Should I treat QT fish?

[67RedDonzi]

I have a purple Cony in my QT right now and am wondering if I should treat him with Cupramine as a preventative?
I have had him in the tank for almost 2 weeks now. He hardly ever comes out of the PVC tube. When he does its about 2 inches. I cannot get a good look at him to see if he has any parasites, though I don't think he does.

I have fed him misis shrimp, pellets, and flakes. I have not actually seen him eat but I cannot see any left overs the next day.

 

[PatW]

There are two schools of thought on this. Some people hold fish in the QT tank for about four weeks. If nothing shows, they put them in the DT. The other method is to treat everything for ICH and flukes.

The first method has a risk of infecting the display. The second method might injure the fish. I get the impression that the bigger and more valuable the display, the more likely one is to use a prophylactic treatment. For example, large public aquariums seem to treat everything because infecting the huge tank is a big risk.

 

[Reefing Madness]

QT is used for either treatment or watching the fish. I'd not treat him with anything unless its needed. Keep him in there for 4-6 weeks, watching for anything irregular in the fish in that time frame, then you have something to treat for. Im not for using anything unless its needed.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

QT is used for either treatment or watching the fish. I'd not treat him with anything unless its needed. Keep him in there for 4-6 weeks, watching for anything irregular in the fish in that time frame, then you have something to treat for. Im not for using anything unless its needed.

+1. I don't use any meds or treatment methods unless I know it is absolutely necessary.

 

[HWDylan]

I run my QT at 1.009 salinity because my fish store runs their tanks at that. This way I am treating and acclimating my fish while they are in QT. I have also off and on used Prazi-pro during QT because it is very low impact on the fish.

I do not and have never used copper in my QT. I have a bottle but it would be my last ditch effort to treat. Hypo does its job on Ich very well if you follow the guidelines and it is much less stress on the fish. It also allows you to slowly bring the salinity up to where your DT is. I don't drip acclimate anything because of this. It is nice.

 

[Dalmatia]

I run my QT at 1.009 salinity because my fish store runs their tanks at that. This way I am treating and acclimating my fish while they are in QT. I have also off and on used Prazi-pro during QT because it is very low impact on the fish.

I do not and have never used copper in my QT. I have a bottle but it would be my last ditch effort to treat. Hypo does its job on Ich very well if you follow the guidelines and it is much less stress on the fish. It also allows you to slowly bring the salinity up to where your DT is. I don't drip acclimate anything because of this. It is nice.

+++

 

[67RedDonzi]

My LFS has their salinity at 1.023 (which is where my display tank and QT are at) Would I want to acclimate the fish to the QT and then slowly drop the salinity? What is the best way to do this?

 

[Palting]

My LFS has their salinity at 1.023 (which is where my display tank and QT are at) Would I want to acclimate the fish to the QT and then slowly drop the salinity? What is the best way to do this?

Are you talking about doing hyposalinity treatment? If your LFS salinity and your QT salinity match, basically just temp acclimate the fishbag for about 15 minutes, then release the fish. I would leave the salinity where it's at for 48 hours or so to let the fish settle in. After that, you can drop the salinity down to 1.009 over a 24-48 hour period by replacing some of the tank water with RODI water. Fish tolerate salinity drop well. It's raising the salinity back up when you are done that needs to be done slowly.

I treat all new fish with hyposalinity for 3 very good reasons. Good reasons to me, anyway.
1. I had a tank with 11 fish develop Ich despite "observing" all fish or 4 weeks and had to treat tank and fish. Never again.
2. Ich can reside unseen in the fish, and the carrier fish can look and act perfectly healthy.
3. I am not a fish disease expert, and I suspect most of us are not either. I do not trust myself to detect and diagnose subtle findings that indicate disease. Sure, if it's glaringly obvious, I'll know it, but what if it's subtle?

 

[HWDylan]

What Palting said. You can drop salinity rapidly with no problems. I have even put fish from 1.025 straight into 1.009 before with no problems. I dont recommend it though.

Always keep your QT as close to LFS water as possible and change things once the fish are in the QT tank.

 

[Bry]

I treat all new fish with hyposalinity for 3 very good reasons. Good reasons to me, anyway.
1. I had a tank with 11 fish develop Ich despite "observing" all fish or 4 weeks and had to treat tank and fish. Never again.
2. Ich can reside unseen in the fish, and the carrier fish can look and act perfectly healthy.
3. I am not a fish disease expert, and I suspect most of us are not either. I do not trust myself to detect and diagnose subtle findings that indicate disease. Sure, if it's glaringly obvious, I'll know it, but what if it's subtle?

+1 I've been down the road where I had to let me Display tank sit fallow for 10 weeks. Nothing worse than watching your tank sit without fish while they are all crammed into a Hospital tank being treated at once. Much easier to treat one or 2 new fish at a time. Better safe than sorry IMHO

 

[ks_reeftank]

I treat all with cupramine. Then after that soak shrimp in prazi pro a few times. Look for any bacteria problems, treat that if needed. Whether they look like they need it or not. I dont do any 2 treatments at the same time though