Fish not making it through quarantine- what am I doing wrong?

[artieg1]

This seems perfectly normal to me. You learn a whole lot QT-ing fish, and you are going to mess it up at first. That is a disappointment, but I will tell you that the disappointment is nothing compared to velvet wiping out a dozen fish in 3 days in your DT. So, my advice. I would not add copper for a week into QT. Make sure that they are eating ravenously. I would supplement some kind of bacteria product, even if using sponge from your sump. I add a bit each day, just out of caution. I think sneak-up ammonia issues are a common QT problem, and those badges never worked for me. Water changes also important. I change 25-33% water every 3 days or so, from my DT (obviously, have to rebalance copper if you are at that stage). And finally, make sure you are not just using a HOB but also have a small powerhead in there, or they'll suffocate, HOB does not provide enough flow, it is just for bio filtration. I now rarely lose a fish in QT.

 

[Aardvark1134]

While copper is a very effective treatment it is also very bad for most fish at the levels needed to treat them. I would only use it on sick fish. If you want a preventative treatment I would use something milder than copper. Freshwater dips also work on a lot of things.

 

[mikedb]

An update.

Our yellow watchman goby, Toby the Goby, quickly became my wife's favorite, and we relocated him to her home office. I won't go on about how attached she became. Last night she found him, dead, on top of the cover, apparently having jumped through the <1/4" space between the HOB filter and the cover. He was about 21 hours from completing quarantine and joining the DT.

For my other quarantine tank, I ordered several Black Axil chromis from LiveAquaria. I was instead shipped Blue Green chromis, pre-infected with uronemia which manifested within hours of acclimation. Now I get to watch as every day or two, another begins showing spots and succumbs to this horrible illness.

 

[Matt Carden]

To be Devil's advocate, what your doing wrong IS quarantining. There are plenty of reefers on this forum who don't QT and have great success at it. My fish are fat and happy with no QT. My yellow Wrasse I have had for 3 months and has doubled in size from overfeeding deli counter live DIY Mollusk frozen feast.

 

[Wildreefs]

“Quarantine “ by definition failed me to , several times. I have different theories, but right or I’m fish only, and have been running copper and prazi pro with better success.

If I were to qt again, rather than set up the convention style qt, I would opt for a fish only type tank, rock, little substrate , and all, and run meds thru it. The same fish I’ve lost in a 2 long bare bottom qt, with pvc, are now living in my display with copper.

 

[um02122]

I used to think quarantine is the only way to go.

After coming across the notion of a immune tank, I just minimize the time from the LFS tank to my display tank, with a delay to temperature acclimate. I don't do drip acclimation anymore, to time consuming and no real benefit. I am hand transferring my fish from the bag to the tank in dark conditions with the return pumps on only (wavepumps turned off, lights off for the rest of the day and throughout the night).
I start a PolypLab Medic 10 days course as soon as possible. I dose a full dose at 22:00 and again at 06:00 as per instructions and an extra dose during the day.

I have a reef tank on standby in case a fish needs isolation and conditioning (doesn't it in the display). This tank has live rock and some of my coral frags and has tons of copepods I dose regularly. I don't clean the glass, a cowrie (the only regular resident of the tank) does it for me.

The only loss was a Copperband Butterfly who refused to eat regardless of the food offered in display or quarantine tank and demised after three weeks of tasting and spitting everything offered.

 

[mikedb]

As I have benefited greatly from searching old threads, I wanted to come back and update this one with an update, a few months later.

Based on some of the feedback here, I tried two approaches: Modifications to my quarantine system, and purchasing pre-quarantined fish.

Modifications to my quarantine procedure:

Essentially, this involved adding a powerhead and being more militant about weekly 25% water changes. Based on several widely-cited articles, I had assumed that an Aquaclear HOB filter would be sufficient for aeration and circulation of the 10G quarantine tank. I no longer think so, and suspect I had 'dead spots' and potential low oxygen levels before I added the powerhead.

Under my new approach, I successfully quarantined a yellow watchman goby. Unfortunately, Live Aquaria shipped me one with a bacterial mouth infection, but with rigorous dosing of Kanaplex I was able to stop the infection from spreading. Toby II has since moved into the display tank and is happily living with our pistol shrimp. His lower jaw still has a large portion eaten away, but it doesn't seem to affect his ability to eat, since he has been living in the DT (with no target feeding) for over a month now.

That said, I don't' think I will run my own quarantine again, because....

Buying Pre-Quarantined Fish:

Based on replies to this thread and elsewhere on this board, I contacted Elliott ant Marine Collectors. He seems to do business by phone and text, and doesn't reply to emails, which took me awhile to figure out. But my experience has been phenomenal. Elliott somehow has access to one of the main importers in LA, and is able to source seemingly any fish in a matter of a few days. He specializes in rarer fish, but (despite seeming a little incredulous that I wanted to use his service for relatively 'cheap' fish) was able to source everything on my stocking list, in the size and gender of my choosing. Prices were higher than LiveAquaria, but still surprisingly reasonable considering the effort required to quarantine these fish.

In my first order I received a melanurus wrasse, golden midas blenny, and helfrichi firefish. They were packed with more water than I have ever seen from an online seller, and immediately starting eating and continue to thrive over two months later. I currently have a one-spot foxface and a rhomboidalis wrasse in quarantine with Elliott, and will be receiving them early next week. My next (and semi-final) order will be a purple tang and three blue-green chromis, which I should receive some time in September. After I receive everything, I will post a final update!

Conclusion:

Going forward, I will be exclusively purchasing from Elliott. While I am now more confident in my quarantine system, it is too small for many fish I would like to introduce, and at the end of the day, too labour intensive for myself with a 7-week old baby, especially in consideration of the reasonable price Elliott charges for doing this for me.

I realize that Elliott doesn't do the 'full' 4-6 week quarantine that many on these boards recommend, but I don't want to let 'perfect' be the enemy of the 'good', or 'great' in this case.

Hopefully this is helpful to others in my position!