Hey ya'll,
wondering what is everyone's experience of not quarantining fish or inverts.
wondering what is everyone's experience of not quarantining fish or inverts.
Effects of not quarantining.
- Thread starter Mackey
- Start date
As a noob, I didn’t QT fish thinking it was low risk and up until that one fish wipes out $1K in fish and some that I have had for years… yeah, I started QT’ing. That urge to put your new fish into your display went with all the lost fish.
ouch, haven't had something bad like that before but stories like these are part of the reason I'm setting up a qt tank.
what disease was it?
Velvet
From not doing proper QT I have nearly lost all my fish from Ich and Brook a few times. Ive nearly lost half my corals due to monti nudies, zoa nudies, and brown jelly. Ive introduced aptsasia, mejanos, fire worms, vermatids, and numerous other annoying critters.
If you have a smaller tank its not as big a deal as the chances are much lower. But when you get in the 180g+ range you have a lot to lose. Its not fun trying to figure out how to remove 48 fish due to an ich outbreak. And it not fun having to treat a whole tank for red bugs or flat worms and not knowing if it even worked.
Its just not worth it.
If you have a smaller tank its not as big a deal as the chances are much lower. But when you get in the 180g+ range you have a lot to lose. Its not fun trying to figure out how to remove 48 fish due to an ich outbreak. And it not fun having to treat a whole tank for red bugs or flat worms and not knowing if it even worked.
Its just not worth it.
Almost lost all my fish to not QT’ing a powder blue tang. Ended up loosing it plus a golden midus blenny we used a modified version of Humble Fish tank transfer method and saved the rest of our fish including a wrasse and a mandarin. We still are not comfortable with copper so we do a modified treatment and observation with all of our new fish.
One year into the hobby I lost all but one fish to a suspected Brook outbreak.. Went fallow for 90 days and since then every fish in all my tanks has been through quarantine with three weeks plus of copper and two treatments of Prazipro. Some sensitive fish don't make it, but the rest of my fish are safe.
I have gotten extremely lucky with saltwater fish. When I first started I was not doing any sort of fish QT at all. That was with just a few small(most likely aquacultured) fish in a 22g. When I started my inwall tank it was right after @civics14 had his velvet outbreak. After seeing what he went through I had to set up a QT before I spent the money on tangs and other sensitive fish.
Before I knew better I was told you didn't have to qt inverts. I now have Bryopsis (very hard to get rid of) and Bubble algae.
Aptasia made it through the coral qt by not being able to remove plug from Jack OLantern coral. Should have glued the entire bottom of that plug!
Aptasia made it through the coral qt by not being able to remove plug from Jack OLantern coral. Should have glued the entire bottom of that plug!
One memorable experience for me was when I worked at a fish store and took care of some clients tanks, I did a pretty big install and the guy started loading it with fish. Me and my buddy told him a few times he needed to set up a QT and take it slow to be safe but he didn’t listen. Went fine for a while, until his whole tank was wiped out. And guess what? Still didn’t want to listen to us on letting his tank run fallow for a period to make sure nothing else put into the tank kept whatever it was alive that killed all of his fish.
are all fish susceptible to brook? I thought I heard it was only clowns that were. and was it after adding fish or did it randomly show up? thx!
Hey, guys noob question but how many votes till you get an accurate sample size?
This is a topic that you will never get agreement from all hobbyist. Some are very strong believers that disease is unpreventable in a tank, therefore quarantining is unnecessary. This debate has been going on for decades since there are many successful tanks that has never used a QT. Do your research because there are pros and cons of both approach. My feedback and advice will only come from my personal loss or gains, like others.
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Upside of establishing a QT protocol: Your fish stop dying in your display tank.
Downside of establishing a QT protocol: You are out of the market for new fish. Have not bought a fish for two years. I kind of miss the days pre-QT when I'd go to the LFS 2x a month and buy fish...
Downside of establishing a QT protocol: You are out of the market for new fish. Have not bought a fish for two years. I kind of miss the days pre-QT when I'd go to the LFS 2x a month and buy fish...
