QT torture

[shellynjason]

I have had a QT up and running for 4+ weeks now knowing I would be buying a new fish or two. It is a 15 gallon petco kit (lights,heater,pump,lid,tank) and I used about 25% of the DT water and a used sponge from the DT to seed some good bacteria. I even add alittle flakes to feed the bacteria . Read all the threads on being proactive against marine ICH and other diseases, and was ready for a 4-6 week QT period.

So on Monday I bought a pretty little Purple Tang and put it in the QT tank after checking salinity/ph and matching it with the bag water and slowly acclimating the fish to the QT tank.

It was a hard few days, the tang look absolutely petrified in there. Hid in the live rock cave and would barely eat for days. I tried my best to make it accomodating, put up a dark wall on back and sides of tank. But the tang was deadly afraid of everything. I would watch it slowly creep out of the rock and then flee back to safety. I would definately say this little guy was very stressed out. The food I attempted to feed each day would go uneaten and then caused amonia .25 and nitrate 10, so I would do daily water changes.

After four days of torturing this fish I couldn't take it anymore. After doing a 10% water change to the DT I then scooped up the Purple Tang and added him to the DT (where I presently only have two small blk clownfish and 1 small chromis along with my coral frags).

it was the BEST thing I could have done for that fish. Literally within minutes that Tang was swimming all over , exploring the rock caves, checking out the other fish (not aggressively) and eating algae off the tank sides. For four days I watched this Tang afraid and listless, but with a simple change to a bigger tank, cleaner water and a more familar environment this was the happiest fish I have ever seen.

It wasn't a lack of patience that drove me to take this fish out of QT after only four days, instead I couldn't stand torturing that fish anymore. I belive I would have stressed that fish to sickness if I had left it in that QT tank. I didn't see any noticable ICH white spots, the fish does have scrapes above the eyes and I read that bad water could make it worse so I really needed to get it out of this cycling QT tank too.

So tell me - do you think I did the right thing? Would you or have you done something similar?

 

[jmann124]

I absolutely would've done the same thing. Improbably wouldn't have put the fish in QT to start with though. I watch my fish closely before buying them and watch them eat as well. I watch the other fish in the tank with them also. I am under the assumption that you seemed to have been. A bigger tank gives more hiding places and a greater feeling of safety. We can watch them from a distance in our larger DTs. Whereas in a small QT we almost have to plaster our faces to the tank to get a good look at the fish. I know I haven't been in the hobby long, but I've spoken with many people with anywhere from a few years to a few decades of experience. I get the same general answer: we watch and research and watch them eat and talk to the LFS and them being them home. We watch them for 6-8 weeks in QT and then add them to the DT and then in a month or so they have ich or something else. And what did we gain? A thinner wallet and hairline from the worry while in QT.

No thanx. This hobby is expensive enough without me basically paying for a fish more than once by putting it through QT. I am willing to do what it takes to make my DT a healthy environment and to have a small tank if a fish gets sick. I acclimate and feed well, keep my water parameters in there respective ranges. I don't QT though.

Shame on me.

 

[sandalscout]

In that situation, I would have done the same.

That said, seems like you probably hit it on the head.

I really needed to get it out of this cycling QT tank too.

QT needs to be an established tank, not one that's cycling. I ran a QT for a while when I had my old setup online, and never had issues. I'll do the same when I get my new tank online.

 

[AirAngel]

I hope it works out Shelly. Pretty fish btw

 

[shellynjason]

I'll add that I bought this fish 'sight unseen', so I did not get to see the fish eat or swim around in it's 'home'.

 

[gmoney243]

Thing is if the fish has parasites your just infecting all your other fish and its.not.going to help the tang. Ammomia is super deadly at very low levels so u need an established QT as stated. Healthy and eating fish doesnt mean its fine and doesnt need to be QT or treated. Many club members have been through outbreaks of ich or velvet and lost most all their fish. It causes a lot of people to get out of the hoby when u loose all ur fish. Save yourself the trouble and future heatbrake and monetary losses and QT. If the fish dies in QT he probly would have died in DT. In your case i think it was the ammoinia getting to the fish.

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[Dowtish]

All fish are fairly skittish in a QT setup initially. But give them time and they will adjust. I also believe that your QT wasnt cycled and the ammonia levels were affecting the fish. People say you can run a QT without cycling it, by doing large water changes, which is true, but if the fish is stressed out already, doing multiple large WC's can cause even more stress IMO. So I would keep the QT up and running and get enough sponges to keep some beneficial bacteria in the water in case you need to treat for meds later. Live rock is easier, but if you have to treat with meds you have to remove it.

