qt fish from lfs

[sergifed91]

I have a local fish store that quaranteens there fish before selling them. I might be making a mistake here. I often buy from this store. I go in every other week when they get a shipment. if there is anything I want I tell him. then he puts them through treatment with prazi pro and if the fish aren't to sensitive he puts them through copper treatment. should i still be quarantining my fish I get from this LFS?

 

[SlugSnorter]

IMO yes. My last LFS told me the same thing...
and then I got a 100$ "QTed" designer clown with brook that nuked my tank.

Realistically, theres a decent chance its fine, but not as foolproof as it would be to do your own QT.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I would.
I don't know of any LFS that due a proper quarantine without cutting corners.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have a local fish store that quaranteens there fish before selling them. I might be making a mistake here. I often buy from this store. I go in every other week when they get a shipment. if there is anything I want I tell him. then he puts them through treatment with prazi pro and if the fish aren't to sensitive he puts them through copper treatment. should i still be quarantining my fish I get from this LFS?

I quarantine all new fish, even those from other public aquariums. LFS quarantines are usually a bit shortened from the full process.
Jay

 

[Pntbll687]

I have a local fish store that quaranteens there fish before selling them. I might be making a mistake here. I often buy from this store. I go in every other week when they get a shipment. if there is anything I want I tell him. then he puts them through treatment with prazi pro and if the fish aren't to sensitive he puts them through copper treatment. should i still be quarantining my fish I get from this LFS?

I think you should probably be putting new fish through a proper quarantine.

Does your LFS have dedicated quarantine room he can show you? Are the prices double what the other stores charge? If the answer to those questions is no, then the LFS isn't putting them through a full quarantine. They probably run therapeutic levels of copper in their system.

The real question is... Are you willing to set up and do a full quarantine correctly with new fish?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I s add Agree with Jay. At my LFS, I dipped and gave a quick bath to new fish.
It’s hard to extend a treatment protocol when you are out to move these fish for sale so you campanile an order for next week and especially being the only one around with saltwater and having customers know Thursday was new arrival day and they were literally buying some of the fish while bags were floating
Quarantine is the best way to assure you’re bringing in nothing foreign into your tank and should disease arise, much less medication needed for treatment not to mention getting the fish to eat Your foods offered

 

[MnFish1]

I have a local fish store that quaranteens there fish before selling them. I might be making a mistake here. I often buy from this store. I go in every other week when they get a shipment. if there is anything I want I tell him. then he puts them through treatment with prazi pro and if the fish aren't to sensitive he puts them through copper treatment. should i still be quarantining my fish I get from this LFS?

I do not - BUT - I go through an extra step. I don't buy fish unless they are held in medication-free water for 2-3 weeks. Since doing this I have had no problems

 

[MnFish1]

I quarantine all new fish, even those from other public aquariums. LFS quarantines are usually a bit shortened from the full process.
Jay

Assuming that the store uses the proper treatment - would you think its possible to do more harm than good by basically doubling the exposure to medication?

 

[dkeller22]

I would. I QT all of my fish, even though one of my LFS's does run a medicated QT. If something goes wrong it's my fault for not doing something and not because I believed someone else did everything correctly.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I do not - BUT - I go through an extra step. I don't buy fish unless they are held in medication-free water for 2-3 weeks. Since doing this I have had no problems

Who does this for you? The LFS? And this fish is isolated for the full 2-3 weeks? How do they do this without letting the fish come in contact with other fish? Say they hold your fish for the 2-3 weeks and the day before you pick it up, they add a couple of infected fish to the tank? this doesn't seem reliable unless they have lots and lots of isolated tanks that they can hold each fish individually for the 2-3 weeks.

 

[threebuoys]

I apologize up front for my long-winded testimonial.

When I purchase a new fish, I always use the current QT protocol. My objectives are simple, insure the fish purchased is healthy, and insure the fish does not bring any harm to the established fish in my tank.

