There is an inbuild risk in anything we do – what needs to is to value that risk we take. I and some other dislike QT with prophylactic treatment just in case of.....
If fish are taken from sources, you do not know anything about – it could be wise to do an observation QT for some weeks before you introduce the fish into your DT. If it does not show up any signs – you can be sure that it not bring anything into your tank – but you can´t be sure that there is not anything in your tank that can be dangerous for this new fish. Therefore – it is very wise to during the QT period slowly change the QT water to the same as you have in your DT. I think it is also important to have your QT going more or less as a normal aquarium but without gravel. Personally – I would never put up a QT from scratch when I got my new fish. Personally – I always get my fish from places there I know that the fish is healthy and only use my refugium as QT during a week or two.
I do not QT invertebrates and corals – IMO – the risk for them carrying fish diseases are very low – especially because I take them from the same sources where I get my fish from. IMO – just visit an unknown LFS is riskier – carrying home parasites and pathogens by my clothes or shoes.
IMO – the best thing to do in order to get an environment where obligate pathogens can´t survive is to create as a diverse biological (and microbial) system as possible. There should be very few places there a potential pathogen should survive.
For me – it is rather easy to see that it is very often problems in systems that not have been able to develop a large and diverse microbial fauna – the systems are too clean with other words.
It could also bee very good to have access to some equipment’s that can reduce active parasites as proper UV-C, ozone or oxydators if you plan to have sensitive species.
It is true that you can´t create an ocean in your living room but you can come rather close to it if you work in an ecological way but the trend the last 5 to 10 years seems to be the opposite – our tanks looks more and more like sterile laboratories compared with a slice of nature.
Let us see how it looks like for a wild caught fish. It will be taken up by fishermen, collecting at collecting place – transported to the export facilities – recover there for a while and after that around 48 h transport to the import facilities. Un packed – new environment – a couple of days recover and further transport to LFS, online sellers or online buyers. During this time, it can have happens that the fish have been treated for something. At last – you get the fish. This fish maybe has travelled for a month – seen a dozen of places and qualities of water – and the first you do is to treat it with chemicals – just in case of…… What the fish needs now is a calm recovery in stress free environment. Nothing else. It happens that I take fish direct from the import and let the calm down in my refugium, but it also happens that I let sensitive fish recover in my friend’s facility for some weeks before I get it home. Some fish (and it is not the ones that you think is sensitive for transports) is very sensitive to handle in long transports and need a long recovery time. There is fish that I need to see at some LFS for a month before I buy them if I can´t take the direct and only do one acclimation.
One interesting thing is that in Sweden – we have no access to all of these wonder medicines that you have – they are forbidden or not popular. It’s the same for our LFs and importers too. The logical would be that we have a much higher mortality rate of our fishes compared with you back in the US. Of some crazy reason – it looks like it is the opposite
Sincerely Lasse