I will say that I understand your worry after observing for 4 days, and given the cost of the purple tang, why you did what you did.

 

[palvyre]

I do not QT either. I run a large UV filter and house cleaner shrimp. That works fairly well for most pests that infect fish. Other than that I make sure I pick healthy livestock to put in my tank. One of the best ways is to buy established fish from fellow reefers.

 

[gmoney243]

Playing russian roulette. Shrimps dont get internal parasites or velvet and a fish can poop them out and infect your other fish. I used to do the same but now i qt and consider myself lucky i havent gone through what Mark and Chris have. Why u think mr saltwater qts now haha

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[shellynjason]

Yes I am keeping the QT tank going and working to get it cycled properly. I thought it was cycled, seeing I used 25% water from the DT and a sponge from the Ehiem filter and a big live rock from the DT, all that plus it was running 4-5 weeks. If I see signs of ICH, flukes,ect. I will be prepared to move him.

I do appreciate here both sides of the QT experience from everyone.

 

[ebushrow]

Another reason to qt is that in a reef tank it is "generally" impossible to catch a fish without breaking down all the live rock and putting more stress on the fish. I did not qt a fish once and had to remove 200lbs+ of live rock to catch the fish which lead to an overload of nutrients in the system from removing the LR and a mini cycle.

 

[AirAngel]

How is the tang doing??

 

[shellynjason]

This tang is a weirdo! It is obsessed with chasing itself in the side glass reflection. My Blue Chromis is like the welcome committee he keeps going over to the tang trying to encourage him to come play and stop the nonsense. I am hoping this obsession will pass.

 

[Dowtish]

This tang is a weirdo! It is obsessed with chasing itself in the side glass reflection. My Blue Chromis is like the welcome committee he keeps going over to the tang trying to encourage him to come play and stop the nonsense. I am hoping this obsession will pass.

It should pass with time. I've had a few fish do this at first too.

 

[shellynjason]

I thought I'd be slick and so I put the algae clip with nori sheet smack in the middle of where this purple tang is obessing. It is still doing it but at least I see it eating off the algae sheet too.

 

[mrsaltwatertank]

I've been on both sides of the QT argument. For years I didn't QT anything as I felt like QT was overly stressful on a fish. I also never had a disease outbreak in my tank so I assumed that QT wasn't needed.

Then I got marine velvet in my 235g tank and lost 12 fish in 3 days including my 4.5" maroon clownfish I had raised since she was 2". Watching a fish die knowing you could have easily prevented it's death is a unique form of torture. I don't recommend you try it.

Now I QT everything and have only lost 2 fish in QT. I QT'd my purple tang in a 20g tank and he was fine. Ate like a pig, swam around nice and calm, etc.

Most fish will settle down in QT within a few days. Adding some extra PVC pieces of hiding places won't hurt either. All of my incoming fish act skittish for a couple of days whenever I approach the QT tank, and within 2 weeks they are staring back at me without swimming away. This behavior is no different than a fish placed directly into a display tank.

And I said in my quarantine book, deciding to cut the quarantine period short is a judgement call that the hobbyist has to make sometimes. I've taken fish out of QT early and I knew it was a risk. However, these fish had all been in QT for over 21 days so I felt like if something was going to show up, then it would have shown up by day 21.

I will say after having been in every fish store in town and seeing sick fish in all of them, I'd never buy any fish without quarantining it for at least 30 days and very likely prophylactically treating it as well. Once you get burned by ich or worse, marine velvet, you'll never forget it.

 

[shellynjason]

mrsaltwatertank I will take your advice (and others) and stick with QT longer then 4 days next time, and have the tank thoroughly cycled with no amn or nitrate.

Bought the fish from a local MTRC club member and pm'd him after a few days of the fish in QT , he assured we the fish was 'really healthy'. So I based my actions on a few variables. The LFS fish don't look so good to me either and I hear alot of 'ich' horror stories from them. But in the future I might buy from an online vendor which may or may not be worse then a LFS.

Guess what I was trying to find out from others is every ones threshold for the QT experience, and/or if everyone toughs it out with the stressed fish in QT for 4-8 weeks.

 

[jcdeng]

trust no one, treat every fish like as if it came from a tank full of diseases. I even QT/treat fish that came from the divers den, I QT corals/inverts in my frag tank. I am sorry but some one else's word just isn't good enough for me. I would not ripe apart my DT just to get a fish out so everything that goes in have to be as clean as possible.