90 Days of Quarantine - A Diary

[Dom]

Yes, I understand that 90 days are more than required. But this is what has worked for me since getting involved in the hobby.

Today, I started acclimation and quarantine of a Valentini/Saddleback puffer.

The Fish: A Saddleback/Valentini approximately 4 inches. The sex is undetermined at this time, but I believe it is a female. The bag salinity is 45 ppt with a temperature of 70 degrees.

The Quarantine Tank: A 15 gallon display with a 10 gallon sump. It is equipped with live rock, some PVC for hiding and Current LOOP IC at 10%. Salinity 35ppt. Temp 76 degrees.

 

[Nano_Man]

Yes, I understand that 90 days are more than required. But this is what has worked for me since getting involved in the hobby.

Today, I started acclimation and quarantine of a Valentini/Saddleback puffer.

The Fish: A Saddleback/Valentini approximately 4 inches. The sex is undetermined at this time, but I believe it is a female. The bag salinity is 45 ppt with a temperature of 70 degrees.

The Quarantine Tank: A 15 gallon display with a 10 gallon sump. It is equipped with live rock, some PVC for hiding and Current LOOP IC at 10%. Salinity 35ppt. Temp 76 degrees.

Looks like you have it all sorted

 

[Dom]

Looks like you have it all sorted

Perhaps. I balanced the salinity and temperature in the bag to the tank. It has been in the tank now for an hour.

This is how he's looking at the moment...

I attribute this to the new and unfamiliar environment. Just laying there for now, but his fins are active as if he were swimming around. Lets see what he looks like in the morning.

 

[Dom]

Things are going well. The Saddleback seems to be happy. It has settled into the QT; both exploring and eating when fed.

I am strictly observation in my QT. I monitor for disease, but I do not treat proactively. It doesn't make sense to me that I should spend money medicating a fish that doesn't need it.

If signs of disease begin to present, then I'll treat.

 

[DarylB924]

Things are going well. The Saddleback seems to be happy. It has settled into the QT; both exploring and eating when fed.

I am strictly observation in my QT. I monitor for disease, but I do not treat proactively. It doesn't make sense to me that I should spend money medicating a fish that doesn't need it.

If signs of disease begin to present, then I'll treat.

I am thinking of making the transition from fresh to salt and currently doing my research. I noticed you said you have been doing QT this way since entering the hobby. It makes sense to me that you aren’t medicating unless you see a reason to. In your experience will all Illnesses present themselves in that 90 day period? Have you had any outbreaks of anything after the 3 months that you would contribute to adding the new fish to your display? Do you/ can you use this same approach to coral or is it just easier to do a dip with coral? Thanks for your time and info! Really looking forward to getting into this side of the hobby!

 

[Spare time]

I am thinking of making the transition from fresh to salt and currently doing my research. I noticed you said you have been doing QT this way since entering the hobby. It makes sense to me that you aren’t medicating unless you see a reason to. In your experience will all Illnesses present themselves in that 90 day period? Have you had any outbreaks of anything after the 3 months that you would contribute to adding the new fish to your display? Do you/ can you use this same approach to coral or is it just easier to do a dip with coral? Thanks for your time and info! Really looking forward to getting into this side of the hobby!

The reason you put fish in copper for a period and not do observational is that you may not catch the disease / notice it and sometimes when the fish shows symptoms it's too late to save the fish. Plus if the disease pops up, the whole QT timeline needs to restart so it's incredibly inefficienct. As someone who has worked at an lfs for years and was the local disease guy, you won't believe how many fish die from disease and parasites in this hobby. It's brutal.

 

[Dom]

The reason you put fish in copper for a period and not do observational is that you may not catch the disease / notice it and sometimes when the fish shows symptoms it's too late to save the fish. Plus if the disease pops up, the whole QT timeline needs to restart so it's incredibly inefficienct. As someone who has worked at an lfs for years and was the local disease guy, you won't believe how many fish die from disease and parasites in this hobby. It's brutal.

You mention inefficiency of the process. But my question to you would be, what is the rush?

A very common theme on threads here are related to people who rush the process, and have all kinds of issues. Most typical, I find, are people who don't QT and can't understand why everything in the tank died over the course of three days.

And while I also agree that a preemptive strike with copper is also good practice, I look at the costs. Why spend money on medicating a $35 fish that may not need it?

And if it did need medication, and it dies, you're only out $35, and not all of the money, time and effort into treating a fish that might die anyway.

 

[Dom]

I am thinking of making the transition from fresh to salt and currently doing my research. I noticed you said you have been doing QT this way since entering the hobby. It makes sense to me that you aren’t medicating unless you see a reason to. In your experience will all Illnesses present themselves in that 90 day period? Have you had any outbreaks of anything after the 3 months that you would contribute to adding the new fish to your display? Do you/ can you use this same approach to coral or is it just easier to do a dip with coral? Thanks for your time and info! Really looking forward to getting into this side of the hobby!

