The cons of quarantine

[Reef Pilot]

Even after QT, I had an ich outbreak this summer. I had bought some new fish and a couple conch snails a couple months before and put them all in my QT tank for a month. Everyone looked good, fishing eating well, so I added them to my display tank.

About a month after that, I noticed some scratching and flashing with a couple of my fish. Unfortunately, I was away a lot this summer, and not in a good position to fight the disease in the best way possible. Most of my fish caught the ich, and two ended up dying (my long lived Copperband, and a Royal Gramma). Ironically, none of the new fish died or even displayed symptoms. Also, I have a very old Yellow Tang (10+ years) that did not show any symptoms either. I thought they were supposed to be more susceptible, but obviously not this one.

Thankfully now, my tank has recovered and all the fish are fine. I have some other butterfly fish (Pearlescales) that had it pretty bad, and thought I might lose them, but they also pulled through. The infected fish never did stop feeding, and I think that helped them fight the disease.

In the past, when I QT'ed new fish, I put them through the hyposalinity routine, with 100% success. This time because I had the conch snails, I couldn't do that. Obviously, the new fish (gobies) were carriers, even though they didn't show symptoms in the QT.

Anyway, another lesson for me. Despite all my past preaching about QT, I still got caught. I guess I will just have to be more careful. And summer, or late spring, is not a good time for me to acquire any new livestock.

[daniella3d]

I did a quarantine on a leopard wrasse for 6 weeks in a 15 gallons tank, a little bit of sand and some pieces of cured totoka liverock. No problem.

Was it really ammonia that killed your fish? if you tested for ammonia and it was very high then yes your QT water is not set up properly and is responsible for the death of the fish...

but if you did not have ammonia in the tank and the fish died, there was something else, maybe a parasite on the gills? What do you think the wrasse died from?

Was the fish eating well?

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Agreed, although my collection still wants a leopard wrasse and anachilles tang. Once I've got those, I'm done.

[howdy20012002]

If you don't quarantine, by the time you notice something wrong with your fish, your entire system will most likely be infected.
turning the second tank off from the system will not work as it will already be too late. Therefore, there is absolutely no point in having a second tank attached to your main system as a quarantine. Parasites will swim around the water, find the overflow and be in the other tank in no time.

appearance of a fish means nothing...fish can show absolutely no signs of illness and then be dead within 48 hours.
Fish that die from marine velvet often don't even show signs.
those that do show signs, by the time they do it is often too late for treatment unless you agressively treat with copper.

The store could have the fish for months..but what else have they recently added to the same system.
there are too many variables for you to know the status of fish that you are buying out of most fish stores unless they have separated the fish and quarantined them for at least 3 weeks and not added anything else that hasn't been quarantined.

I have had fish come in...be fine in quarantine for 2 weeks..just about to put them into one of my main system and all of a sudden they have ich.

if you can financially afford to run a quarantine...run it.
realistically, to be completely sure that your fish doesn't have something you miss, you should treat the quarantine with copper or by hypsolanity.
both should be done for at least 4 weeks, if not 6 weeks to make sure that you have a parasite free fish.
otherwise you are taking your chance everytime.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Was it really ammonia that killed your fish? if you tested for ammonia and it was very high then yes your QT water is not set up properly and is responsible for the death of the fish...

Was the fish eating well?

No, no ammonia, 100% of the water was new. The fish had only arrived 2 days earlier at the LFS and not eating yet, it had buried in the sand in a small container we had put it in. I thought taking home to a larger tank with rock would help, but apparently not. It was on it's side when I got it home, and never recovered.
My previous wrasse behaved the same, but came out of the sand in a day or two and was fine after that.
I find these are timid fish to acclimate, and the LFS only has larger gravel in the fish tanks, so it wouldn't be able to bury itself in there well.

As for the QT tank, not sure if it's too new or not, but I was rushing around getting it set up Friday night. Now I'll just keep a spare tank running and use it to acclimate new fish and hold surplus corals. If I have to treat the fish, I'll move it to a smaller treatment tank.

[howdy20012002]

Not that it helps at all, but in my experience, wrasses can be 50/50 whether or not they will make the transistion from the ocean to the tank.
unfortunately a lot more of them don't make it than we would like to admit.
It probably wasn't anything you did or could have done differently.
just not a really hardy species over all.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by howdy20012002

Not that it helps at all, but in my experience, wrasses can be 50/50 whether or not they will make the transistion from the ocean to the tank.
unfortunately a lot more of them don't make it than we would like to admit.
It probably wasn't anything you did or could have done differently.
just not a really hardy species over all.

Agreed, they don't land well. I know the risk, so it's a custom order, next one I'll take in the bag so it only has one transition to make. This one was starting to come around in the store, moving it again so soon probably pushed it over the edge. But I can't help but think that a nice peaceful 50g all to itself with lots of sand and hiding spots would have helped. Next one I'll be more prepared.

[Ram3500]

* * * This posts so touches home rite now . Three week ago I picked up a barnacle blennie . Did I Qt him no why would I do that I have been running for four years never seen a spot on a fish.
* * * *A week later in the morning I find my lawnmower blennie who we have had for two years dead in the tank. I assumed he died do to a lack of food in the tank . I tried to feed him all sorts of food but he would only eat off *he rocks and glass we called him the sea monster .
* * Three day after that I noticed my cleaned wrasse all over my scopas tang . After a closer inspection I could see white spots . The next day I could see my mimic tang looked ill almost like he was loosing weight . So set up a qt tank to medicate with copper.
* * This is where I made a mistake . I removed my mimic and the scopas to treat them with copper . The next day my prize mimic tang was dead . I loved this fish he was the second fish we added to our tank about four years ago . My five year old son named him Big Bird when he was three .
* * *Yesterday my wife called me when I was at work to tell me the barnacle blennie was dead and our white cheek tang was covered in white spots . So on the way home from work I got the biggest uv sterilizer money could buy . I removed all my rocks from my tank and put all the fish in the qt tank except for the Mandarin.
* * Sadly this morning I lost the white cheek tang this really hit hard he was the coolest fish . All my other fish appear to be ick free but I will treat the in the qt tank until Saturday when I will have to add the add them back to the Display tank .
* * This is where things get scary on the 29 of October I am going to Maui for a week . I have a good friend watching the tank but he has only fresh water experience .
* * Will I ever add a fish with out qt again ? Not in a million years . I bought a $30.00 blennie and it cost me easily $130 in live stock. Beautiful full grown fish . And I have added a $ 230 bandage uv sterilizer in hopes it will contain the outbreak .
* *Please don't gamble all it takes Is one ick carrier fish to destroy a thriving Eco system . I pray that the uv works when I am away.*

[The Guy]

I believe UV sterilizers help with ick and have one on all my tanks. Some people say they are not effective, but i think they are a good thing to have and have had no problems so far. The amount of flow is very important for parisites low flow with a high dwell time is the best for IMO.

[kien]

To set up a QT tank in a pinch I just take live rock and some water out of my display tank and put it in the QT tank.

I haven't purchased a fish in ages but I usually play it by ear. A combination of factors like how fragile I think the fish is, how healthy I think the fish is and how healthy I think his previous tank mates were, etc. Either way, it's a total crap shoot, unfortunately.

EDIT: And by "display tank" I mean my sump. I have a pile of live rock down there that's handy for QT tanks.

[Enigma]

My QTs have been hit and miss. I lost one fish during QT, and I've abruptly ended two QTs well ahead of schedule: one due to the fish's behavior in the QT, and one due to a major ammonia spike (getting that fish into the display was how I chose to deal with the situation). I'll keep doing it, but I am a bit apprehensive about it, now.