Quarantine Poll
 

Do you quarantine all new fish? And do you preventatively treat with any meds, hyposalinity, or freshwater dip?

I quarantine everything 3-4 weeks.

the one time I didnt QT I got ich.

so lesson learned is... use the QT

I haven't quarantined anything yet and I have been very lucky and got away with it. In future if i ever get any more fish i will quarantine them. I like the fish i have now too much to risk.

Re: Quarantine Poll
 

For many years, I rarely QTed anything and was pretty freaking lucky. However, since starting up our 72g last July, we've had nothing but trouble with our fish. Am now QTing EVERYTHING for 6 weeks or longer, and treating only when necessary.

My plan for my new tank will be to quarantine everything for one month. I am also considering doing a freshwater dip routinely and also running hyposalinity for part of the quarantine period.

Any advice on this particularly from people who have worked in retail/wholesale fish sales would be appreciated.

I QT for about 1 month,I feel in this time the fish is no longer stressed from being captured and transported who knows how many times before getting to your home.You can keep an eye on it easier in QT than you can when its hidding in your main tank, and catch any health problems and deal with them more effectivly.I dont medicate unless theres a problem,I dont see any reason to add more stress.QT is a good place to fatten up the fish and make sure its strong and healthy before puting it into the main tank where it has to compete for food and territory.Besides cant have an empty tank in the house .

I have to honestly say I never quarantined. Then I bought a Yellow Eyed Tang. It brought a horrible disease to my tank. I am still not sure what it was. However, the result was a dead Royal Grama, and a Bicolor Blenny. My Six Line Wrasse, Mandarin, and Yellow Goby escaped unhurt. I now have a 15 gallon tank all set up, and I will quarantine the next fish I get fo a month at least. :redface:

Bob (and other skimmerless, sumpless people trying to keep larger fish), you have to do something about oxygenation in your tank. A ripple on the surface just won't do it. Sorry, but I know this to be true.

I learned that lesson early on Deb. My tank originally started off with just powerheads and internal fluval rippling the surface. The clowns and mandarin and inverts and corals were all fine. Then I started adding oxygen-demanding fish and had problems. Added a new jawfish; dead next week. Added another; dead next week. Added a flame angel, dead next week. Added a tang; dead next week. Added a replacement tang; dead next week. It was depressing. All those fish were perfectly healthy when I bought them. My water parameters (ammonia, nitrate, etc) were great. Then I added a skimmer and added a tang again; alive next week, alive next month, alive next year. Added a flame angel; alive next week, alive next month, alive next year. No more mysterious deaths.

boB had ich brought into his tank by the tang which is what killed his fish. Don't know about how much water circulation he has in his sumpless, skimmerless tanks, but in mine, I run as many high powered powerheads as my tanks can take without everything blowing to kingdom come. Didn't have to learn it the hard way, either. Just read books on how much flow certain corals needed and went from there.