Might have to eat my own words re: quarantine

[George]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I'm in the same position. Even if I had quarantined, I would have put the fish in the main tank after a month. He didn't get sick until 5 or 6 weeks, so this still would have happened.

You can prevent it by doing proper quarantine. Many people quarantine their fish for 2+ months. During this period, many people also do prophylactic treatment. One of my favorite is hypo for 4+ weeks, prazi-pro for a couple weeks, and then a couple weeks of observation.
Fish can live for years. I don't know why we can't wait a couple months before we put them in DT.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by George

You can prevent it by doing proper quarantine. Many people quarantine their fish for 2+ months. During this period, many people also do prophylactic treatment. One of my favorite is hypo for 4+ weeks, prazi-pro for a couple weeks, and then a couple weeks of observation.
Fish can live for years. I don't know why we can't wait a couple months before we put them in DT.

Ya, 2 months of quarantine means yet another tank in the kitchen, which reduces the likelihood of me living many years...

Fish can live for years, and I've had some 10yrs + without quarantine. I "quarantine" anything new, but anything new will be while I have the current treatment tank up. After that, nothing new goes in.

[Reef Pilot]

I now always quarantine for 2 - 3 months. My last 2 times, lasted 3 months in total each. It takes that long just to go through the hypo salinity routine (which I now do whether or not the fish looks sick). Plus that time is well spent getting your new fish feeding well, and being strong before having to face their new tank mates in the display tank.

I have a QT ready to go all the time now, with a canister filter that is fully cycled. I change water using my used display tank water, so no extra salt costs.

It can also be connected directly to my DT and used as a refugium. At the moment, actually, I am using it to cure/cook some new rock. So always handy to have a spare tank ready to go when you need it.

I learned my lesson a year and half ago, and don't want to have to go through that again. I can't afford to risk my display tank, and have to tear it apart to catch fish that are sick.

[daniella3d]

That's not usual and surely not any excuse for not doing a proper quarantine. Usually it is quite obvious if there is a disease after 3 to 4 weeks. Of course to be safer is to leave the fish for 6 to 8 weeks, but if there is a disease it is a lot more common to come out after a week to 3 weeks.

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I'm in the same position. Even if I had quarantined, I would have put the fish in the main tank after a month. He didn't get sick until 5 or 6 weeks, so this still would have happened.

[MKLKT]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

That's not usual and surely not any excuse for not doing a proper quarantine. Usually it is quite obvious if there is a disease after 3 to 4 weeks. Of course to be safer is to leave the fish for 6 to 8 weeks, but if there is a disease it is a lot more common to come out after a week to 3 weeks.

Unfortunately that didn't apply to me, haven't had a new fish in about a year. After losing the first two and starting to feed metro/focus/garlic combo it's been stable, going to run the full course and hopefully that's the extent of it.

[edit] Checked on the tank today, no new deaths and the damsel has probably 80% colour back after being almost white. Foxface seems less bothered and the spots are easing up. I'm cautiously optimistic. The skimmer went nuts though, haha.

[daniella3d]

That's probably because you had ick in your tank and never treated it and it was just in a state of low infection so not visible, so when the fish are stressed it all come out, even if it takes a year.

Once you got ick in your tank and if you don't treat for it, it won't go away on its own and will eventually return, as you noticed.

Obviously parasites don't come out of nowhere, but they can also come on corals and frags..this is why I desinfect all my corals.

Originally Posted by MKLKT

Unfortunately that didn't apply to me, haven't had a new fish in about a year. After losing the first two and starting to feed metro/focus/garlic combo it's been stable, going to run the full course and hopefully that's the extent of it.

[edit] Checked on the tank today, no new deaths and the damsel has probably 80% colour back after being almost white. Foxface seems less bothered and the spots are easing up. I'm cautiously optimistic. The skimmer went nuts though, haha.