How many people quarantine all their new fish

[Geepers Creepers]

Taking a poll

How many people quarantine all their new fish and still had ich somehow get in their display tank?

Thank you in advance.

This poll isn’t about quarantine. It is always a good practice to quarantine all of your fish.
This pole is to find out if ich can get in to a tank even with strict Qt practices.
Vote yes “I QT and or fresh water dip all of my fish and got ich in the display tank�.
even if it only happened once.

[Geepers Creepers]

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[Geepers Creepers]

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[Geepers Creepers]

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[DJ88©]

I think you'll get more repsonses in the correct forum. This is for lighting and equipment.

I'll move it for you. [moved]

[maroun.c]

Always had ich in the display even after starting to quarantine new additions, guess ich was already in the tank. however after an outbreak i did hyposalinity in the display as i had no corals and no detrivores, only had 2 shrimps that i removed prior to that. after that i started quarantining all new fish, no FW dips, however i did preventive hyposalinity for 4 weeks for ichprone fish like my pair of hyppo tangs. since then my mortality reate went seriously down and no ich in the tank except for an occasional spot or two on my hyppo tang which resolve on their own 2-3 days after, so i guess ich is still present in the tank, the trick is to have the fish live till it's imunity takes over the disease or till it gets used to the tank and all its stressing factors so that ich doesn't take over. i never could keep more than 3 fish alive and now i have 9 ich free fish and i after having thought of stopping the tank due to massive mortality rate my tank has become a success and FO has become reef tank.
one thing i'd like to add is thqat i believe i had a very high mortality rate even more than those who introduce fish without quarantining because all fish that the lfs gets here are sold within 2 days so these are new fish and it's only natural to have them get sick more frequently.

[Geepers Creepers]

Thanks DJ88
and for your post maroun.c

[Megalodon]

So Maroun, you're saying ick isn't a problem anymore for you because you:

1. Allowed your fish to gain immunity
2. Quarantined fish ahead of time so that not so much of the parasite is re-introduced allowing fish to keep a handle on it themselves?

I have a little bit of ick right now. I did not quarantine, but I don't know if it would have mattered. I've had my three fish for months now and this is the first I've seen of ick.

[Flameangel]

I q-tank fish that I think will fragile or are likely to get ick - aka tangs.

Thanks,
Connie

[maroun.c]

Actually I came to the conclusion that you can neevr have an ich fre tank especially when you're still adding fish and corals... I;m sure ich is stil present in my tank if not how would this spots appear once eevry 1-2 months and disappear?
one part of the life cycle of ich includes egtting off fish to multiply and then reinfect however that cycle is not happening to a large extent for manifestations are really minor that i don't pay attention to this single white spot that disappears in 2-3 days and takes a few months to reappear. i don't know if it's my fish gaining immunity or tank conditions have bemoe more stable to allow fish to recover on their own. what's important is that tank now looks great and no fish are getting sick or getting anywhere near needing to be taken to the Q tank. Finalyy i can just sit and relax while watching the tank and it's where you enjoy it and realise why you made all those efforts to make things work.

[acroporas]

I never quarantine my fish, never dip, never they get sick. I learned a few valuable lessions working at a LFS that i would like to share.

The most important thing to do is bring fish home the day they come. When the come in they are either dead, close too it, or healthy. IF they are fine when they come in they will not get sick if placed in a happy home.

Now take these 200 new fish, all stressed out from shipping, place them all in the same system, overcrowded with about 5 inches of swimming room, with if they are lucky 1 place to partially hide. Guess what happens. Every time at least one fish will get sick. Usually all of them will be infected within a week. You may not be able to see it because it is suppressed by massive ammounts of copper and low salinity, but it is there and will come out when you bring it home. Dont buy a fish that has been there between 5 days and 1 month, even if it looks fine, chances are it isnt.

Be there when the fish come in. Watch them for an hour. If they look good, bring them home immediately, place them in a large healthy tank with live rock. The fish wont get sick. I repeat, LARGE, HEALTHY, and LIVE ROCK. If you want to quarantine the fish, do it right. In most cases the quarantine tank should be at least as large as the display tank. Because most people will not do this they are better off not quaranting fish and placing them directly in the display tank.

If you quarantine fish in improper conditions, like those at the LFS, you will loose more fish because of quarantineing them than you will just tossing them in the display even if you factor in the rick of disease spreading to other fish.

The final thing to do to ensure heatly fish is feed feed feed. Feed them frozen or enriched live food 6 times a day as much as they will eat for at least the first 2 weeks. After this point you can cut back on feeding and start using dry foods if you want but for the first 2 weeks only the best.

Ok one more, allways wait at least 30 days before adding another fish.

[ddenham]

I chose answer #3, but for clarification, I quarantine all my fish now, and haven't had ich since I started. A bad outbreak and multiple deaths got me started on the q-tank. Also I haven't added a fish in my tank in about 6-8 mos.