with the success of having eradicated the disease, when in reality it's the fish that overcome the parasite by themselves thanks to their immune system, giving a false success of the medication used. So let me know what you think, and as for the title of this thread, what would be your method to do QT with fish that have a poor quality like the ones I'm mentioning? What medication would you use and for how long would you leave them in quarantine? Knowing that they are very stressed fish, that have not eaten for a long time, in poor conditions and exposed to parasites that are probably more resistant to medications.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hello everyone, I have mentioned on a few occasions that unfortunately you cannot get good quality fish here in my area. I live in Mexico. The distributors handle tanks where the fish arrive and leave immediately. The fish arrive extremely stressed and in poor condition and are sold to hobbyists in the same way. It's a place where the fish move quickly and they are holding tanks that are never sterilized, resulting in a wide variety of parasites and bacterial agents that sneak directly into the tanks of us aquarists. Some specialists here in Mexico have even come to the conclusion that these parasites have mutated in the distributors' tanks and are more difficult to eradicate. These fish are exposed to parasites of this type when they are imported and placed in these tanks while awaiting sale. I have had the opportunity to talk with very experienced aquarists here in Mexico, doing long quarantines for fish that are imported particularly and don't go through the distributors' tanks, they have eliminated diseases based on copper and some antibiotics for bacterial infections, however they have different opinions about various medications that are offered in the market, according to what I was able to gather I got the following:
Cupramine: Works fine
Cooper power: Works fine
Ruby reef Rally pro: It's useless
Kick ich: It's useless
Prazipro: Works fine
Formalin: Works fine
Hydroplex: It's useless
Paraguard: It's useless
These advanced aquarists mention that the medications that "useless" are credited with the success of having eradicated the disease, when in reality it's the fish that overcome the parasite by themselves thanks to their immune system, giving a false success of the medication used. So let me know what you think, and as for the title of this thread, what would be your method to do QT with fish that have a poor quality like the ones I'm mentioning? What medication would you use and for how long would you leave them in quarantine? Knowing that they are very stressed fish, that have not eaten for a long time, in poor conditions and exposed to parasites that are probably more resistant to medications.

I wouldn't buy any fish sourced from a distributor or shop that kept fish in those conditions.

I'd do my best to send them out of business by spreading the word as well.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would like to see @Jay Hemdal expertise on this one!

 

[CHSUB]

My experience with qt, using med and not. Stocking my tanks from 300g to 30g I have used TTM, which is out running the ich cycle and formalin, h2o2 dips for other common parasites. Imo, it’s much easier on the fish than long exposures to meds. Hobbyists with gigantic aquariums or institutions, I don’t believe my method would be suitable? With meds, in the past, fish seemed to suffer more and not eat, Ime.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes, there is a lot of "snake oil" medications out there. Sadly, there is NO oversight for aquarium medications. Anyone can produce a medication from any material with no testing. These companies do not have testing labs. Some don't even have aquariums. What they do is read through the literature and come up with "ideas". That's where the idea of adding aloe vera as a "bandage in a bottle" came from. Trouble is, the study that looked at this indicated it didn't work well and was toxic in higher amounts (grin).

Here is my take on the list you provided:

Cupramine: Works fine, - but can cause toxicity in some species
Copper power: Works fine, - so does Coppersafe
Ruby reef Rally pro: It's useless - mostly agree, but can be used on mild Brooklynella
Kick ich: It's useless - agree
Prazipro: Works fine - but add aeration and redose at 8 days, not 2
Formalin: Works fine - too toxic to use in a home
Hydroplex: It's useless - agree
Paraguard: It's useless - agree, but works in freshwater

General Cure (prazi and metro) - works good

 

[Tamberav]

Hello everyone, I have mentioned on a few occasions that unfortunately you cannot get good quality fish here in my area. I live in Mexico. The distributors handle tanks where the fish arrive and leave immediately. The fish arrive extremely stressed and in poor condition and are sold to hobbyists in the same way. It's a place where the fish move quickly and they are holding tanks that are never sterilized, resulting in a wide variety of parasites and bacterial agents that sneak directly into the tanks of us aquarists. Some specialists here in Mexico have even come to the conclusion that these parasites have mutated in the distributors' tanks and are more difficult to eradicate. These fish are exposed to parasites of this type when they are imported and placed in these tanks while awaiting sale. I have had the opportunity to talk with very experienced aquarists here in Mexico, doing long quarantines for fish that are imported particularly and don't go through the distributors' tanks, they have eliminated diseases based on copper and some antibiotics for bacterial infections, however they have different opinions about various medications that are offered in the market, according to what I was able to gather I got the following:
Cupramine: Works fine
Cooper power: Works fine
Ruby reef Rally pro: It's useless
Kick ich: It's useless
Prazipro: Works fine
Formalin: Works fine
Hydroplex: It's useless
Paraguard: It's useless
These advanced aquarists mention that the medications that "useless" are credited with the success of having eradicated the disease, when in reality it's the fish that overcome the parasite by themselves thanks to their immune system, giving a false success of the medication used. So let me know what you think, and as for the title of this thread, what would be your method to do QT with fish that have a poor quality like the ones I'm mentioning? What medication would you use and for how long would you leave them in quarantine? Knowing that they are very stressed fish, that have not eaten for a long time, in poor conditions and exposed to parasites that are probably more resistant to medications.

Most of those useless meds listed, we also consider uslesss. No real change here.

Most are just cash grabs to market a reef safe med.

Only potential helpful treatments you don’t have listed on your arsenal is tank transfer and peroxide.

 

[LaloJ]

Thanks for your amswers, I really thought at some point that RR Hydroplex was a fantastic product, I read some threads here on the forum about its effectiveness and most seemed to have finally found an almost miraculous product, I was about to buy it to use on qt but fortunately I was able to run into these guys here in Mexico, Jay, what would be the correct dosage to use Formalin in case of Brookynella?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks for your amswers, I really thought at some point that RR Hydroplex was a fantastic product, I read some threads here on the forum about its effectiveness and most seemed to have finally found an almost miraculous product, I was about to buy it to use on qt but fortunately I was able to run into these guys here in Mexico, Jay, what would be the correct dosage to use Formalin in case of Brookynella?

For Brooklynella, Formalin is used two ways at the same time; a 150 ppm one hour bath (with good aeration) and then a 25 ppm dose in the tank itself every other day (no invertebrates present). You need full formalin, which is 37% formaldehyde gas in water with methanol as a stabilizer. Do not use 10% NBF, that is toxic.

Again, I would not use this in a home. I've used it for 50+ years, and any year now, I expect a cancer diagnosis (sigh)