About QT tanks...

[Dom]

I'm noticing that on some of the posted photos of quarantine tanks, there are more than one fish in the QT tank. Shouldn't there only be ONE fish in a QT tank? I mean, what happens if there are multiple fish in the QT tank and only ONE is ill? Now you've infected everything in the QT tank!

 

[Mike N]

I'm noticing that on some of the posted photos of quarantine tanks, there are more than one fish in the QT tank. Shouldn't there only be ONE fish in a QT tank? I mean, what happens if there are multiple fish in the QT tank and only ONE is ill? Now you've infected everything in the QT tank!

And what do you do with infected fish? QT.
If you have multiple QT tanks, I could see your logic being applied though.

 

[Fishfinder]

Very true story. But I QT more than 1 fish at a time. My reasoning is that it is much easier to QT once as opposed to 3 or 4 separate times. But yes omtimally it should be done individually

 

[Big G]

Lots of folks use the QT to treat incoming fish prophylactically to prevent disease from entering their DT. So all fish coming in a group all get the Prazi & copper treatment. I assume they have all been exposed to disease even though they are not exhibiting symptoms; I assume they are carriers. So they go through the treatment together.

 

[Accio]

If you buy multiple fish around the same tame from the same sytem they'd be infected anyway. However your right if they were bought a long time diffremce from eachother or out of diffrent systems logically it wouldnt be too bright to house them together

 

[Robink]

Different circumstances. If you buy them at the same time, nothing wrong with going through qt together. (depending on species)

 

[Dom]

And what do you do with infected fish? QT.
If you have multiple QT tanks, I could see your logic being applied though.[/QUOTE

I wasn't clear... what I meant was when you QT a new fish BEFORE it goes into your DT.

 

[Mike N]

I wasn't clear... what I meant was when you QT a new fish BEFORE it goes into your DT.

Yes you were clear, I guess my reply wasn't.
I basically said that if you had multiple QT tanks you absolutely should QT them seperately before adding.
However, some people have only 1 QT tank and the standard procedure with an infected fish would be to put it in QT to treat. (regardless if its a new purchase [i.e. already in QT] or coming from the display)

 

[ngoodermuth]

Actually, I prefer to QT fish in small groups. For a few reasons:

1) new fish are generally shy. If you put a fish in a QT tank alone you might never see it. In a reef, if all the other fish are "hiding" it means a predator is close by. So, if the fish doesn't see other fish swimming about, he might remain hiding himself.

2) fish lead other fish. In addition to coaxing other, more shy fish into the open so we can actually SEE them; a finicky or shy fish is more likely to accept prepared foods if he sees another fish eating them.

3) carriers vs symptoms. Sometimes, symptoms of parasites and disease are more subtle in certain fish than others. Having multiple fish increases the chances of symptoms being noticed. It reduces the risk of a "carrier" sneaking something to your DT (if you don't treat prophylactically)

4) prophylactic treatment. If you do employ prophylactic treatments on new arrivals, you will save time, medications, and effort by treating several at a time rather than one by one.

5) reducing aggression. You can also reduce aggression by QT'ing and releasing certain fish simultaneously (think multiple tangs or wrasses)

You're right though, the catch 22 is that healthy fish might be subjected to illnesses or medications they wouldn't have needed to if they'd been QT'd separately. You also might find yourself fighting multiple ailments at once which can be tricky.

 

[DeepBlueSomething]

Jumping back into this thread -- what about QT for inverts, CuC, etc? What prophylactic do you all recommend or follow?

 

[Big G]

Jumping back into this thread -- what about QT for inverts, CuC, etc? What prophylactic do you all recommend or follow?

QT them by themselves for 72 days to insure anything attached to their shells hatchs and dies off because there is no host fish to feed upon.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Here's a qt question. Say you qt for 72 days, no illness or signs of disease so there is no reason to medicate. Fish go into the dt. Say later, there is stress. Won't the fish still have a risk of getting something? I want to start with observation, not medication. Also, is there any med you can do as a dip before going into qt? I'd be willing to do some sort of dip first.

 

[Dom]

Here's a qt question. Say you qt for 72 days, no illness or signs of disease so there is no reason to medicate. Fish go into the dt. Say later, there is stress. Won't the fish still have a risk of getting something? I want to start with observation, not medication. Also, is there any med you can do as a dip before going into qt? I'd be willing to do some sort of dip first.

