Basic Quarantine FAQ's

[TampaReefer79]

Guess you can't bump a sticky. LMAO I couldn't find it for the LONGEST time and I KNEW I had brought it to the top... hahaha

[Orcrone]

I use a sponge filter (or two) in my QTs and have a question regarding the tossing of the sponge after use in the QT. If I have disease or medication in the QT then the sponge gets tossed. But if there's no disease or treatment the sponge winds up back in the DT's sump. Does anyone see any problems with that?

[Orcrone]

Reading through this thread again I have a couple of other comments. If you're quarantining fish because they have the same malady then it's OK to quarantine & treat them in the same tank. However, if you're bringing home new fish for your DT I'd recommend against that. The idea of a QT in that case is to observe the fish and TREAT them in the tank if there's any issues. If you put two fish in a QT then you'd have to treat them both if only one fish has a problem. And what happens if they get more than one malady; one gets a fungal and the other gets a bacterial infection.

Also, I have to agree with RBU1 about 2 weeks begin too short a period to quarantine new specimens. I think specifically of ich. The life cycle of the parasite is such that the fish can have ich but not show signs during that two week period. Also invertebrates, although not susceptable to ich, can arrive with the parasite in the water. Two weeks would not be long enough for the parasites to die off because of no host. I prefer six weeks to quarantine new specimens. JMHO

[Jacob D]

Originally Posted by Orcrone

Reading through this thread again I have a couple of other comments. If you're quarantining fish because they have the same malady then it's OK to quarantine & treat them in the same tank. However, if you're bringing home new fish for your DT I'd recommend against that. The idea of a QT in that case is to observe the fish and TREAT them in the tank if there's any issues. If you put two fish in a QT then you'd have to treat them both if only one fish has a problem. And what happens if they get more than one malady; one gets a fungal and the other gets a bacterial infection.

Also, I have to agree with RBU1 about 2 weeks begin too short a period to quarantine new specimens. I think specifically of ich. The life cycle of the parasite is such that the fish can have ich but not show signs during that two week period. Also invertebrates, although not susceptable to ich, can arrive with the parasite in the water. Two weeks would not be long enough for the parasites to die off because of no host. I prefer six weeks to quarantine new specimens. JMHO

I agree with all of the above. I guess my earlier post about 2 weeks is misleading in that I only meant for observation, but even in that sense 2 weeks might not be long enough. I do think this is a good start though, especially for people who have a somewhat established system (which is most likely not ich free) and who are getting their feet wet with QT. For those wanting (or trying to preserve) an Ich Free tank it is not the way to go.

I don't think I have quarantined any fish in my current system for less than 5 weeks. My usual protocol for fish is something like this:

1) Get fish acclimated to the QT and eating for 2 weeks.
2) If problems arise treat as necessary.
3) If no problems arise treat for flukes and "worms" with Prazipro for 5 days.
4) Recovery period of 1 week
5) Second round of Prazipro (plus recovery) if flukes were seen initially, otherwise introduce to display tank.


...and for full disclosure, I don't treat for Ich unless I see it. Although I have never seen Ich in my display tank I don't assume that it is "Ich Free". I had one incident that left the door open to the possibility for Ich to be there so I no longer have any reason to attempt an Ich free tank. If I see signs of Ich (which can most of the time be seen by 4 weeks) I'll treat it. When I quarantine corals, inverts, and substrate I QT if for 8 weeks (in fact my "one incident" mentioned above was from inadequately quarantined substrate). If you work out the lifecycle according to recent information on the subject there is still room for error even at 6 weeks.

In summary, I would tend to agree that 4-6 weeks is a better time frame for quarantine if no parasite/disease is observed. For someone who is striving for an ich free tank there is no room for error and the quarantine period should be 8-12 weeks (from the last observed incidence of the parasite) for everything that will go into the display tank.

[Orcrone]

Jacob,

All sounds good to me. With this hobby there's no such thing as "too conservative". I didn't "bother" with the hassle of quarantining fish. Everything was great for a couple of years until ich showed up. Lost about half my fish. Wound up moving them to a 55 gallon hospital tank, treated them with copper and let the DT sit empty for 9 weeks. In the meanwhile I wound up doing massive water changes in the hospital tank to keep the ammonia in check as the tank had not cycled. Not fun at all.

Learned my lesson from that experience. Now nothing goes into the tank without being properly quarantined. And I know even at that I'm only reducing, but not eliminating my chances of introducing parasites and disease.

I'm hoping after the nine weeks of sitting empty that my DT was ich free and that I've done nothing since then to reintroduce it.

On another note I haven't used PraziPro, but after doing some research I'm going to add that to my procedure.

[rfalvey89]

Great thread.

Terrible Question : What size QT ?.
My Display will be a 90. I am thinking about some smaller sized fish
Lamarck's Angelfish ,pair of clowns ( Clarkii ,percs ) maybe a Blenny
...so I would like to get those fish in stages and then QT but dont want them to be stressed by the size of the tank.
I was going to do a 29 gal , black-out the sides and back with some PVC , Koralia-1 & a HOB Penguin with a bag of liverock from the DT that is seeded. heater of course...

sound right ?
or am I way off?

[RBU1]

Size of the QT kind of depends on what size fish you are getting. I would say a 30 long is the perfect size QT. You can also use a 20 or a 10 for that matter. Filtration, flow and an airstone are important in my opinion. My Achilles Hybrid is in a 30L.

