Are quarantine tanks worth the effort?

[Alexopora]

Really depends, if fish then yes but inverts like shrimps and crabs, no. For corals, it really depends. I have mostly refrained from buying large colonies and sticking to frags as they are much easier to deal with.
1. Snap off any new frag from the frag plug and snip of any dead skeleton as much as possible.
2. Just do a coral dip and brush wherever possible.
3. Generally corals that imho dont necessarily need qt are Fungiidae, Galaxeas, Euphyllia (pretty easy to eliminate EEFW (Euphyllia Eating Flatworm).
4. Lately, the only corals I QT are Montis and Acros since they have the most damaging pests imho. Cyphasteas, Porites, Pocilloporidaes generally are dumped straight into the DT.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

Yes it's worth it. Every reefer should have more than one tank anyway.

 

[Piscans]

A new reefer neds a completely different set of rules and quarantine/observation would be the best for you.

I personally pay extra for non quarantined fish and try to get them right out of the shipping box if I can. But my tank is very old as am I So I learned a few things.

Natural fish living in natural conditions who are never stressed or medicated live out their life to their normal life span, never being infected with anything because their immunity protects them.

+1 only way fishes usually die in wild (not old age) is get eaten by other fish. itd be intresting to do a comparison with the fish in the wild, seeing what percent get eaten.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I just lost all of the fish in my reef tank except a yellow wrasse because I didn't have a QT. Had not added fish in over a month. Then boom velvet took them all. Tried reef safe cures but in the end all was Lost

 

[hart24601]

I would say yes, yes they are. If nothing else than a cycled observation tank with plenty of hiding places. I recently lost around $4,000 of fish to velvet and they were dead before I could even act fast enough to properly ID it. I thought was ich until too late. I don’t think treating a fish is wise unless it shows illness in the observation tank

I have been keeping marine fish for 30 years now and never had disease and didn’t QT. Just takes once.

I have an acquaintance that won the lottery, no joke, couple million. People ask him what they should do to become rich, even if they know he won, it’s the oddest thing they ask it but they do, and he always tells them to “invest” in lottery tickets. I bring this up because sometimes that advice works, I went 30 years, some even longer. I can say it’s because I was amazing for those decades, I gave perfect care and food…. But really I was probably just lucky.

 

[kierstin1993]

Evening all. I am sure I will get shot down here, but,… Are quarantine tanks worth the effort. In 20 years I have not bought a sick fish from my LFS. Just lucky? Yet others have sick fish in quarantine. Just makes me wonder. Any opinions on this?

You’ve definitely been lucky! I don’t bring home sick fish too often but in the 4 years I’ve been part of this hobby it’s happened a few times. I used to think like you till the Hawaii ban, now I quarantine just because I don’t want to risk losing my yellow tang lol
However, my personal opinion, if a fish in my display gets sick I usually try to take care of it without removing the fish for quarantine. I feel this just stresses a sick fish more.

 

[areefer01]

Evening all. I am sure I will get shot down here, but,… Are quarantine tanks worth the effort. In 20 years I have not bought a sick fish from my LFS. Just lucky? Yet others have sick fish in quarantine. Just makes me wonder. Any opinions on this?

They are worth it if you do it correctly. If you do not have proper procedures or protocols or above all patience to do it right then it isn't going to work. You will be at more risk. This isn't an answer if it does or does not work and provide results but rather success or failure when not done properly. It is as simple as that.

And before anyone else replies let us just keep it simple. New tank, less corals or fish, equals less risk. Year over year more corals, larger colonies, more fish, possibly expensive fish, equals greater risk. Math doesn't lie. All fish being equal but for shock value how would you introduce a Clarion Anglefish to your display.

Lastly, and not on the same scale, but how do you think successful and large reef displays in public aquaria are managed or other marine displays?

 

[Paul B]

With all respect to the author, I just want to add this artice next to your linked thread from the same author only from 7 years ago:

That would have been me.

"is extremely easy to cure, and I do not know why so much ink is wasted on teaching us how to cure it. We now have liquid copper that will cure it in a few days"

This also

itd be intresting to do a comparison with the fish in the wild, seeing what percent get eaten.

I would say probably 100%

 

[brandon429]

killer2001 you designed the right approach. you're selling the science in the most swallowable pill to the masses it's perfect. they'll revolt if you describe observational quarantine any other way

there will never be a consensus on QT because folks who don't qt will always have their tanks as a strong model.

In the very least, the reason I recommend qt in any of its semantic tones is because thats what you find Jay and Humblefish doing

zoos do it


zoos do not do the unprepped way bc it's not worth the risk to the current stock. they just pro quarantine, Hilton style


Paul's description of earth toned observational qt with clay bricks and muted lights and hiding places is ideal in the approach.

if it helps any for emerging pattern consideration, we're seeing more and more disease delay outbreaks in tanks that skipped isolation preps, went fine for years, and then upon one transfer of tank the fish died and it wasn't a cycle loss.

or when an aquascape is cleaned, something triggers delayed emergence disease it's emerging for sure in troubleshoots in Jay's forum.

quality quarantine and fallow and pro feeding as Paul described should be a winning combo for the home; zoos do it that way

 

[killer2001]

We must build UP our fish's immunity not tear it down!