Hello @DarylB924

The transition from fresh to salt is a big jump. I was raised in a home where there were eight tanks of fancy tail guppies. Today, I find myself in the hobby about 20 years, and still only know a fraction of all things necessary for a thriving salt water tank.

But I will say this; it wasn't until I joined R2R and placed myself under the guidance of the many knowledgable members here that my tanks went from surviving to thriving!

Yes, my QT period is longer than necessary. The actual period for QT is 56 days (I believe). But 90 days is a nice, round number. This process allows me to add fish safely to the tank quarterly and easily keep track of where I am in the process.

Yes, I don't medicate unless necessary. And as @Spare time has pointed out, if you don't start meds until you see disease, it may already be too late.

It has been my experience that when a fish is observed in QT for 90 days and shows no signs of disease, you can be confident that it is safe to put in your display.

I have never owned a fish that showed disease in a display after a 90 day QT. And, new fish NEVER go directly into the display. Doing so is a high risk of introducing disease to your display.

It is a good practice to dip corals. But it is unnecessary to QT them in my view as flukes need a fish host. I don't believe flukes will attack corals.

Good luck!
Dom

 

[DarylB924]

The reason you put fish in copper for a period and not do observational is that you may not catch the disease / notice it and sometimes when the fish shows symptoms it's too late to save the fish. Plus if the disease pops up, the whole QT timeline needs to restart so it's incredibly inefficienct. As someone who has worked at an lfs for years and was the local disease guy, you won't believe how many fish die from disease and parasites in this hobby. It's brutal.

Thanks for the info! In freshwater I used the quarantine trio that was made popular from Cory from aquarium co op… PITA and got a little pricey but it worked! I always had this unnerving feeling about bathing my pets in a cocktail of chemicals though. Does copper cover most things for marine fish?

 

[DarylB924]

Hello @DarylB924

The transition from fresh to salt is a big jump. I was raised in a home where there were eight tanks of fancy tail guppies. Today, I find myself in the hobby about 20 years, and still only know a fraction of all things necessary for a thriving salt water tank.

But I will say this; it wasn't until I joined R2R and placed myself under the guidance of the many knowledgable members here that my tanks went from surviving to thriving!

Yes, my QT period is longer than necessary. The actual period for QT is 56 days (I believe). But 90 days is a nice, round number. This process allows me to add fish safely to the tank quarterly and easily keep track of where I am in the process.

Yes, I don't medicate unless necessary. And as @Spare time has pointed out, if you don't start meds until you see disease, it may already be too late.

It has been my experience that when a fish is observed in QT for 90 days and shows no signs of disease, you can be confident that it is safe to put in your display.

I have never owned a fish that showed disease in a display after a 90 day QT. And, new fish NEVER go directly into the display. Doing so is a high risk of introducing disease to your display.

It is a good practice to dip corals. But it is unnecessary to QT them in my view as flukes need a fish host. I don't believe flukes will attack corals.

Good luck!
Dom

Thanks dom! The amount of help and knowledge I’m seeing on this forum is incredible. It my be a big jump to get into this side of the hobby but I’m pretty confident. I think my biggest problem is going to be not over complicating things and allowing things to settle without trying to “chase numbers” and things like that. I like fancy gadgets too so not blowing a budget on unnecessary tech will be something else I need to be mindful of

 

[DarylB924]

Hello @DarylB924

The transition from fresh to salt is a big jump. I was raised in a home where there were eight tanks of fancy tail guppies. Today, I find myself in the hobby about 20 years, and still only know a fraction of all things necessary for a thriving salt water tank.

But I will say this; it wasn't until I joined R2R and placed myself under the guidance of the many knowledgable members here that my tanks went from surviving to thriving!

Yes, my QT period is longer than necessary. The actual period for QT is 56 days (I believe). But 90 days is a nice, round number. This process allows me to add fish safely to the tank quarterly and easily keep track of where I am in the process.

Yes, I don't medicate unless necessary. And as @Spare time has pointed out, if you don't start meds until you see disease, it may already be too late.

It has been my experience that when a fish is observed in QT for 90 days and shows no signs of disease, you can be confident that it is safe to put in your display.

I have never owned a fish that showed disease in a display after a 90 day QT. And, new fish NEVER go directly into the display. Doing so is a high risk of introducing disease to your display.

It is a good practice to dip corals. But it is unnecessary to QT them in my view as flukes need a fish host. I don't believe flukes will attack corals.

Good luck!
Dom

You mentioned flukes specifically. Is that the most common illness you have encountered?

