Quarantine Tank? FW Dip? Is it all really necessary?

I have bought fish from the store that quarentined everything.....and honestly those fish were the healthiest fish I ever had. I never lost one of those when I would buy from there. After Curt left, they stopped QT. The whole store went to pot honestly and fish died there all the time.
Here is what a lot of people in this hobby dont know! Depending on the supplier, these fish are scooped up and bagged up directly from the Ocean and shipped directly to the wholesaler. The wholesaler may/may not switch the fish to new bags, may/may not place them in tanks and store them before shipping, and may/may not just ship them directly to the fish store that ordered them. Fish often times are flown to a portal airport, where somebody may may not switch the water out of teh bag and then re-route them to your local store. It would amaze you how many fish die in shipping! When I worked at the LFS (only for a couple months) we would have at least 10-20 fish dead on arrival, and then the same number will die in a few days of arrival. The owner was purchasing the fish from a not so well known wholesaler.

The point of this story......do I quarantine fish? I have tanks set up and depends on the fish and where I got it. I havent bought any in a while, but I am not the best at QT fish....it is laziness on my part! There are few stores in my area that I will never, ever buy anything from. I do make sure the fish is eating and must see the fish eat before I buy it. I will place the fish on hold for a couple days to make sure it is healthy. I do investigate how long the fish has been in the store, and I do look at the other fish in the systems with it. Ick does not scare me because if the fish is eating and you are feeding it good food with HUFA they will be able to fight it off majority of the times.

Do I dip my corals....ABSOLUTELY! I lost a lot of montis when I first started due to MEN, and have lost zoas to nudis. I will never ever place those in my tank without dipping them and QT them now. Other corals I am not as concerned over, but I do use a magnifier to look closely at the tissues.

I agree with the statement that most of us will not QT until we have an experience happen to us. Because somebody does QT does not mean that they are more responsible fish owners then those that do not. What I do not agree with is the statements.......that if it dies I am not overly concerned, and my actions do not have a great impact on the reefs. I dont believe that anybody on this forum does not try there best to keep healthy fish. But we do have a responsibility. We are ultimately responsible for the purchases we make. .

 

I just read this entire thread, and i gotta say something!
I think my next tank i start which is right around the corner. A 40gal breeder to be exact. I don't even know if i want to add any fish to it, after reading this. LOL
I think i would be just as happy with a coral only tank! Dipping each piece before adding of course.

 

Reading some of this stuff makes me laugh, any new person trying to get into this hobby and read some of this stuff would probably change their mind. I know I'm about to pi**-off 1/2 the members that would read this but that's OK, just my opinion and method I've used so far.

I don't believe in obsessing over QTing, the truth is most of us average reefers can't afford to setup a bullet proof QT system. Infact to have a 'bullet-proof' QT/Hospital system, you would need multiple QT setups because you can't put inverts in a QT system where you medicate fish (most fish meds would harm corals and other livestock).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying don't QT, what I'm saying is use your judgement and remember why you got into the hobby in the first place....to have fun, not to worry about all sort of things that could go wrong that would probably never happen.

I've QTd my some of my fish, especially my tangs because they are prone to ich and I wanted to be able to get them out without tearing down my system should they have an outbreak. I've had ich, never went nuts worrying about, never lost a fish to it....knock on wood. My tank has been ich free for a long time, I try to feed my tank well to try and keep off disease. I've never QT'd corals, snails, crabs, shrimps, pods...you could go insane trying to do this....these livestock don't carry ich but ich could be in the water they come in, all it takes is 1 drop. So unless you're QT'ing everything, you run the risk of introducing disease, just my opinion. I try to take educated risks and spend my time viewing my tank instead of obsessing over QTing.....anyone that has a problem with my opinion, tell us about your QT experience, time and $$ you're invested and let's see your results.

 

Incorrect. During the protomont stage they fall off the fish and land on such surfaces as corals, snails, crabs, shimps, pods... they encapsulate, take a ride into ones display tank and hatch within.

Your post shares your experiences well, but they will be much better received in a adult like discussion/conversation when you don't bring it down to "that" level with your opening sentence. Adults don't laugh at others opinions. Let's converse and share like adults.

 

Hopefully you not that touchy, don't take this as an argument but more as an open discussion and our opinions. I take it you're one that takes QTing to that level I'm talking about, nothing wrong with that, it's your choice. If you read my post well, you would have seen that I didn't say ich CAN'T be introduced when you introduce corals, it CAN, in the water that your new corals, shrimps, snails, crabs, etc. come with. However, ich don't host corals, shrimps, snails, crabs, that was my point. If you really want a bullet proof QT setup, well I already explained in my previous post...most average reefer (including myself) can't afford to run a real QT system. If you're an adult and read my post and interpret it as me being a kid or calling you a kid, that also is your choice and opinion.

You quoted a part of what I said, here's the rest of that sentense that you cut-off...we do hear/read what we want to hear..."these livestock don't carry ich but ich could be in the water they come in, all it takes is 1 drop."

 

The statement is still incorrect for the same reason I gave above. I didn't mis-quote, I just was just quoting what I was addressing.

 

That's the thing...ich & parasites can be carried on corals.

Her analogy that you took as "calling you a kid" was because you laughed at other people's opinions, which matter as much as yours does.

 

Is this from experience or from hear say? I don't believe is scaring new reefers with info I heard from someone else or read on a forum, that happens way too often in this hobby....I only share info I got from reputable sources, or from my own experiences, I'm not into the whole hear-say passing of info.

Why don't you share your QT experiences with us? Don't forget to show pics of your results. To save you the trouble of asking me to share my results, here's my tank, nothing extra ordinary but this is what I enjoy doing while reefers like you are busy scaring others with info you heard from someone else. The reefers that helped me in this hobby didn't try scaring me with all the over-kill stuff and I try to do the same when I help others..I'm gonna take a wild guess that we would not be seeing pics of your tank.

 

Yes you have a wonderful tank, but your barking up the wrong tree with Incognito. You might want to take a look at her threads. :

 

Nice tank...

You have got to be kidding me. I think it's ridiculous that you would accuse someone of basically talking up their butt(in kind words). This sin't a competition....& we are not here to fight. Be kind to others.