 

[Hal3134]

I have lost lots of fish in QT to disease or parasites. I've never lost a fish in my DT to disease or parasites. You do the math.

 

[kenchilada]

It’s worth it.

My current 220G is my first tank in 30 years that’s fully quarantined. In two years, the only fish I’ve lost in display were a jumper and an azure damsel that got bullied to death. No disease to deal with feels amazing.

BUT WHAT SUCKS is quarantining coral and inverts. You have to do this or you will bring fish disease to your quarantined fish.

Also it is terrifying quarantining something like a $500 Achilles tang. I buy $$$ fish pre-quarantined from someone I trust.

 

[LPS Bum]

Evening all. I am sure I will get shot down here, but,… Are quarantine tanks worth the effort. In 20 years I have not bought a sick fish from my LFS. Just lucky? Yet others have sick fish in quarantine. Just makes me wonder. Any opinions on this?

Absolutely they are. 100%.

Years ago, I never quarantined my fish. I added a Juv Emperor Angel that had Velvet and wiped out my entire tank. Thousands of dollars of fish lost and it was heartbreaking.

I’ve quarantined every single fish since and never lost a single one to disease. It’s just not worth the roll of the dice in my opinion, but your mileage may vary.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not sure what you are wondering?

There are wipe out of display tanks you can find in the disease forums. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.

There are likely factors that increase or decrease the chance… age of tank, aggression or other stressors, population of fish, and even what suppliers your LFS uses.

More than can be counted

 

[IL-Reef-A4]

They are worth it IMO. But I must admit they are a real pain to setup and get going if you only have one tank and don't add livestock very often. I also have a UV set to kill parasites at all time running in the background as an added layer of protection.

 

[Gig-Island]

I get the different schools of thought on this but choose to err on the safe side. Yes, it’s very stressful for the new fish and yes I’ve lost a few fish in this process. It’s utterly heartbreaking losing these precious lives but I would rather risk one than many.

When I had my first tank I experienced a total population loss because of velvet. It happened so fast and was so aggressive. I added a “healthy looking” new fish and within 24 hours he was gasping and dying. I was a new reefer and just didn’t know how nasty that stuff is. I had to run the tank fallow for months before adding any more new fish. It hurts to share this but I think it’s important to put it out there for others to learn from.

You are not alone!! Exact scenario happened to me les than a year ago! Total loss of 2500+ worth of fish!

I have used the BRS 21 day method since with 5 fish and glad to say all of them are happy, healthy and established for 6 months now.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not a matter of if its needed but why. Quarantining prevents foreign substance and issues from occurring before fish reach display tank. In addition, the quarantine process allows treatment of common disease and parasites within a controlled environment than a display tank and having to fish it out, reduces the stress of acclimation, reduces costs by reducing fish mortality, allows you easier observation of new fish in case of disease as mentioned rather than a fish between rock structures and reduces the cost of medication opposed to medicating an entire display tank.

 

[Spare time]

The Other Way to Run a Reef Tank (no Quarantine)

The other way to run a reef tank (No Quarantine) I was asked by my friend Humblefish to start a thread on my practices of running a tank with no quarantine, hospital tanks, medications, dipping or almost anything else. It is "not" just to take a fish from a store and drop it in your reef...

www.reef2reef.com

My controversial opinion on this is that you should be as careful as possible but that quarantining everything leads to a more susceptible population. But then my education comes from ecology not medicine and we have always had big difference in opinion when it comes to disease.

The wild ecology of diseases doesn't apply to captive marine systems. No marine organism should have an immune system reliably capable of tolerating rapid and repeated disease in a marine tank.

 

[Spare time]

Evening all. I am sure I will get shot down here, but,… Are quarantine tanks worth the effort. In 20 years I have not bought a sick fish from my LFS. Just lucky? Yet others have sick fish in quarantine. Just makes me wonder. Any opinions on this?

If you have never had a fish die from something not blatantly obvious, then yes you are lucky or you have a fantastic lfs

 

[Spare time]

Not quarantining fish is unethical in my opinion. We are confining these fish to live in a very tiny box and live according to how we want them to live. Often this is done with people who have no understanding of fish behavior or diet. Not letting them die a likely unpleasant death is the least you can do. Would you buy a dog, let them live with other potentially sick dogs, and then say "oh well I guess my home wasn't for him" if the dog died? Think about how many animals we kill in this hobby just so we can have our little fishies and corals in a box in our living rooms. I personally don't gamble the lives of these animals for the reason of being lazy or "eh its not convenient for me."