Do you Quarantine Your Fish?

[HotRocks]

I am just curious as to how much of our membership QTs their fish? This can be something as simple as observe and treat if symptomatic, or prophylactic treatment.

Starting a poll to see what everyone does.

We are working on some updates and interested to know what portion of our membership actively QTs new livestock.

 

[JasonK84]

I have been religious about prophylactic QT this go around in the hobby. I’ve already had a much better experience. I’ve also got more money invested in my setup and have had better looking fish that have been growing, fattening up, and even spawning.

 

[Brew12]

I prophylactically treat everything. I'm very defensive of what goes into my DT.

 

[4FordFamily]

I think we know where I stand...

Treat em all! Not worth the risk to my DT!

 

[MRB]

Gonna try and go the survival of the fittest route. Even with qt if anything gets into your DT it seems like everything goes. Gonna try and keep fish hardy with good immune systems and see how it goes!

 

[dbl]

I used to play Russian Roulette and got very lucky. Not anymore though. I wasn't very good at QT'ing myself, but I found a friend that did it for me.

 

[WVNed]

I am going to continue doing what I have been doing since it has worked for me for more than 10 years.

 

[adam finley]

I currently do not but understand the benefits to quarantining. I have 4 fish currently for about a year or so and want to add another but am a little hesitant too because of the risk. I’m sure it will be half do half don’t or pretty close. I’ve been pretty lucky but it only takes one to wipe out a Dt so thats why I haven’t gotten another fish yet. I think qt puts extra stress on fish that’s why I haven’t set one up, but I realize also at least in qt if they are sick only they die instead of dropping them in your dt and everyone dies. So I guess I’m kinda stuck in limbo between quarantining and not lol.

 

[Instigate]

I always prophylactically treat all fish and fallow corals, inverts and algaes. I would like to add, the only fish I've had die in QT were two that came in in terrible shape with multiple infections. I'm very skeptical of the claim I often see that fish are more likely to die in QT or that the meds are "harsh on fish". If you know what you're doing and provide proper hides with good water quality I don't see why it would be any different. I think QT may get a bad rap from people that are new to the hobby and make some newbie mistakes.

 

[leepink23]

The LFS that I go to will qt and treat before selling if requested. Which is my preference

 

[ngoodermuth]

QT and prophylactic treatments. I can’t do the poll until I get back on my laptop

 

[WWIII]

Wow! Tight race so far! I qt all my fish. Some I treat prophylactically, some I do ttm, some I do copper, some I try everything in the cabinet.

 

[cracker]

Thanks Hot Rocks for a poll question that reflects how I do things .
I have 2 Qt's (20 longs) setup & going in case I see a fish I want. I'm very picky ! I observe for a long time . I let the fish relax from any hassle,feed it real good . If I see a prob I'll treat the fish.

 

[HotRocks]

Thanks Hot Rocks for a poll question that reflects how I do things .
I have 2 Qt's (20 longs) setup & going in case I see a fish I want. I'm very picky ! I observe for a long time . I let the fish relax from any hassle,feed it real good . If I see a prob I'll treat the fish.

You are welcome!

I do QT EVERYTHING prophylactically but anyone that knows me already has that figured out!

 

[Musovski]

my lfs QT's for me but i want to start doing it on my own more so than i do now.

 

[ca1ore]

So I’ve been keeping Reef tanks since about 1987. Didn’t QT a thing for the first 15 years or so and had issues building up a large and diverse fish population. After that, nominally 2003, I started to QT all fish (though not inverts). Generally I do not treat prophylactically, preferring to just observe and fatten. I’ve found this approach to work quite well and now do have a large and diverse fish population.

I’d actually be curious to see how age/hobby longevity correlates to QT. It is my sense that newer reefers tend to go for the meds quicker than do the more seasoned ones. I wonder if that’s actually true.

 

[CMO]

No. But I only buy from sellers that do some sort of partial or full QT prior to shipping (TSM, Marine Collectors, and DD before my tank was heavily stocked and risk was lower).

 

[ShaunRobinson]

Never used to quarantine at all but like most that do I only ran the gauntlet for so long. I introduced a Powder Blue to my tank that predictably burst out in spots within a week. Lost 2 fish but got the other 3 through treatment.

I now quarantine all new additions and prophylactic treat with CP before they go into my display.

 

[MRB]

So I’ve been keeping Reef tanks since about 1987. Didn’t QT a thing for the first 15 years or so and had issues building up a large and diverse fish population. After that, nominally 2003, I started to QT all fish (though not inverts). Generally I do not treat prophylactically, preferring to just observe and fatten. I’ve found this approach to work quite well and now do have a large and diverse fish population.

I’d actually be curious to see how age/hobby longevity correlates to QT. It is my sense that newer reefers tend to go for the meds quicker than do the more seasoned ones. I wonder if that’s actually true.

I'm fairly new and staying away from meds!

 

[LilElroyJetson]

I never used to and I probably had Ich in ~50% of the fish I brought home (likely a product of the LFS I used to go to), and although most of my fish survived it, a lot of them experienced symptoms like flashes which I’d prefer to avoid. However, the fish did seem to be very hardy and live long lives after surviving the Ich.

This time around I plan to QT every fish and prophylactically treat with a less-harsh treatment in hopes of not adding additional stress to the acclimation process. I feel the benefits outweigh immediately adding the new additions to the display and the risks that come with it, especially if you keep valuable fish or have an attachment to the current fish in your display. I was being lazy or impatient when I didn’t QT which are poor reasons not to, especially with it being relatively low risk/maintenance and inexpensive to do.