The cons of quarantine

[windcoast reefs]

I have had some really bad luck with quarantine tanks to, my solution was just to stop buying fish!

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by windcoast reefs

I have had some really bad luck with quarantine tanks to, my solution was just to stop buying fish!

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

[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.

[reefermadness]

Originally Posted by howdy20012002

If you don't quarantine, by the time you notice something wrong with your fish, your entire system will most likely be infected.Are you speaking from experience or just guessing?
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. I laid out some reasons but you choose to ignore them. The tank is mostly to allow the new fish to acclimate to captive life with out aggression and competition (for food) from other fish. This a lone came be life saving for some fish. 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 experience is with ICH than I say to you that even fish and systems that show no signs of ICH for years carry ICH. Also ICH will go away on its own 99% if there are no underlying factors (agression, stress, bad water quality) and the fish is eating

if you can financially afford to run a quarantine...run it.I agree....like I said best practice is a seperate system where the water quality is as good as the display....my suggestion is in second place sure but there are some obvious benefits. Also I would like to point out that a tank tied in like that adds to the water volume which is good all the time. When you do decide to buy a fish, which most of use dont know when that happens exactly, this tank is ready to be used right away
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.Be careful as copper can affect water quality
otherwise you are taking your chance everytimeseems like we are always taking chances in this hobby.

.

[howdy20012002]

I totally agree that having a separate system will allow the fish to acclimatize to the situation a lot better and will definitely help the fish make the transistion.
I am not trying to disrespect you or say that your idea doesn't have merit in that sense of acclimatizing.
what I am saying is that it will not help save your system if the fish has marine velvet or ich.
if anything, I would shut the second tank off from the main system before you add the fish and leave it shut off for the the quarantine process.
also, if the fish died during the process, make sure you just don't open the flood gates open again and bring it back into the main system until you leave it fishless for a least 6 weeks..just to make sure that if it was a parasite that killed the fish, it is not just waiting for the chance to link up with your fish in your main display.

I am speaking from experience and alot of reading.
I personally have 6 quarantine systems with over a 1000 gallons of water up and running.

According to online sources, the symptoms you notice are typically the last stages of the process.
the parasite is swimming around in your system long before you notice it unless of course you buy a fish already completely covered in the parasite.

I totally agree btw about being careful with copper..it is a very handy tool but make sure that you stay on top of it...it can kill the fish just as easily as the disease you are trying to eradicate

on another note, for those individuals that think you can't have ich free systems, I would have to disagree with you 100 percent.
i currently have the ich magnet powder blues and browns, and multiple other tangs that are not showing a single spot after their quarantining and have been placed in the main system...it is possible, but only through a proper quarantining process..

I personally am having a struggle because I don't know if I want to say the hell with it and treat all incoming fish with copper for a min 2 weeks during quarantine.
that is the only true way that I know the fish will be parasite free before adding it to my main system...
hyposalinity will work for ich, but not for marine velvet and it should be done for at a least a month...It is not financially feasible for me to quarantine fish for a month.

[daniella3d]

ONe thing that really helped my leopard wrasse to acclimate and eat well was live white worms. It's all that the fish ate at first.

[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.