I'm in the process of treating a puffer with Ick. Fortunately, I QT'd it before placing it into the DT. It took 10 days, but eventually, Ick showed up. The stress of moving it from the store tank to the QT may have triggered the Ick.

I don't believe in proactive treatment. I'm with you; observation first.

As far as treatment goes, tap water dips along with hypo-salinity. The little guy is doing great! No medication.

Of course, it worked in my case but it may not always.

 

[Big G]

Ich is a parasite. Stress by itself does not cause Ich. The parasite is there in the tank. Velvet is rampant in the aquarium systems now. It's another parasite. One should consider that the current conditions may warrant caution and altering of our past beliefs about when to treat. Too many wholesalers are dosing sub therapeutic levels of copper to suppress Ich and Velvet while maintaining a decent appearance and appetite in fish. You take your new fish home and the fish look great, eating, happy happy and then in a few days, up to 30 Ich or worse yet, Velvet roars back and the recent losses have been staggering.

 

[Kyl]

Here's a qt question. Say you qt for 72 days, no illness or signs of disease so there is no reason to medicate. Fish go into the dt. Say later, there is stress. Won't the fish still have a risk of getting something? I want to start with observation, not medication. Also, is there any med you can do as a dip before going into qt? I'd be willing to do some sort of dip first.

72 days (should be 76 days) is the fallow period for marine ich on non-fish. Inverts, coral, rock, anything that's going to be touching the water should be in a fallow system for 76 days before transferring to anything connected to the display tank.

In terms of fish, I've found locally that all the stores are at least selling fish with ich, and in the last 8 or so months fluke infestations as well. As such I have two 10 gallon tanks for utilising tank-transfer (+ prazipro) on all incoming fish for said crypto / flukes. After that they go into an established 20L with an aquaclear 50 on it for full observation, and if further medicating is required they're treated in there. If one fish has something, they all should be treated as having it. I do NOT overlap new fish with existing fish in the observation tank, else they all would have to be reset back to day1 monitoring for velvet / internal parasites / bacterial infections. If I had more space (condo), I would have an even larger QT setup, but that must be done properly as well because problems like aerosol transmission are a thing, and can sabotage the entire process if not accounted for and prevented.

There are a bunch of guides in the fish disease section about dips and such which are worth a read: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-and-diagnosis.771/

Specifically the list of treatments and what they do is also helpful: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/treatment-options-index.247573/

 

[DeepBlueSomething]

Thanks Kyl for the detail and links. I am curious what lighting set-up do you run on your 10 and 20L QT?

 

[atx100r]

Check out the vid on Mile HIgh Reefer. He does a really good job of showing his QT process. I have been follwoign it with great success. Every fish gets treated and I usually do 2 at a time.

 

[Kyl]

Thanks Kyl for the detail and links. I am curious what lighting set-up do you run on your 10 and 20L QT?

Ambient room light for the 10's (I actually run a towel over the acrylic cover to prevent aerosol transmission from the air stone spray), and the 20's I have some cheap LED fixture from Home depot that I printed brackets for.

Spoiler: QT Light

bracketmounted by Kyl, on Flickr

I do not currently QT coral, as I haven't bought any coral in a good 6 months, but when my frag tank is up it will probably be a couple of the cheapo black box fixtures and I'll mod them for apex 0-10v control till I can save up through sales for something better.

 

[Radman73]

Another consideration is when you are ordering a harem of fish, such as anthias. I don't know exactly how long it takes a female to turn male, but if you ordered 1 at a time and QT'd them 1 at a time I'd think you'd be at a much greater risk of having more than a single male. I'm not willing to test that theory out.

I'll QT and treat everything prophylactically. Up to 2 week observation, followed by copper(either the full 30 days or 14 with a transfer to a sterile tank), followed by another period of observation of at least 2 weeks. Goal is for every fish to spend at least 6 weeks in QT.

 

[Kyl]

As an example, my social wrasse went through TTM and is on about week 5 of observation QT. He started to develop what looks like a bacterial infection at the four week mark, and it's been receding and healing well so far. Also had white stringy poop at about week two, which was also treated. So overall it's been about 7 weeks since I bought the fish, and it's probably got another 1-2 just to make sure things are 100% before I add him to my 65, via an acclimation box (that I still have to make..).

Nothing in this hobby is quick, and I've had losses in QT that probably would have been mitigated via direct DT addition, but at risk to all my other livestock. Industry is shipping some pretty garbage health fish right now tbh.