QT or not QT

[mike31154]

Quarantine is insurance against mishaps, but I'm guilty of not using it as well. If you have a good handle on how your LFS or supplier handles their livestock & systems, your chances of problems are minimized, so QT may be overkill. You just never know for sure. Even QT is not an absolute guarantee against problems down the road. Some species of fish don't handle the stress of QT environment either, so may be more harm than good. Some research on the particular species is useful to determine whether it's better to QT or not. For example, I don't believe quarantining a Mandarin Dragonet is useful or beneficial. They have a particular slime coat which protects them from predation as well as disease. In addition, they need live pods to survive & stay healthy and I think it may be difficult to provide sufficient nourishment in a small QT tank. A tang on the other hand, is purportedly an ich magnet, so quarantining one of those might be a very good idea.