Acclimation and stress

StPatrick89 · Apr 11, 2021

How stressful is it to a fish that comes from at least a 4ft tank in the LFS to a QT of 10G? Goldlined Rabbitfish, went into QT last night. He was swimming around happily in the fish store. How long should he stay in there and what signs should I be looking for?

Fish Think Pink · Apr 11, 2021

StPatrick89 said:
How stressful is it to a fish that comes from at least a 4ft tank in the LFS to a QT of 10G? Goldlined Rabbitfish, went into QT last night. He was swimming around happily in the fish store. How long should he stay in there and what signs should I be looking for?

I'd observe him for 3-4 weeks. Watch for anything that seems weird like strange poo, spots, anything unusual. *IF* something shows up, then ID and figure out next step. Hopefully nothing shows up and continues to eat fine and moves from QT to DT normally.

If it makes you feel better... my QT is just 5g for my 180g ... My 5-6" yellow tang got to "vacation" in QT last month for 3 weeks - wasn't thrilled but my DT had Reef Flux for bad algae in it and yellow nearly died. Yellow survived, when the Reef Flux was over and after charcoal, yellow tang got to move home. ... but so my sailfin tang did not treat the yellow as "new" fish, it went to sump for several weeks, then used an acclimation box to move my larger sailfin up from sump into DT ... it took patience. QT is not ideal, but its just for a little while...

Squidward · Apr 11, 2021

I would skip the "observation". That's more unnecessary time in the QT. Treat it with copper or do TTM asap.

StPatrick89 · Apr 11, 2021

TTM? I’m actually medicating my display tank now. Bought the QT recently, only to find out a day or two ago my DT had ich, but also, I already had a fish on the way from online. SO!!! I’m treating my DT with Ich x

StPatrick89 · Apr 11, 2021

Fish Think Pink said:
I'd observe him for 3-4 weeks. Watch for anything that seems weird like strange poo, spots, anything unusual. *IF* something shows up, then ID and figure out next step. Hopefully nothing shows up and continues to eat fine and moves from QT to DT normally.

If it makes you feel better... my QT is just 5g for my 180g ... My 5-6" yellow tang got to "vacation" in QT last month for 3 weeks - wasn't thrilled but my DT had Reef Flux for bad algae in it and yellow nearly died. Yellow survived, when the Reef Flux was over and after charcoal, yellow tang got to move home. ... but so my sailfin tang did not treat the yellow as "new" fish, it went to sump for several weeks, then used an acclimation box to move my larger sailfin up from sump into DT ... it took patience. QT is not ideal, but its just for a little while...

Lol thanks! You definitely made me feel 10x’s better!

StPatrick89 · Apr 11, 2021

Squidward said:
I would skip the "observation". That's more unnecessary time in the QT. Treat it with copper or do TTM asap.

TTM? I’m actually medicating my display tank now. Bought the QT recently, only to find out a day or two ago my DT had ich, but also, I already had a fish on the way from online. SO!!! I’m treating my DT with Ich x

Squidward · Apr 12, 2021

StPatrick89 said:
TTM? I’m actually medicating my display tank now. Bought the QT recently, only to find out a day or two ago my DT had ich, but also, I already had a fish on the way from online. SO!!! I’m treating my DT with Ich x

Those ich meds are all snake oil. You'd have to go fallow for 76 days to kill off ich. And Tank Transfer Method is what I used to qurantine my fish. Some fish I'll treat with prazipro too. It only takes 12 days.

jaganshi066 · Apr 12, 2021

Squidward said:
Those ich meds are all snake oil. You'd have to go fallow for 76 days to kill off ich. And Tank Transfer Method is what I used to qurantine my fish. Some fish I'll treat with prazipro too. It only takes 12 days.

I always go 1.5 months and ich has never came back

StPatrick89 · Apr 12, 2021

Squidward said:
Those ich meds are all snake oil. You'd have to go fallow for 76 days to kill off ich. And Tank Transfer Method is what I used to qurantine my fish. Some fish I'll treat with prazipro too. It only takes 12 days.

I got some prazipro Saturday along with some paraguard