[padova335i]

hey guys.. i do qt all my fish, never used prazipro.. can i use that in my qt and then all u do is wait 5 days? and you can still keep them in that tank? or does that tank water become "bad" because of that medication?

am i making sense?

[wesley6610]

If you have medicine in your qt tank, it now becomes a hospital tank. If you want it to become simply a QT again, you must run either carbon to clean it or break it down and thoroughly wash it out.

[padova335i]

Originally Posted by wesley6610

If you have medicine in your qt tank, it now becomes a hospital tank. If you want it to become simply a QT again, you must run either carbon to clean it or break it down and thoroughly wash it out.

i see, so how necessary is it to run this medication for fish that we "see" are healthy.. i guess to each their own, or are some fish more prone than others?

[Jacob D]

Originally Posted by padova335i

hey guys.. i do qt all my fish, never used prazipro.. can i use that in my qt and then all u do is wait 5 days? and you can still keep them in that tank? or does that tank water become "bad" because of that medication?

Always follow manufacturer directions when it comes to using medication. I'm not looking at the bottle right now but I believe Hikari recommends 5-7 days as the treatment duration. After this you should remove the medication from the water with any combination of skimming, carbon, water change. The water isn't necessarily 'bad' but the fish shouldn't be put through treatment longer than necessary.

I always use Prazipro during quarantine to treat for flukes and certain internal parasites that might (or might not) be present. It's a relatively "safe" treatment. Usually 1 week of recovery follows the treatment before any further treatments are done and/or the fish is moved to the display tank.

Originally Posted by padova335i

i see, so how necessary is it to run this medication for fish that we "see" are healthy.. i guess to each their own, or are some fish more prone than others?

My personal opinion is that what we see with our eyes is only part of the truth when it comes to fish disease/parasites. Sometimes we can miss something obvious (everyone makes mistakes) other times a problem can be hidden out of sight, internal parasites especially. When you treat for something unseen it is called prophylactic treatment. What you treat for prophylactically is up to you. Probably the most common prophylactic treatments are some form of copper (such as Cupramine) for Ich, and some form of Praziquantel (such as Prazipro) for flukes and internal parasites.

Some fish may become stressed more easily than others for a variety of reasons. Some fish also don't tolerate certain medications as well as others. This is why it's important to know the specifics of each fish you plan to add *before* making a purchase.

[wesley6610]

Agreed. Also, for my own personal knowledge, can anyone point me in the direction of an article that list the types of fish and what medications you can and can't use on them? I'm interested in Gobies, but some articles say they are immune and others, you never know...where can I go to see what's what on each species and if medication is needed, what kind will be best and safest for them?

[wakeboardgeek]

Any benefit to hypo-salinity quarantine (1.021)?

[amheck]

I thought hypo-salinity was down near 1.009?

[RBU1]

1.008 is better

[hottuna]

You need to be careful with low salinity...fish tend to contract uronema more easily in low saline conditions...especially butterfly fish & chromis...

[attaboy]

I have read that ich can be present on fish and not be seen. Why would you not treat all fish in QT with copper to be sure you arent' introducing ich to the DT? I get it adds a bit of stress, but that would be better than risking ICH.

[skimeister56]

I lot of good information here but I am unclear on a couple of things. The first is QT tank size. it is stated above that your QT tank should be the "large enough to permanently meet the needs of your largest fish. Realistically, as close to that size as you have room for".

So It you would want almost any Tang would need a 6 foot long tank? But from reading most peoples QT tank tend to be much smaller, if this was for a week or two maybe would not be a problem but sounds like the recommended QT times are more on the order of 8 weeks. Is it okay to have a fish for that long in too small of a tank.

Also do more people than not use a week or two of Prazi? What about hypo treatment?

Thanks in advance,

[Bozad]

I have a Clown Tang that has cloudy blotches on his fins. He's losing his appetite. I thought it might be Velvet but I have never seen it before. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[attaboy]

A number of folks suggest 8 weeks in QT. That means over the course of a year you can QT and introduce 6 fish into the display tank. Wow, that would take years and years to stock a large reef. Do people then have multiple QT systems or do they QT multiple fish at the same time?

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by Bozad

I have a Clown Tang that has cloudy blotches on his fins. He's losing his appetite. I thought it might be Velvet but I have never seen it before. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best to post as a separate thread in Fish Diseases. You might also read my blog on velvet.

[Agioniko]

What about doing a ph/temp adjusted Fresh water dip on all new fish?
Hoe long would you do them for larger fish is 20 minutes to long. i know this is relative, but assume they are not thrashing around, and that they are not lying on their sides?

[Reefing Newbie]

Is it okay to use a different brand of salt on your QT than you use for your DT? If I could I would prefer to use IO or RC for the QT tank so I can keep the more expensive Red Sea Coral Pro for my DT.

[b0bab0ey]

Originally Posted by Reefing Newbie

Is it okay to use a different brand of salt on your QT than you use for your DT? If I could I would prefer to use IO or RC for the QT tank so I can keep the more expensive Red Sea Coral Pro for my DT.

That's exactly what I do - IO for my fish QT, Oceanic for my reef DT. No issues.

[Reefing Newbie]

Thanks. Using the tank transfer would get quite costly otherwise. I didn't want to do this and end up harming all of my fish.