Honestly, I believe most, perhaps all, of the fish I've bought in the past two years (all mail order) arrived without crypto or velvet or brooklynella. None had any indications when they arrived. (Of course, symptoms may not be immediately obvious on otherwise health fish until after they experience a level of stress.) I do think some had flukes. These fish were purchased after I returned to the hobby after an absence of 35 or more years. In my earlier experience, I bought all fish bought from LFS from an owner that I knew and trusted, and I regularly experienced crypto. No one ever suggested QT then, and certainly no internet or R2R available for advice.

But why gamble? When I decided to to get back into the hobby, the logic behind QT was clear to me. Yes, I would prefer to dump the fish straight into the DT, but I've decided to be patient.

IF, and that's a big IF, I had access to a LFS in which I had complete confidence, I might have formed a different opinion.

Based on the LFS I have visited over the years, I believe ones that completely and accurately practice QT that even approaches our QT protocol are very, very rare.

None of the LFS I've seen have the space to dedicate QT tanks to fish for 4 to 6 weeks before making them available to customers. IF they tried, would they be willing and able to have more QT tanks than DT tanks in their store? Would that not be required if they receive new shipments every week or two? Would they honestly be able to avoid cross contamination?

They would have to have a dedicated staff to manage their QT system. What records do they keep?

Sure, when a LFS has fish that clearly show infection, they will treat for the parasite or illness. Will they put the infected fish back in DT in a week after the spots disappear, or will they follow the 4 - 6 week protocol?

I believe some of the mail order vendors are better positioned to offer pre-QT fish since they don't have to maintain a store front. They are completely dependent on their on-line reputation. As a consumer, the only places to go to judge the mail order vendor reputations are on-line forums. I purchased my fish on-line from the high volume vendors where I have no confidence the fish are disease free, so I definitely believe the QT protocol is appropriate.

So, I think it all boils down to how risk tolerant are you. If you do not QT, and if you do not purchase from sources that follow the highest level of QT procedures, you should assume you will eventually purchase an infected fish. At that point, you should have a clear plan of action ready to implement or you will be scrambling for help as we see so often on this forum. In my case, once I add a fish to my DT, I never want to need to remove him to solve a problem I could have avoided up front.

 

[MnFish1]

Who does this for you? The LFS? And this fish is isolated for the full 2-3 weeks? How do they do this without letting the fish come in contact with other fish? Say they hold your fish for the 2-3 weeks and the day before you pick it up, they add a couple of infected fish to the tank? this doesn't seem reliable unless they have lots and lots of isolated tanks that they can hold each fish individually for the 2-3 weeks.

Ill try to answer your questions - without typing everything out

1. The LFS
2. Yes 2-3 weeks
3. They have a room for quarantine.
4. They have dates on all the tanks - so that would not happen
5. They have a lot of tanks - in an isolated room.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Ill try to answer your questions - without typing everything out

1. The LFS
2. Yes 2-3 weeks
3. They have a room for quarantine.
4. They have dates on all the tanks - so that would not happen
5. They have a lot of tanks - in an isolated room.

Wow, you're lucky. no such LFS like that around here.

My LFS has 4 banks of SW tanks. 1 bank is separate system and running copper, the other 75% of the tanks are copper free. About half of the copper free tanks holding fish also hold inverts. (!)

When they get a shipment of fish in, they float and inspect the fish. Any with obvious issues go right into the copper system. Those not showing any obvious issues get put into the for sale/display tanks running no copper. The same tanks are also filled with inverts that are for sale. If any fish in the for sale/display tanks begin showing issues, they will get netted out and relocated into the system running copper. I'm often browsing the tanks and spot fish with issues in the non-copper tanks. which means any fish in that tank is also likely a carrier or infected.

All of the tanks are "for sale" tanks including the tanks running copper. You can buy any of the sick fish in the copper systems. They don't even mention that these fish are sick, or why they are in copper systems. This bank of tanks just have "copper in system" written with a sharpie on the tanks. That is your only warning that the fish are sick. All these fish are still for sale. If you buy one from these tanks I doubt they tell you how long the fish has been in copper or how long it should remain in copper. I'm pretty sure you are on your own with any of these fish and any repercussions of taking one home and dumping it right into your display tank... UGH!

