For those that QT and those that dont

[Spare time]

I also don't find it ethically sound to just gamble with the lives of these organisms that we decided to confine to a tiny box with a high chance of them being exposed to very deadly pathogens. When I take an animal in, be that a dog, a fish, etc., I become the sole bearer of responsibility for this animal's life. A proper QT is not going to stress the fish out that much because its simply another tank. The same can be said about waiting to treat the fish until you see something. That is just not a gamble I find acceptable.

 

[Spare time]

When fish die in QT, I would bet that 99.999% of the time its because the fish was already sick and too late to save or the owner of the QT messed up.

 

[Petcrazyson]

I just didn't want to put the CBB through the stress. I'm in the process of looking for a shoal of anthias, lyretails or disbar not sure which yet. I want to add at least 7 and am torn between QT and not. I have a 40g breeder set up and running fully established with rock, nems, and some other misfits that have been banned from the DT but no fish so I am seriously considering putting them all in there and just watching them and treating with prazi and try to get them eating well before anything else. I may roll the dice and bring them up if they show no signs of disease after a couple of months. This is definatly not a hobby for the faint of heart

If it were me I’d get Bimaculatus Anthias cuz they are my favorite Anthias. I would QT them, and follow the method @Miami Reef used of getting a few at a time, QTing a few at item, and then adding a few at a time to the DT until the full amount you want has been added. Careful to not dose too much Prazi as it lowers oxygen, but I’m sure you know what your doing.

 

[Petcrazyson]

When fish die in QT, I would bet that 99.999% of the time its because the fish was already sick and too late to save or the owner of the QT messed up.

I don’t agree with this for only 1 reason. When you get a fish you MAKE SURE ITS HEALTHY, it’s swimming properly no cloudy eyes fins are clear spots minimal rips no scale damage and is eating properly. So if it’s healthy to that extent and you QT it and it dies in QT, 50% don’t think it’s because the fish was already sick.

 

[Petcrazyson]

I also don't find it ethically sound to just gamble with the lives of these organisms that we decided to confine to a tiny box with a high chance of them being exposed to very deadly pathogens. When I take an animal in, be that a dog, a fish, etc., I become the sole bearer of responsibility for this animal's life. A proper QT is not going to stress the fish out that much because it’s simply another tank. The same can be said about waiting to treat the fish until you see something. That is just not a gamble I find acceptable.

“Not going to stress it out that much”…..theres still that bit of stress that could be the bad player.

 

[Petcrazyson]

This is definatly not a hobby for the faint of heart

Or those who think it’s cheap

 

[damsels are not mean]

I also don't find it ethically sound to just gamble with the lives of these organisms that we decided to confine to a tiny box with a high chance of them being exposed to very deadly pathogens. When I take an animal in, be that a dog, a fish, etc., I become the sole bearer of responsibility for this animal's life. A proper QT is not going to stress the fish out that much because its simply another tank. The same can be said about waiting to treat the fish until you see something. That is just not a gamble I find acceptable.

I don't find it any more ethically sound to use harsh poisons (basically just chemo for fish) prophylactically. It absolutely does have side effects and I suspect it often affects the long term health of the fish too. I've never seen a single symptom of any common contagious disease/parasite in any fish in the 10 years I've been in the hobby. Even a tang I had for a while and sold when he grew up and I realized the guy at the store said they (scopas) were a small species LOL. On the other hand, I've had several fish that refuse to eat at first or just want to hide for a week and come out after. Just simply can't give those fish the right environment in a sterile copper tank.

 

[exnisstech]

If it were me I’d get Bimaculatus Anthias cuz they are my favorite Anthias. I would QT them, and follow the method @Miami Reef used of getting a few at a time, QTing a few at item, and then adding a few at a time to the DT until the full amount you want has been added. Careful to not dose too much Prazi as it lowers oxygen, but I’m sure you know what your doing.

Beautiful for sure but out of my price range. I'm just looking to add a nice somewhat colorful shoal that is active. I was planning on buying all females and getting to watch one change but the suggestion of adding a few at at time maybe a better option. I could still watch one change and add a second group of females later. Have to ponder that.
Oh and I always add an air stone in QT, thanks.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

BTDT with qt'ing fish. Didn't work, suffered more deaths during qt versus plunking in the fish straight to the display. I plunked and prayed for the first 15 years of reef keeping with minimal issues.

I tried qt when I started my 120g, several high dollar losses and ended up getting ich into the display anyway. I now run a ich management tank with fairly solid results @ this point.

Flame If you want, but I respect everyone's choice, so please respect mine.

 

[damsels are not mean]

BTDT with qt'ing fish. Didn't work, suffered more deaths during qt versus plunking in the fish straight to the display. I plunked and prayed for the first 15 years of reef keeping with minimal issues.

I tried qt when I started my 120g, several high dollar losses and ended up getting ich into the display anyway. I now run a ich management tank with fairly solid results @ this point.

Flame If you want, but I respect everyone's choice, so please respect mine.