 

[Dom]

You mentioned flukes specifically. Is that the most common illness you have encountered?

Only once in 20 years has a fish become ill during QT on me.

It was a Saddleback puffer (the same as the pair I currently have in QT) that came down with Ich. I used hypo-salinity to address this.

Where infectious diseases are concerned, I find Velvet and Brooklynella to be the most common, based on what I read here.

 

[DarylB924]

Only once in 20 years has a fish become ill during QT on me.

It was a Saddleback puffer (the same as the pair I currently have in QT) that came down with Ich. I used hypo-salinity to address this.

Where infectious diseases are concerned, I find Velvet and Brooklynella to be the most common, based on what I read here.

Thanks for the response!

 

[braaap]

You mention inefficiency of the process. But my question to you would be, what is the rush?

A very common theme on threads here are related to people who rush the process, and have all kinds of issues. Most typical, I find, are people who don't QT and can't understand why everything in the tank died over the course of three days.

And while I also agree that a preemptive strike with copper is also good practice, I look at the costs. Why spend money on medicating a $35 fish that may not need it?

And if it did need medication, and it dies, you're only out $35, and not all of the money, time and effort into treating a fish that might die anyway.

While I can appreciate all that a copper treatment is less than 50 cents to dose the tank. So you lose a $35 fish or you spend $35.50 on the fish and it lives and is disease free. Prazipro is another 50 cents. Seems worth it to me.

That said I QT all of my fish as well and only do a copper treatment. I even QT Dr Reef pre quarantined fish. Not worth the risk.

 

[Spare time]

You mention inefficiency of the process. But my question to you would be, what is the rush?

A very common theme on threads here are related to people who rush the process, and have all kinds of issues. Most typical, I find, are people who don't QT and can't understand why everything in the tank died over the course of three days.

And while I also agree that a preemptive strike with copper is also good practice, I look at the costs. Why spend money on medicating a $35 fish that may not need it?

And if it did need medication, and it dies, you're only out $35, and not all of the money, time and effort into treating a fish that might die anyway.

The inefficiency is if the fish gets sick you restart the qt and anything else you wanted to add has to wait. People are often very impatient in this hobby. Also not all fish are $35. As for the fish might die anyways, the fish wouldn't die from those diseases if they had been in the copper or prazi in the first place. Plus things like prazi are cheap and don't even need a test kit. Flukes are extremely common.

 

[DarylB924]

While I can appreciate all that a copper treatment is less than 50 cents to dose the tank. So you lose a $35 fish or you spend $35.50 on the fish and it lives and is disease free. Prazipro is another 50 cents. Seems worth it to me.

That said I QT all of my fish as well and only do a copper treatment. I even QT Dr Reef pre quarantined fish. Not worth the risk.

Tough to argue with that logic

 

[Spare time]

Thanks dom! The amount of help and knowledge I’m seeing on this forum is incredible. It my be a big jump to get into this side of the hobby but I’m pretty confident. I think my biggest problem is going to be not over complicating things and allowing things to settle without trying to “chase numbers” and things like that. I like fancy gadgets too so not blowing a budget on unnecessary tech will be something else I need to be mindful of

Chasing numbers is fine. Reef keeping is about keeping numbers. The right numbers means everything will grow and thrive. There are just some numbers where the exact value isn't that important and that's where the phrase comes from

 

[Dom]

While I can appreciate all that a copper treatment is less than 50 cents to dose the tank. So you lose a $35 fish or you spend $35.50 on the fish and it lives and is disease free. Prazipro is another 50 cents. Seems worth it to me.

That said I QT all of my fish as well and only do a copper treatment. I even QT Dr Reef pre quarantined fish. Not worth the risk.

I'll have to rethink this. I didn't realize that the treatment was so cheap.

Agreed. I too QT "pre-quarantined" fish. Not worth taking the chance.

 

[braaap]

I'll have to rethink this. I didn't realize that the treatment was so cheap.

Agreed. I too QT "pre-quarantined" fish. Not worth taking the chance.

Ya it is extremely cheap. Fritz is 5ml per 4 gallons. So you would need about 31ml. So 1 ounce. The bottle is 4oz for $12. So your treatment would be $3 because you have a large QT system. Most people only use a 10gal.

Either way I don't think you are wrong to just observe. Especially for 90 days. You will see signs of something within 90 days. But you could also preventatively treat for 30 days or less and then be done. I personally do a minimum of 2 weeks.

 

[Mikeltee]

What's the point of a 90 day qt if no treatments are used? I had a PBT introduce velvet into my main 8 weeks after I got him and it killed 20 fish within 24 hours. If you don't want to stress fish leave them in the ocean. I'm glad your method works for you. Mine worked for 10 years until it didnt.