They treat sick fish in copper, but all their other fish are carriers too. Same with all their inverts housed in the same systems that have sick fish coming and going daily. they just pluck out the obviously sick fish, leaving all the others untreated.

Not QT'ing any of these fish or inverts would be a huge mistake.

I find it hard to believe 95% of LFS's don't run the same way. If anybody is lucky enough to have an LFS that doesn't run this way, my hat is off to you!!

The next closest LFS to me is about 90 minute drive. so 3 hours roundtrip to go to any other LFS. Suffice to say my LFS sells a lot of fish and doesn't have any incentive to do things much differently. They don't offer any kind of live guarantee let alone credit/refunds.

I still buy my fish there, but make sure I QT everything very thoroughly myself.

I have purchased fully QT'd fish from Dr. Reef before too, and that was a great experience. Would do so again if he had the fish I wanted, when I wanted them.

I have 4 fish in my QT tank now.
(3) were ordered from Tankstop.com and were added to QT back on 3/29.
the fourth and last fish was an anthias purchased from my LFS above from one of their copper free tanks and added to my QT on 4/2. these fish all underwent 30+ days of copper, multiple prazi treatments and are now approaching 50 days in QT, set to be released in another 10 days or so.

 

[MnFish1]

Wow, you're lucky. no such LFS like that around here.

My LFS has 4 banks of SW tanks. 1 bank is separate system and running copper, the other 75% of the tanks are copper free. About half of the copper free tanks holding fish also hold inverts. (!)

When they get a shipment of fish in, they float and inspect the fish. Any with obvious issues go right into the copper system. Those not showing any obvious issues get put into the for sale/display tanks running no copper. The same tanks are also filled with inverts that are for sale. If any fish in the for sale/display tanks begin showing issues, they will get netted out and relocated into the system running copper. I'm often browsing the tanks and spot fish with issues in the non-copper tanks. which means any fish in that tank is also likely a carrier or infected.

All of the tanks are "for sale" tanks including the tanks running copper. You can buy any of the sick fish in the copper systems. They don't even mention that these fish are sick, or why they are in copper systems. This bank of tanks just have "copper in system" written with a sharpie on the tanks. That is your only warning that the fish are sick. All these fish are still for sale. If you buy one from these tanks I doubt they tell you how long the fish has been in copper or how long it should remain in copper. I'm pretty sure you are on your own with any of these fish and any repercussions of taking one home and dumping it right into your display tank... UGH!

They treat sick fish in copper, but all their other fish are carriers too. Same with all their inverts housed in the same systems that have sick fish coming and going daily. they just pluck out the obviously sick fish, leaving all the others untreated.

Not QT'ing any of these fish or inverts would be a huge mistake.

I find it hard to believe 95% of LFS's don't run the same way. If anybody is lucky enough to have an LFS that doesn't run this way, my hat is off to you!!

The next closest LFS to me is about 90 minute drive. so 3 hours roundtrip to go to any other LFS. Suffice to say my LFS sells a lot of fish and doesn't have any incentive to do things much differently. They don't offer any kind of live guarantee let alone credit/refunds.

I still buy my fish there, but make sure I QT everything very thoroughly myself.

I have purchased fully QT'd fish from Dr. Reef before too, and that was a great experience. Would do so again if he had the fish I wanted, when I wanted them.

I have 4 fish in my QT tank now.
(3) were ordered from Tankstop.com and were added to QT back on 3/29.
the fourth and last fish was an anthias purchased from my LFS above from one of their copper free tanks and added to my QT on 4/2. these fish all underwent 30+ days of copper, multiple prazi treatments and are now approaching 50 days in QT, set to be released in another 10 days or so.

WELL - there are a number of online stores that do it - @Dr. Reef for one. So there's that.

 

[MnFish1]

Wow, you're lucky. no such LFS like that around here.

My LFS has 4 banks of SW tanks. 1 bank is separate system and running copper, the other 75% of the tanks are copper free. About half of the copper free tanks holding fish also hold inverts. (!)

