Multiple fish in a permanent QT of CP Timeline Question

Biglurr54 · Oct 1, 2018

I am looking to set up and maintain a QT tank with CP in it. My question is can I add fish continually and remove fish after they have been in the tank for 14 days? My thought process is that if CP kills free swimmers then new additions should not reset the 14 day clock. If the additional fish added to the tank has a parasite, it has to fall off encyst and then hatch into free swimmers which are then killed by CP. There’s no chance that the newer infected fish could infect the older fish in qt. The only way a newly added fish may infect an older fish, is if it has a free swimmer on it and that free swimmer then infects the older fish. Again this can’t be possible if they are in the presence of CP. Is this correct?

It would be nice to be able to bring home fish and add them into CP randomly with out having to hold up the progress of the other fish in that system.

wesman42 · Oct 1, 2018

Biglurr54 said:
I am looking to set up and maintain a QT tank with CP in it. My question is can I add fish continually and remove fish after they have been in the tank for 14 days? My thought process is that if CP kills free swimmers then new additions should not reset the 14 day clock. If the additional fish added to the tank has a parasite, it has to fall off encyst and then hatch into free swimmers which are then killed by CP. There’s no chance that the newer infected fish could infect the older fish in qt. The only way a newly added fish may infect an older fish, is if it has a free swimmer on it and that free swimmer then infects the older fish. Again this can’t be possible if they are in the presence of CP. Is this correct?

It would be nice to be able to bring home fish and add them into CP randomly with out having to hold up the progress of the other fish in that system.

I think the answer here is the length of the lifecycle for each thing. You are looking at this from the wrong lense....ich and velvet are not the only two problems you'd face. Given they might be the most popular....there is still bacterial issues, brook among others.

When you overlap fish in a QT, you need to start the clock for each prior fish over for that reason. @Humblefish is a great resource so he might have more to say.

Rakie · Oct 1, 2018

Biglurr54 said:
My question is can I add fish continually and remove fish after they have been in the tank for 14 days?

There's a lot of good information out there, but to double down on the punchline -- No

Biglurr54 · Oct 1, 2018

My qt regimine is 14 days in cp and 20 days in an observation tank with antibiotics and prazi pro.

JumboShrimp · Oct 1, 2018

I loved the question; extra credit for ‘thoughtfulness’, even if the ultimate answer was “No.”

Rakie · Oct 1, 2018

Just not worth the risk. Plenty of people do the dirty pirate, lots of people even admit they've had worse luck with QT. But if you're going to QT, do it right.

I gotta ask -- Do you think in the 40-50 years this hobby has been around you're the first person with this idea? If this were possible, it would have been done many years ago, and we'd accept it as a method of QT. It doesn't exist for a reason. It doesn't guarantee good results.

I'm sorry buddy, this is no groundbreaking idea. It's just a bad QT plan.

Biglurr54 · Oct 1, 2018

I still don't see why this wouldn't work. Co is used for treating ich and velvet. As long as they are in an environment where free swimmers can't reach them (cp treated water) for 14 day then moved to another tank for monitoring or further treatment, I don't see why adding new fish during that initial 14 days would change anything.

I agree flukes, infections, and brook could get passed between fosh during this time but the cp treatment is for ich and velvet. Fluke and infection treatments come later.

Rakie · Oct 1, 2018

okay, then do whatever you want. but don't waste other peoples time if you just want someone to agree with you. good luck.

GoldeneyeRet · Oct 1, 2018

How are you going to measure the level of cp to know when it is degraded enough to fall below therapeutic levels?

Reefahholic · Oct 1, 2018

Biglurr54 said:
I am looking to set up and maintain a QT tank with CP in it. My question is can I add fish continually and remove fish after they have been in the tank for 14 days? My thought process is that if CP kills free swimmers then new additions should not reset the 14 day clock. If the additional fish added to the tank has a parasite, it has to fall off encyst and then hatch into free swimmers which are then killed by CP. There’s no chance that the newer infected fish could infect the older fish in qt. The only way a newly added fish may infect an older fish, is if it has a free swimmer on it and that free swimmer then infects the older fish. Again this can’t be possible if they are in the presence of CP. Is this correct?

It would be nice to be able to bring home fish and add them into CP randomly with out having to hold up the progress of the other fish in that system.

The additional fish added to the QT who may have a parasite will likely infect the other fish. The parasite “doesn’t have to do anything.” Medication takes some time to work. Your logic is a bit off. Never add new fish or like mentioned above, “the clock starts over.” None of these medications work instantaneously. If you’re not patient enough to QT the right way, then you are wasting your time. Just dump the fish in the tank and hope for the best, because that’s basically what your doing when you assume the mere presence of CP will instantly slaughter all parasites.