I’m getting 26 fish tomorrow- qt help???

[Cassian]

Hello all!

So I decided to transship a box of fish in directly from the Philippines. I’m super excited, but a little nervous as well. I’ve never qt’ed this many fish at a time. I’m getting 26 total. Only about 4 large bodied fish. The rest are small. I am following @HotRocks qt procedure and have also been reading @Humblefish ‘s qt advise. Here are my questions:

1. Is there anything I need to do for ammonia other than seeding? I put a filter sock form my DT into the sump of my QT

2. Are there any fish that can’t have prazi or copper other than scaleless fish? (This is what I’ve been told)

3. The transshipper is telling me I should drip acclimate, but I trust @HotRocks and @Humblefish when they say float and release into same salinity is better. Would you recommend this?

4. I am getting a mandarin, should I skip qt and put him straight into the dt? I’ve heard they are more sensitive.

5. I’m getting 2 moorish idols, anything special for them in qt? ( like no copper etc)

The QT is my old 65 gal tall tank with sump so I think it is adequate for all of the fish. I am not a newbie, I just want to triple check everything and make sure I do this right before they get here. Also, please do not hate on me for getting the moorish idols. Yes I know they are difficult and I know their requirements. I’ve always wanted to try one so here I go. Any advice on their care is much appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!

Luke

 

[lion king]

So lets see if I understand, you are going to qt 26 fish in a 65g with a seeded filter sock as the base of your biological filter.

My initial thoughts are you are going to need alot more biological foundation to you filtration, this is likely the #1 mistake alot of people make when qt'ing. I would use biospira to boost the biological. In case you are not aware, you can't use prime with copper.

If you are matching salinity, the float and release method is fine.

The risk of putting a mandarin directly into the qt is once the pods run out many times they starve. It's more difficult to target his care and get him eating other foods in the dt. But with that many fish it is going to be difficult. initially he will likely only eat pods.

 

[bluprntguy]

The mandarin needs too be quarantined. They are highly resistant to diseases, but can be carriers. hatching live baby brine every couple of days should keep him fed.

 

[Bob Weigant]

That’s quite an undertaking. Hope it works out

 

[vetteguy53081]

This will be interesting. Id be reluctant to place 6 fish at once in my 660g display tank what says QT. Then to place them all in a 65g is a nail biter for me.
I’m expressing more of concern than improbability. Will be a challenge from transshipment as it is. For prazi, I would start with 75% of dosage as a safety. Mandarin is a challenge from an LFS, so that can go to display tank as long as there’s adequate food supply
Idols- just get them to eat and they will be good
Be sure to add vitamins and garlic to their food alternating of course. I’d add an airstone to tank to assure a supply of oxygen

 

[Tamberav]

26 fish in a 65 with a sock....seems like you will be battling ammonia. I would set up some more QTs and make tons of spare water for water changes. Buy biospira and dose that....make sure to have sponge or media of some sort for the biospira to colonize on.

Also in the future I would have the QTs fully cycled and ready and not be relying on a sock to provide enough.... certainly not for 26 fish. This seems rushed.

I am a big advocate of QT fish but I see a lot of people report deaths in QT...I feel this is because the QTs are set up poorly. Lack of natural looking hiding spaces and...not cycled properly to handle the fish who should be fed a lot in QT. Overcrowded in smaller QT tanks too.

 

[homer1475]

26 fish in a 65G tall no less so there is less swimming room.....

Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but what do I know.

A mandy is the one fish I deem unQTable(Not really a word). Their specialized eating habits makes it extremely difficult to QT and survive. Both mandys I own I gambled on and did not QT. They are fat, happy, and healthy. They are pretty immune to disease, and typically unless they are not eating, are a pretty hardy fish.

 

[AdamB]

Hello all!

So I decided to transship a box of fish in directly from the Philippines. I’m super excited, but a little nervous as well. I’ve never qt’ed this many fish at a time. I’m getting 26 total. Only about 4 large bodied fish. The rest are small. I am following @HotRocks qt procedure and have also been reading @Humblefish ‘s qt advise. Here are my questions:

1. Is there anything I need to do for ammonia other than seeding? I put a filter sock form my DT into the sump of my QT

2. Are there any fish that can’t have prazi or copper other than scaleless fish? (This is what I’ve been told)

3. The transshipper is telling me I should drip acclimate, but I trust @HotRocks and @Humblefish when they say float and release into same salinity is better. Would you recommend this?

4. I am getting a mandarin, should I skip qt and put him straight into the dt? I’ve heard they are more sensitive.

5. I’m getting 2 moorish idols, anything special for them in qt? ( like no copper etc)

The QT is my old 65 gal tall tank with sump so I think it is adequate for all of the fish. I am not a newbie, I just want to triple check everything and make sure I do this right before they get here. Also, please do not hate on me for getting the moorish idols. Yes I know they are difficult and I know their requirements. I’ve always wanted to try one so here I go. Any advice on their care is much appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!