Yeah I am fortunate not to have had that experience but ironically the only fish I lost prematurely and suddenly since my stint of strict QT was the one that went through full copper. The rest I did HTTM with and nobody ever showed any symptoms.

 

[Lunatic Fringe]

I QT everything that goes into one of my displays. Before it goes in the QT it gets dipped and thoroughly inspected! I got too much time and money invested into my systems to be playing Russian Roulette.

 

[cancun]

BTDT with qt'ing fish. Didn't work, suffered more deaths during qt versus plunking in the fish straight to the display. I plunked and prayed for the first 15 years of reef keeping with minimal issues.

I tried qt when I started my 120g, several high dollar losses and ended up getting ich into the display anyway. I now run a ich management tank with fairly solid results @ this point.

Flame If you want, but I respect everyone's choice, so please respect mine.

This.....100% agree....I do the same......

 

[sghera64]

I don't quarantine. I never have. I was thinking about it because the sensibility behind it seemed sound. Then I read a few posts by Paul_B. After that, I dropped the whole notion of quarantining and never looked back.

I had one outbreak in my tank of Ick on my yellow tang. It slowly cleared up over time without my doing anything. Paul_B's thinking is, if it is in your tank, it was, and is, in the ocean too. If your tank mates are healthy then they can overcome what a new-comer might bring in. The new-comer might be sick and stressed which slows his recovery. A hospital tank might be the right choice, or getting it into a fully mature eco system (without being threatened by the other inhabitants) might be better. [I think I summarized Paul_B's logic correctly].

Pual_B advocates keeping the bio fauna (bacteria) active and diverse. It keeps the inhabitants in a state of strong immune health. that means we need to keep adding the (good) bacteria. Since reading his posts, I started going out of my way to by fresh sea food for my reef tank. Adding ocean caught crustaceans and other wild fish as fish food keeps that bacteria diversity up. None of my fish have been ill in any way since doing this.

Coral on the other hand may be different. I still don't quarantine, but I have not had any issues with corals. My only regret was bubble algae and aiptasia. Green bubble algae was in my system before I ever knew what it was. I've been using polixetonium chloride and have almost gotten rid of the bubbles. As far as aiptasia, it caused me to buy a dying and emaciated cobber band butterfly fish from a LFS. The CBB slowly recovered in my system, took to the aiptasia after about 3-4 days and thrives on finely chopped salmon, prawns and other sea food I feed him in a floating basket. I now wish I could grow aiptasia so he could each while I'm away on 1+ week long trips.

 

[mehaffydr]

I use to be on the side of not Quarantine. Worked for 10 year until it didn't. I lost a lot of awesome fish and if I would have done the right thing those fish would still be alive today. So now everything gets quarantined. Inverts and rock gets minimum 76 days fallow time.

 

[killer2001]

I use to be on the side of not Quarantine. Worked for 10 year until it didn't. I lost a lot of awesome fish and if I would have done the right thing those fish would still be alive today. So now everything gets quarantined. Inverts and rock gets minimum 76 days fallow time.

You don't know that. No quarantine is 100% effective. It's very possible you could have QT'd the fish and still lost them.

 

[mehaffydr]

You don't know that. No quarantine is 100% effective. It's very possible you would have QT'd the fish and still lost them.

I may have lost the infected fish but I would not have lost all of the other fish that ended up getting infected with Velvet and dying

 

[killer2001]

I may have lost the infected fish but I would not have lost all of the other fish that ended up getting infected with Velvet and dying

Again, there is still the possibility (although small) of QT'ing the fish as per the current protocol, and when you go to finally release that new fish into the DT, everyone still gets velvet/ich.

 

[Miami Reef]

BTDT with qt'ing fish. Didn't work, suffered more deaths during qt versus plunking in the fish straight to the display. I plunked and prayed for the first 15 years of reef keeping with minimal issues.

I tried qt when I started my 120g, several high dollar losses and ended up getting ich into the display anyway. I now run a ich management tank with fairly solid results @ this point.

Flame If you want, but I respect everyone's choice, so please respect mine.

We had the same experience.

I can‘t believe I took down my old tank multiple times to try to remove a parasite that would just come back.

Sometimes the forums can do more bad than good; the less I know, the better.

Reading your post was very cathartic for me. Thank you.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I may have lost the infected fish but I would not have lost all of the other fish that ended up getting infected with Velvet and dying

After going through velvet I get it. It's a QUICK killer...

 

[Paul B]

Pual_B advocates keeping the bio fauna (bacteria) active and diverse. It keeps the inhabitants in a state of strong immune health. that means we need to keep adding the (good) bacteria. Since reading his posts, I started going out of my way to by fresh sea food for my reef tank. Adding ocean caught crustaceans and other wild fish as fish food keeps that bacteria diversity up. None of my fish have been ill in any way since doing this.

LOL, I couldn't agree more.

But the vast majority of tanks IMO are not set up correctly or fed correctly so they should definitely quarantine.
It is "one" way to run a tank as there are quite a few ways to enjoy this hobby.