When they get a shipment of fish in, they float and inspect the fish. Any with obvious issues go right into the copper system. Those not showing any obvious issues get put into the for sale/display tanks running no copper. The same tanks are also filled with inverts that are for sale. If any fish in the for sale/display tanks begin showing issues, they will get netted out and relocated into the system running copper. I'm often browsing the tanks and spot fish with issues in the non-copper tanks. which means any fish in that tank is also likely a carrier or infected.

All of the tanks are "for sale" tanks including the tanks running copper. You can buy any of the sick fish in the copper systems. They don't even mention that these fish are sick, or why they are in copper systems. This bank of tanks just have "copper in system" written with a sharpie on the tanks. That is your only warning that the fish are sick. All these fish are still for sale. If you buy one from these tanks I doubt they tell you how long the fish has been in copper or how long it should remain in copper. I'm pretty sure you are on your own with any of these fish and any repercussions of taking one home and dumping it right into your display tank... UGH!

They treat sick fish in copper, but all their other fish are carriers too. Same with all their inverts housed in the same systems that have sick fish coming and going daily. they just pluck out the obviously sick fish, leaving all the others untreated.

Not QT'ing any of these fish or inverts would be a huge mistake.

I find it hard to believe 95% of LFS's don't run the same way. If anybody is lucky enough to have an LFS that doesn't run this way, my hat is off to you!!

The next closest LFS to me is about 90 minute drive. so 3 hours roundtrip to go to any other LFS. Suffice to say my LFS sells a lot of fish and doesn't have any incentive to do things much differently. They don't offer any kind of live guarantee let alone credit/refunds.

I still buy my fish there, but make sure I QT everything very thoroughly myself.

I have purchased fully QT'd fish from Dr. Reef before too, and that was a great experience. Would do so again if he had the fish I wanted, when I wanted them.

I have 4 fish in my QT tank now.
(3) were ordered from Tankstop.com and were added to QT back on 3/29.
the fourth and last fish was an anthias purchased from my LFS above from one of their copper free tanks and added to my QT on 4/2. these fish all underwent 30+ days of copper, multiple prazi treatments and are now approaching 50 days in QT, set to be released in another 10 days or so.

The store also takes online orders and ships

 

[twwety]

Have a LFS that operates the same way wouldn't be surprised if it's the same one since I'm sure it's rare. There have been cases were diseases have made it into their display tanks but there quick to clean the system and re qt the fish or atleat observe the fish and not sell them for awhile it can never be perfect but I would try to buy right from the QT system before the fish is introduced into their display tanks. Or just an observation tank should be enough since the have all ready spent 2-3 weeks in QT.

 

[ShakerBreaker]

There are a lot of opinions here already, but I'll go ahead and add mine. Every time you add anything to your tank there is risk involved and you need to decide what your own risk level is. I quarantine everything whether it is a fish, coral, invert, or even macroalgae for at minimum 3 weeks of observation. The exception to this is fish from Biota. I don't want to sound like a fanboy, but the vast majority of my fish are from them and I started with a 10-day observation but these last couple I didn't even do that.

This is my risk level and I make the exception because it has kept the fun level of my tank high enough that my wife and kids will forgive me for quarantining everything else.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Assuming that the store uses the proper treatment - would you think its possible to do more harm than good by basically doubling the exposure to medication?

Good question - depends on the medications used. I’ve kept fish in coppersafe for months, and multiple prazi treatments are fine. Malachite green (which I don’t use) can build up in tissues. Formalin keeps getting implicated in causing health issues in people….
Jay

 

[MnFish1]

Good question - depends on the medications used. I’ve kept fish in coppersafe for months, and multiple prazi treatments are fine. Malachite green (which I don’t use) can build up in tissues. Formalin keeps getting implicated in causing health issues in people….
Jay

Thanks!!

 

[LeftyReefer]

WELL - there are a number of online stores that do it - @Dr. Reef for one. So there's that.

Absolutely! I mentioned in my post, I've used Dr. Reef with success before and highly recommend his service.