The need to quarantine fish?

[Tony888]

Hi Everyone,

I'm fairly new to the hobby and my tank is 3 weeks old. The corals that I just recently added are doing well. I did my first water change last week and my param looks good. I'm planning to add a two fish next month. What are some steps I need to take before I add the to fishies to the DT? I heard that many people quarantine fish for a period of time to monitor diseases and pest. Please advise.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hi Everyone,

I'm fairly new to the hobby and my tank is 3 weeks old. The corals that I just recently added are doing well. I did my first water change last week and my param looks good. I'm planning to add a two fish next month. What are some steps I need to take before I add the to fishies to the DT? I heard that many people quarantine fish for a period of time to monitor diseases and pest. Please advise.

You always want to quarantine first prior to adding them to your display tank. Saves from the headache later on. Give this thread by brew12 a read. Has lots of great info in it

 

[JonPhillips]

Hi Everyone,

I'm fairly new to the hobby and my tank is 3 weeks old. The corals that I just recently added are doing well. I did my first water change last week and my param looks good. I'm planning to add a two fish next month. What are some steps I need to take before I add the to fishies to the DT? I heard that many people quarantine fish for a period of time to monitor diseases and pest. Please advise.

Quarantine can also add stress and exasperate some diseases that feed on weakened fish. I personally don’t. I do dip corals.

 

[Sallstrom]

Hi Everyone,

I'm fairly new to the hobby and my tank is 3 weeks old. The corals that I just recently added are doing well. I did my first water change last week and my param looks good. I'm planning to add a two fish next month. What are some steps I need to take before I add the to fishies to the DT? I heard that many people quarantine fish for a period of time to monitor diseases and pest. Please advise.

Quarantine could be a great thing, but it could also cause extra stress to the new fish. You could ask yourself if you have a good enough QT/quarantine system to keep the fish happy or if they will have a better chance if they go directly into the display tank.

Just some thoughts Good luck

/ David

 

[hdsoftail1065]

+1 on Crabs Mcjones response. We didn't QT and paid the price, nothing is more boring than watching your CuC, rock and corals for 76 days because of that one sick fish you introduced that carried a disease and took out all of your fish. An ounce of prevention....

 

[Aaron-A2]

I'm currently letting my tank go fallow because I was nervous about proactively treating my angels with copper. Never again. You should not only setup a QT, but proactively treat fish with medication. There are threads in the disease subforum that can help you in that regard.

 

[mrpizzaface]

You always want to quarantine first prior to adding them to your display tank. Saves from the headache later on. Give this thread by brew12 a read. Has lots of great info in it

The linked thread on quarantine for fish is a great read. Others also recommend quarantine for all coral and inverts. here is a great thread by @melypr1985 https://bit.ly/2JxOyuk

 

[mckinney0171]

it's a risk that some of us take (I don't quarantine) out of necessity. I would quarantine if I had the means to do so. But, I roll the dice every time I add a new fish. If you can do it you should quarantine.

 

[Robink]

I used to not quarantine... Since I moved and started the tank all over I quarantine all the fish. Haven't had a death in the display since. Have lost a few during the quarantine process.

 

[themcfreak]

I quarantine now! I never have, but I introduced ich/velvet into my tank and so all of my fish are currently in a QT and main tank is going fallow until mid August. So I will always quarantine everything from now on, to prevent having to get every single fish out of tank again (I had to pull all rock out to get engineer goby).

Also, your tank is 3 weeks old with coral? I would advise not adding anything else for a couple of months. Your cycle can't be done yet, and adding livestock is likely going to end in loss if you aren't careful

 

[Swoody]

I never quarantined in the past and I suppose I got lucky especially reading all the horrible threads about people losing their entire system due to one fish introduced with velvet. You could literally watch years of hard work go down the drain or you could roll the dice and get lucky like I did. I can tell you this..... any fish that goes into my system from here on out will be quarantined, not necessarily treated with anything stronger than Prazipro until I see the need to, But they certainly will be placed in an observation tank.

