Shorter Quarantine ?

[100%hydrophylic]

Ok, so my understanding of a Qt is putting a fish in a small tank for about 6 weeks so that if they have a disease it will show up in the qt and not the DT. ive heard one of the main things people worry about is ich because its life cycle on and off the fish or whatever. my question is, what if i leave a fish in a QT for a week and treat it with medicines even if it has no signs visible of ich or another disease., then put it in my DT. like can i do a general medicine for a fungus disease, and a general medicine for a bacterial disease in the QT? would this just cause more stress and do nothing at all?

[100%hydrophylic]

either my idea is stupid and i should be embarrassed for asking such an idiotic question, or people dont feel like responding......... i hope its the second one lol.

bumpity bump bump

[andyrm66]

I would wonder about the stresses the medicane puts on the fish, peven if its not sick I would the they still is some side effect, but if there isnt I see nothing wrong with your idea.

[unbreakable]

yeah i wouldnt medicate unless i had to. some fish dont react well to medications. i had my cardinal fish in observation for 3 weeks before adding him, but thats too short. i risked the health of the rest of my livestock but everything is doing well

[100%hydrophylic]

yea i was wondering mainly about the stresses. but i was just going to treat them with Quick Cure:
http://www.aquariumguys.com/quickcure1.html
and some Trisulfa or something similar like Maracyne two:
http://www.nextag.com/Mardel--2702039/brand-html (the first one)

i have never quarantined before, but i want to do my new 75g reef the correct way. i really dont want to wait 6 weeks to add a fish though.

[luther1200]

Some people believe in prophylactic treatments. I am not 1 of them. I think its just added stress, I personally wouldn't treat a fish unless I thought he had something wrong with him.

[pmrossetti]

I keep them in for 4 weeks. If they look ok I do nothing. Except feed very good food and keep good water quality. If disease then treat. But it depends on the fish. Say small firefish could be put in after 2 weeks. Tangs more prone to disease need more time. Get hard to feed fish eating right away by using brine shrimp and/or mysis treated with vitamins.

[pmrossetti]

If you're really in a hurry, observe for a week and feed well, treat for second week and add to tank.

[100%hydrophylic]

yes well, i didnt know different fish had different quarantine time. im probably going to get:

firefish
court jester goby
kaudern cardinal
yellow watchman goby
royal gramma basslet

are these "prone to disease" like tangs and need a longer quarantine, or would they be like a firefish and need only two weeks, according to pmrossetti?

[beertech]

I'm wondering if the quarantine time can be reduced for captive bred vs wild caught?

[100%hydrophylic]

i would assume it would make a difference. ive heard captive bred are tougher and more hardy in our aquariums than wild harvested specimens. but idk. i might not quarantine. im not buying any expensive show fish or anything. if something gets sick i'll quarantine it. my lfs has been really good so far about not giving me any sick fish.

[fishkid6692]

if something gets sick that means all of your fish would then be infected so you would have to quarantine all of them.

[pmrossetti]

IMHO, the fish listed are short timers.

[pmrossetti]

Hi again, For your listed I would just watch them for a week. If they look OK and are eating well, I would just add to display tank. Of course that's if display has good water quality. Feed good food.

[maroun.c]

If I was to quarantine for shorter time I wouldn't use any meds as those could hide the disease but not kill it completely and when fish goes in tank its not long before symptoms appear that is if they don't spread to other healthy fish. Preventive medication wouldn't work IMHO as you have too many things to treat for and covering all those would have side effects on fish. Keep in mind that medication is stressful on fish and if not doing a full cycle cure can lead to resisting strains of bacteria... which are harder to treat for.

[eho72]

I would not treat a fish with medication to shorten the QT period. I learned the hard way just recently. I had 4 fish in my DT and a few were showing signs of ich. I started treating them with ich medication that is not copper based directly in the DT. This is a dumb idea to begin with since my QT was not big enough to hold all the fish. At the same time, I had 2 completely healthy fish, a flame angel and Tenenni Tang in my small QT tank. I got impatient and move the 2 new fish into the DT tank and continued with the ich treatment. As soon as I added more medication, that same night both new fish died. The 4 that were already in the DT were just fine. So what I've learned is that it's best not to medicate fish that has no sign of disease because there could be stress associated with the medication. So after this episode, I went out and bought a much bigger QT tank. No more treating in my DT.

[ludnix]

Personally, if I wasn't going to wait at least 6 weeks with any fish, than I wouldn't even bother quarantining. Most quarantines are tanks that too small to house the fish long term which can cause undue stress on the fish making it more likely to suffer from an illness.

I wouldn't medicate unneccesarily for the same reason, any undue stress can be extremely detrimental to a fish's health. Saltwater fish can usually handle most parasites and illnesses on their own if given proper water conditions, good nutrition and a stress free environment.