Luke

Wow. I think that is quite an undertaking. I agree with the other responses below as week I hope it works out for you in this. I wanted to share with you that
I just recently changed one of my 2 reef tanks to an African Cichlid tank recently Tank’s size was 90 gallon with 30 gallon sump.I wanted to add all of the Malawi cichlids (302”)at once so I dosed tank with Dr. Tim’s ammonia product and seeded filters .i dosed enough to get my ammonia above 2ppm and It took me 2 weeks to cycle tank and it worked with great success. First time I have tried this approach .in saying that
I would make sure that you have enough bacteria around to handle the load of that many saltwater fish .
Good
Luck!

 

[ImNemo]

What size is your display tank and how long has it been running?

I ask because if it were me I would just float and release into the display tank if the salinity is close enough. I think that many fish in a qt tank that small and what seems to be newly seeded isn't going to end well.

I know everyone says qt and medicate but it's a gamble either way.

Please don't preach either. I have healthy yellow tangs, a hippo tang and a powder blue tang and several other fish that were never quarantined or drip acclimated and are all very healthy.

I've also quarantined sick fish and some were able to handle the medications and some were not. Like I said it's a gamble either way.

 

[William Mumford]

Drip acclimating can kill fish if a fish is shipped in a bag from that far away the fish will poop and pee in the bag and it will essentially be a bag of ammonia. When it hits the air it will start to turn that little amount of water into amonia soup so drip acclimating is more stressful in some case then just dropping the fish right in. A shipment of this length I would think would be mostly amonia water by the time you receive it. Just what I think

 

[SMSREEF]

This is a huge bioload all at once... I don’t see how they will make in in a QT that was set up recently with filter sock... even if you just release into your display tank that’s already cycled it may be difficult, but it may be your best bet.

You could use water in your 65 for water changes if ammonia spikes. I would definitely add bacteria in a bottle to whichever tank you use...like this morning hopefully... and get an ammonia badge (Seachem ammonia alert) that just sticks to the inside of tank glass to alert you if it goes high.

At this point, I think quarantine may be the least of your worries. Just getting the fish to survive is going to be hard. If you have a disease outbreak, you can quarantine later and leave the display tank fish free afterward for 6 weeks. This also gives you some more time to get QT set up with bacteria.

Just my 2 cents... I hope things go well over the next few days

 

[Waters]

Unfortunately I don't see how this can work unless you are doing daily, close to 100% water changes. Maybe if you can plumb a large sump or canister filter already seeded? That is just way too much bio-load all at once, in a relatively small tank. Any way to set up some additional smaller tanks and separate some of the fish?

 

[Cassian]

What size is your display tank and how long has it been running?

I ask because if it were me I would just float and release into the display tank if the salinity is close enough. I think that many fish in a qt tank that small and what seems to be newly seeded isn't going to end well.

I know everyone says qt and medicate but it's a gamble either way.

Please don't preach either. I have healthy yellow tangs, a hippo tang and a powder blue tang and several other fish that were never quarantined or drip acclimated and are all very healthy.

I've also quarantined sick fish and some were able to handle the medications and some were not. Like I said it's a gamble either way.

It is a 180 gal. It has been setup for 2 months BUT i transferred my old tank to it when I upgraded. Old tank was setup about 2 years

 

[Cassian]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I will be monitoring ammonia closely. Direct release into DT is not an option for me. I have had velvet before and don’t want to repeat. I will get some bacteria today at my lfs and prepare as best I can. I have a 10 gal and 20 gal qt as well I could setup. But I would rather not if avoidable at all. Please keep in mind that a large majority of these fish are small things like chromis. I’ve always been told not to cycle a qt because the copper kills the bacteria anyway.

I really appreciate all of the replies. I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m rushing or doing something stupid. I’ve always heard to setup the qt 24 hours before. I also have some aqua mesh filter in my DT I can seed the qt with. I will place that in there today

 

[Jon Fishman]

It is a 180 gal. It has been setup for 2 months BUT i transferred my old tank to it when I upgraded. Old tank was setup about 2 years

Not even knowing all the fish in question my gut says 26 is too many, QT or not

 

[BestMomEver]

I would recommend buying a few pieces of cured live rock from an LFS than can later be sacrificed. Your fish will be happier and your biological filtration will be better. Good luck. I’ll be following along.

 

[Cassian]

Not even knowing all the fish in question my gut says 26 is too many, QT or not

Not trying to start an argument but you think that’s too many? It’s a 180 with about 75-100 gal sump

 

[Squidward]

For that many fish, I'd definitely do at least 3 or 4 QT tanks. But I do TTM so I got 3 tanks doing my current quarantine of 2 tangs, 2 hawkfish, 1 blenny, 4 chromis, 7 Rolland's damsels, 1 potters angel.

 

[Cassian]

I would recommend buying a few pieces of cured live rock from an LFS than can later be sacrificed. Your fish will be happier and your biological filtration will be better. Good luck. I’ll be following along.

That’s a good idea!! Thank you! I’ll give that a try

 

[Cassian]

For that many fish, I'd definitely do at least 3 or 4 QT tanks. But I do TTM so I got 3 tanks doing my current quarantine of 2 tangs, 2 hawkfish, 1 blenny, 4 chromis, 7 Rolland's damsels, 1 potters angel.

Thanks for the suggestion. I don’t do TTM. would you still recommend more qts?