QT question

[angelsandtangs]

All my fish I currently have in my DT are fully qt .. I have an opportunity to purchase more fish from a fellow hobbyist and he’s had these fish for 5 years or so no need additions of any kind .. so if is was to get these fish should I just do a observation for a few weeks and add them to my mains display or do what I normally do and copper and prazi them ? He did not qt them when he bought them but he said he has seen any signs of ick or flukes in the over 5 years he has had them .. and they are all tangs yellows powder blue scopas and white tail along with a foxface .. Tia

 

[MnFish1]

All my fish I currently have in my DT are fully qt .. I have an opportunity to purchase more fish from a fellow hobbyist and he’s had these fish for 5 years or so no need additions of any kind .. so if is was to get these fish should I just do a observation for a few weeks and add them to my mains display or do what I normally do and copper and prazi them ? He did not qt them when he bought them but he said he has seen any signs of ick or flukes in the over 5 years he has had them .. and they are all tangs yellows powder blue scopas and white tail along with a foxface .. Tia

Since they are already in the other person's tank - they are already in 'observation' - unless I'm misunderstanding. So - I'm not sure why you would need to repeat that. However, I think the best bet is to QT them per protocol.

 

[Sharkbait19]

If it were me I would just do a full qt, no harm there as long as it’s done properly.

 

[Seansea]

Nah i would just put them in. Been in a tank for 5 years? Unless he added fish in the last month to his tank he had them in qt for 5 years.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I'm not sure about flukes, but with ich - if the fish came with ich when he got them, then they still have ich now (it's just managed well enough that it hasn't reared its head).

This is a relatively common issue that I've seen where un-QT'ed fish go years without issues only for something to stress them and then all of a sudden they have an ich outbreak seemingly from nowhere - the ich was there all along, but it was managed well enough by keeping the fish in good health and low-stress conditions, so it didn't show any symptoms. (This is why I call it ich management instead of ich eradication when people go no-QT and just do their best to keep the fish healthy).

So, personally, knowing that transferring the fish from their current tank to your tank could be a stressful event for the fish (which could cause an ich outbreak with both the new fish and the current fish), I'd do the full-QT.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Start your own observation and assume they have something even if it’s for 2 weeks
Ruby rally pro or general cure will address a lot of issues- IF PRESENT

 

[MnFish1]

I again would just do the quarantine - however given the fact that 50% of people here do no quarantine - this would be one of the safer methods. It you think its safe - no QT - just dump them into the tank

 

[exnisstech]

Personally I would just put them in. But I stopped doing medicated QT and now do observation and only medicate if I see signs of disease. But if all of your current fish have been through copper and your 100 % sure your tank is disease free it might be best to treat them just for piece of mind. Depends on how comfortable you are with the risk I suppose.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

All my fish I currently have in my DT are fully qt .. I have an opportunity to purchase more fish from a fellow hobbyist and he’s had these fish for 5 years or so no need additions of any kind .. so if is was to get these fish should I just do a observation for a few weeks and add them to my mains display or do what I normally do and copper and prazi them ? He did not qt them when he bought them but he said he has seen any signs of ick or flukes in the over 5 years he has had them .. and they are all tangs yellows powder blue scopas and white tail along with a foxface .. Tia

You’re probably fairly safe just moving the fish into the DT, assuming the fish to be mixed are compatible.

That said, it is not unheard of for fish to compensate for various infections until the stress of moving them into a new environment brings on acute illness.
Observation periods do nothing for that eventuality, and in fact can double the risk since the fish must be moved twice.

This is all a cost/benefit evaluation. If the fish in your DT are highly valuable, I’d quarantine everything going in, no matter the source.

Jay

 

[angelsandtangs]

Personally I would just put them in. But I stopped doing medicated QT and now do observation and only medicate if I see signs of disease. But if all of your current fish have been through copper and your 100 % sure your tank is disease free it might be best to treat them just for piece of mind. Depends on how comfortable you are with the risk I suppose.

The more research I do and reading up I’m just not in favor of medicating fish just to medicate them . Now if they are in need I’m all for it .. thanks for the advice

 

[angelsandtangs]

You’re probably fairly safe just moving the fish into the DT, assuming the fish to be mixed are compatible.

That said, it is not unheard of for fish to compensate for various infections until the stress of moving them into a new environment brings on acute illness.
Observation periods do nothing for that eventuality, and in fact can double the risk since the fish must be moved twice.

This is all a cost/benefit evaluation. If the fish in your DT are highly valuable, I’d quarantine everything going in, no matter the source.

Jay

I have a lot of fish and currently in the stage of rehoming my bigger species of tangs for smaller ones . I just want to do what’s best for the fish more than for myself .. I want to medicate unless necessary and 5 years with the other hobbyist with no issue makes me feel better .. and I started qt because of a qt fish causing an outbreak .. thanks again for the advice