To those of you who DON'T quarantine...

[fishoholic]

I never Qt'd for the first few years of the hobby. I always thought if the store had the fish for awhile and looked healthy and was eating well then why stress it out by putting it through QT. Then a fish we bought got marine velvet and if I had of QT'd it first (the fish looked ok in the store and was eating) I wouldn't of ended up loosing 90% of the fish in my tanks and I wouldn't of had to go through the horror of watching fish I had for years die slow and horrible deaths. I also ended up having to QT the surviving fish for 8 weeks which was way more of a pain then it would of been to have QT'd the one fish that made everyone else sick. In the end out of 34 fish only 8 survived. You can read through my link to marine velvet in my sig. for all the gory details and some disturbing pic's. If that's not enough reason for QT I don't know what is.

[kien]

Ya, no QTing here either.. Gave up on it a few years ago for the same reasons mentioned by other non QTers. I do not treat my fish before putting them in. Normally a good LFS will have already treated them, made sure they eat and are generally healthy before they release them. Of course you can't always count on that which is why you have to do your part and bug the LFS. Ask them how long they've had the fish, is it eating, has it been treated at all?

In my experience even if they are healthy and eating they can still get ich once put into the Display tank. However, if you have chosen a great specimen then it is already well on its way to recovery. Just help him along with some garlic and lots of food to keep his immune system up. Sure he won't look pretty at first but they have always pulled through for me so long as I keep everything else consistant, like tank parameters etc.

[Delphinus]

My one and only foray into QT'ing new fish was a disastrous experiment. I got scared into trying the QT for fear of introducing something like velvet into the main DT after it happened to a couple friends of mine in the last year.

Before that I had always introduced new fish straight into the DT. Some would develop ich, sometimes a couple spots would spread to other fish but in 2-3 days would be gone.

I'm left wondering if my QT tank "saved" my current inhabitants, or whether the sudden jump in bioload on the QT tank simply crashed the system and left it unable to sustain fish. The latter case is clearly the more likely I would think.

So QT'ing definitely requires a bit of caution in the setup, and definitely needs slow additions as well if there isn't already a steady state cycle in place. Ie., one fish at a time .. and perhaps some long-term inhabitants in that tank as well just to keep the cycle going. Of course this means you already have a pretty good idea that the new fish is probably already healthy. If not then maybe it needs to be passed on purchase, or go into a more hospital type setup (but that may have worse consequences, I don't know).

[Leah]

I have to agree with Laurie. I am a huge fan of Seachem stability when I Q.T.

[prodogg02]

i must be lucky as in 5 years i hav never qt a fish only issue was adding a regal tank bam just like that it had ich.other than that no issues i hav no space or buget for a second sw tank.hope i dont jinks myself here.

[Atomikk]

The value of quarantining new fish gets displayed only when hobbyists encounter Marine Velvet in their reef tank. It is really unfortunate that many do not use their QTs.

I have seen it too many times, and it is really hard to understand why a simple process is not practised. A 20 gallon tank, with a trickle filter, airstone/powerhead, ammonia detector (SeaChem made), some PVC (2" or 4" cut pieces, or Ts and elbows), heater, and a light (CFL). That is it. All for under 100$.

[Albertan22]

Ok, for those that are QTing then, what kind of survival rates do you get and what are you doing to increase the fish's chances? Ken mentioned drip aclimating and using products like selcon or garlic. I haven't been using a dietary supplement, but my doomed fish have always been eating, active and healthy looking (except for the one clown with the growth). They seem to take a turn for the worse within one or two days when they die. They won't eat one day (usually around a week in), then they're dead sometime over the next two days.

The two fish that did survive through QT are thriving and have been happy as can be in my DT for many weeks now, so it's not like I can't keep saltwater fish alive...