Is QTing neccesary?

[TLTGF]

I still haven't quite pinned down what has been killing my fish, but I do know that I cracked my QT the day I bought my fish, and so I didn't do it, just acclimated now I'm down a Flame Angel, Royal gramma, and a Chromis... fingers crossed that the rest survive.

My LFS is extremely repuatable, even QT's fish for me.

 

[carey]

Mine qt'd my mandarin for 3 weeks in a separate system to make me more comfortable. he even qt'd the blue tang for me but alas, it didnt work out.

I hope you guys who don't qt have continued success.

And as a side note, my lfs is one of the most reputable, clean and honest within 3 counties wide and still I had an issue. Bad fish can happen to anyone. I;ve never seen abad fish at my lfs ever, not dead ones or anyting. I;ve boght dozens of fish from him over a years time, both fw and sw and only had the problem once. But once was enough for me.
LOL

 

[FTMMWS]

There other reason to QT other than disease prevention..
If my LFS guaranteed 100% healthy disease free fish ,i would still QT it

I have FW dipped about 15 fish including my angel and purple tang ,never lost one...
To say QTing is overrated is a bold statement ,and i wish you luck with your future additions

 

[Kio707]

Just inquiries, not a debate. I see everyone's side and if I hadn't talked to Carey, I wouldn't even have a QT... But thought it couldn't hurt to try...

 

[carey]

For the price of a qt it's worth some peace of mind in my opinion. I still kick myself for not doing it earlier, I would have saved half my tank. Including my ORA b&w's which were my very first saltwater fish. I have no one to blame but myself though. Its the whole frame of thought "oh, not me, that couldn't happen to me" mentality. Guess I;m still not over my fish dying on me, even though it's been months....

 

[Kio707]

When do u feed QT fish? After they have been in there for a day or two?

 

[carey]

I feed mine right off so far and they have both eaten. but usually they take a day or two to settle in. i would try to feed anyways, it always makes me feel better when I see them eat right away.

 

[Kio707]

Tangs eat flakes?

 

[carey]

Mine do. they eat everything I put in. I rotate pellets, flakes and frozen foods along with a seaweed clip. i would put a clip in the qt and see of he eats any. seaweed is supposed to be uber good for them.

 

[Kio707]

K, perfect... ..........

 

[TLTGF]

For the price of a qt it's worth some peace of mind in my opinion. I still kick myself for not doing it earlier, I would have saved half my tank. Including my ORA b&w's which were my very first saltwater fish. I have no one to blame but myself though. Its the whole frame of thought "oh, not me, that couldn't happen to me" mentality. Guess I;m still not over my fish dying on me, even though it's been months....

+1 - My entire QT set-up was $45, I have lost nearly double that by not QTing.

 

[carey]

I dont even wanna think how much I lost dollar wise. I havent actually added it up, when I got to $200 I gave up. not to mention I pretty much condemned those fish to death which to me is even worse. :-(

 

[Gregcoyote]

As usual, i am on the other end of this good discussion.

What good does QT do if the system isn't as good as the reef system? It needs to be even better and nobody does that. All you will do is stress a fish that is already stressed and that produces disease. So in some ways, the only reason to have a QT is to make it easier to catch and treat a fish that is dying because of the QT tank. A healthy fish brushes things like ICK aside, it can't penetrate their slime coats and believe me, any system that hasn't got strong UV filtration has spores of ICK and other parasites as well as loads of bacteria in it.

If a fish has been at the LFS for some time, I don't flinch, I do a 3 hour drip acclimation, look at him under a powerful light to see any lost scales or obvious parasites, then just a few hours before dark, I add them. I have lost fish in the last 20 years, but the cause was water conditions setting off a disease outbreak. Weak fish get sick.

 

[carey]

Point well taken greg. As always there are three sides to every argument. The right, the wrong and the way you do it. LOL

my tang wa acclimated for 3 hours and looked at under blue light for ich abnd looked healthy enough.

and to be honest, it's still unclear what killed my fish in my instance. It wasnt ich or velvet and I will probably never know for sure. The fish ended up with "burn" like marks on him but wsnt burned so maybe a aparasite? Just don't know. It took about 2-3 days for him to show any signs of not beign right and he was dead within 24 hours of that time. Same with the other infected fish, stopped eating, hid and death within a day. My case may be different though.

 

[Kio707]

I see your point...

 

[Gregcoyote]

My point is only that if you do QT, it is sensible and should be recommended, but the QT system should be treated like it is a hospital for fish, not just a old tank with your left over trickle filter. I like the idea of a QT on your main reef loop with the outflow of QT going thru a UV sterilizer.

 

[Kio707]

But your saying a UV is essential?

 

[Gregcoyote]

But your saying a UV is essential?

If you are assuming the fish in QT are infected with something, you don't want that back into your reef, otherwise, why QT? If you want the QT fish to become acclimated to your water and food, it seems that the reef water should be used if it can be done safely. I have not done this, but it makes some sense to me. I have seen large overflow boxes on reefs used as a QT for new fish that might not feed well if just dumped into the reef.

 

[carey]

F&s sells those type of acclimation boxes. You can keeo the fish separate from the general population if needed.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I like that idea if the fish needs to muscle up a bit before hitting the mean streets my reef has become.