 

[KDG730]

To those in here that say they don't quarantine...What other measures do you/can I take to make disease less likely in your setup? I don't think setting up a solid QT will be an option for me due to space and budget. I'm worried I might end up killing fish by putting them in a lackluster QT as opposed to directly into the DT

@JonPhillips @mckinney0171

 

[mckinney0171]

To those in here that say they don't quarantine...What other measures do you/can I take to make disease less likely in your setup? I don't think setting up a solid QT will be an option for me due to space and budget. I'm worried I might end up killing fish by putting them in a lackluster QT as opposed to directly into the DT

@JonPhillips @mckinney0171

Well not much other than buying from reputable places like divers den for fish and battlecorals for coral. I feed my fish heavily and always use selcon to keep their immune systems up. I have found that well fed fish with selcon can fight off most anything.

 

[KDG730]

Well not much other than buying from reputable places like divers den for fish and battlecorals for coral. I feed my fish heavily and always use selcon to keep their immune systems up. I have found that well fed fish with selcon can fight off most anything.

Thank you. Its good to know others don't QT and have had success. I know it only takes one time to ruin a whole set up but I just don't think QT will be a good option for me

 

[Robink]

I used to not QT and it was always a 50/50 chance that one fish would wipe out everyone. I had that happen several times. The worst was when I had a new group of gorgeous tangs. Whatever came in on one of them, thought it was ick at the time, but looking back could have been velvet, killed everyone except one green chromis. I was most upset about my maroon clown that I'd had for over 5 years. Needless to say I did not buy any fish for about a year I was so disgusted.
So since I've set up this current tank I have run everyone through a 10 gallon qt tank that was in the garage and when cold outside sits on my kitchen counter. Has a hob filter a small circulation pump and a heater. I have had no deaths in my tank due to any kind of disease or parasite and my fish look great. It is a pain to have the qt tank but I do think it's worth the hassle.
I just added the last fish to the tank and am happy to have my kitchen counter back!

 

[JonPhillips]

Well not much other than buying from reputable places like divers den for fish and battlecorals for coral. I feed my fish heavily and always use selcon to keep their immune systems up. I have found that well fed fish with selcon can fight off most anything.

+1 on feeding well and general good tank husbandry/hygene. In general, I would just say stock your tank all at once and be done. Don’t add a fish here from this store, grab another one a few months later from across town, etc. You really are rolling the dice any time you add a single fish to your DT. Some people get into rescuing sick fish from fish stores for a discounted price and that’s fine. They like to medicate them, nurse them slowly back to health, and then add them to the display. In that case your QT better be spot on, up and running all the time, etc. Now myself personally I do have a few tanks, heaters, filters, odds and ends laying around that I could set up as a hospital tank which I think is different than QT. A hospital tank for me would be a personal call (have never used one). Have lost fish, but nothing catastrophic. That might be a good go between for you. You do want to think “how do I save everything in the event of a leak/crash”. Walmart ain’t open at 3AM...(all my stuff would go into giant brute trash cans hey not the prettiest but it would get the job done) Have access to water and supplies in a pinch in case there was something that you’d go out of your way to save in an emergency. Otherwise, just know and understand everything could be gone tommorow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Don’t add fish slowly. Just stock the booger and start water changes. (Coral doesn’t carry ich I do dip coral...sometimes)

Find a fish vendor you trust. Have only done clean up crew and coral through mail order. I like to watch the fish swimming. If you see any weird signs of fish health, walk away even if you want the fish. Just use common sense with LFS. You’ll know pretty quick upon walking in if they take care of their stuff, or if they don’t have a clue.

Cheers,

Jon

 

[scott11106]

you will have many opinions, i have been watching and asking this very question for over a year as i built my system and the majority have and use a QT for all fish, only some of those do anything with coral (dip if anything) so i decided to have a dedicated QT and it is going well. Ultimately i would do with what you think is best but either QT all fish or none as if you only do it sometimes then i would not do it at all.

If you do use a QT i will warn you that it is very hard to buy the fish and not be able to have them in main display for 20-30 days but one sick fish would make it worth it.

my opinion,,..