Putting Tang in 20g QT, won't it stress fish even more?

[alve]

I will be setting up my new 156g Oceanic Reef tank in two weeks. Everything from my existing 100g tank will be moved over. I haven't added any new fish in over 2 years and I do not want to add anything bad into the new tank so I would like to put every new addition in a 20g QT before introducing.

If I eventually put a yellow or regal tang in a 20g QT for 4-6 weeks before adding to the display tank won't that stress out the animal?
I know they need a big tank and a month in a 20g seems to me that it would stress out the animal a lot?

After a lot of reading here on RC it looks like the ideal is putting fish in a QT for 4-6 weeks. Doesn't ich or any other disease show up sooner like after a week or two? Wouldn't it be ok to add the fish to the display tank if everything looks fine after two weeks? It still sounds a long time for a tang being in a 20g although they might have been in a tank like that for a much longer time at the LFS?

Also, do you medicate fish as soon as you put them in the QT or only when they show signs of ich or any other disease?

[spike78]

1. Yes it will stress the animal to be in a small QT, but the goal of your QT is to protect your display tank. The fish should handle a 20 gal QT just fine for the short QT interval.

2. Do the full 4-6 weeks QT time. The fish should be fine and it's worth it to make sure you don't introduce ich to your display.

3. Most people will generally not medicate unless they see something that needs to be addressed. No sense adding more stress to the fish by medicating them unnecessarily.

[rbursek]

I do not have a QT tank, and I would think you are right about the added stress in a QT tank. I buy my LS from Dr's F&S and put them in right after I get water temps matched. I have talked to them and they assure me there LS is QT before they put them in there general holding tanks, and then kept there for 4 weeks before offered for sale to watch them. That is one reason they say they can offer the 14 day no question guarantee. Even on high maintenance fish, which MD has there declaimer on. Bob

[Sk8r]

HOpefully you will not buy a huge one, so he will be ok. Add some wide-gauge pvc elbow or the like so he has something to hide in. Don't use lights. Dim light and quiet will reassure him.

Of all fish to rush qt on, a tang or angel is not the one: they are incredibly disease prone---ich, velvet, and several things I have trouble spelling.

Never medicate a well fish. First, if you've medicated for ich and velvet shows up, that's two different meds, so you have already weakened your fish by the treatment, and now you have to switch treatments, which may take days---to purify your water of one so you can go to the next. Second, especially with copper, it is marginally less lethal to the fish than to the ich parasite: it will save the fish's life, but at the cost, probably of a few months of life, or worse: there is sometimes kidney damage to the fish.

Do not rush to treat specific diseases until you are rock-solid on your diagnosis. Being wrong can cost you days and further weaken the animal.

Go to the Fish Disease forum while your guy is languishing in qt and learn to recognize specific diseases, and memorize the appropriate treatments.

[The Floodinator]

I never medicate and never will. I use hypo salinity in the QT and have had no problems since. I also keep the QT in the basement where it is nice and quiet. Only a 40 watt bulb to put some light in the tank.
Works for me.

[rbursek]

Spike,
I disagree, one of the things that cause Tangs to get Ich is stress, so if they get stressed out in that 20, they in all respect develope it there. Healthy, non stressed fish even if they would be in contact with some Ich do not get it or fight it off on there own, it is when they are stressed they tend to be mor vulnerable, especially Tangs. IMHO, and seeing it all over them at my LFS Tangs and dated a lady that worked in there SWR, terrible water quility, they had a Blue for sale that should have taken out of its mysery, Ich and just kept getting worse, and my friends Tangs not having it and mine and never QT. Bob

[rbursek]

Sk8er,
I agree, even thou I do not QT, a quite, low lit tank will keep the Tang mellow, since they do not need the light like Corals, as far as medication I have never had to use it but what you are saying makes sense. Just for my info, does a UV stairalizer help in the water flow in a QT?
Bob

[alve]

It would definitely be a small tang.

Looks like I will quarantine for 4-6 weeks with very dim light and no medication unless the fish shows signs of illness and then I would make sure to check what exactly to treat for and what medication to use.

Is hypo salinity an S.G. around 1.019 or less? I read it does make the fish stress less. Is this recommended or should I just do water changes on the QT using water from my Display tank so the fish gets already acclimated to the DT?

[The Floodinator]

I set the S.G. about 1.016-1.019. I don't usually do a water change on the QT (no medications building up) but if I did it would be with new S.W. mixed to the proper S.G.

[Sk8r]

If you have a uv sterilizer, probably wouldn't hurt. I'm thinking hypo is lower than that, but it is for ich. Again, don't treat a well fish.

If you do have a freak-out reaction due to people around the tank, throw a loose drape over the tank and shut out the light, taking it to near total dark. Like birds, daylight fish go torpid in the dark and calm right down. They feel far less vulnerable, I'm suspecting.

[The Floodinator]

oops.

[alve]

rbursek, that was what I originally thought as well. That a QT would do more good than bad but I would like to do everything I can to try to avoid importing something bad into my DT.

Floodinator, if you don't medicate you usually don't do a water change on the QT for the whole 4-6 weeks the fish is in there? If you do water changes with new S.W. mixed then you do have to acclimate before adding to the DT, couldn't that step be skipped by doing water changes with DT water?

Sk8r, I will definitely do a lot of research before doing any treatment for any disease.

[The Floodinator]

If you run hypo salinity like I do you have to acclimate to the higher S.G. of the DT whatever you use for water changes. If you don't run hypo then I think you could skip the acclimation.

AS for UV sterilizers, I have one that sits in the closet. Not a big fan.

[rbursek]

dido Flood, had one just in case, like carbon take out the god and the bad, but it is there!!!! If you only have a 20 QT, in 4-6 weeks maybe a DT water change would be good for nitrates, I do not know if you skim it or have a filter, but as a side note, it is a fish, hell, buddy has a 36 bow with a 40 inch Spotted Ell in it, nitrates are 150 but no Corals, Fish can handle trates, but for a new one I would not recomend it. LOL
Bob

[alve]

rbursek,
Carbon takes out the good and the bad? I have a hang on filter for the QT with a biowheel and a carbon cartridge with blue filter sponge on it.

I know you can not run carbon while medicating but should the carbon cartridge always be left out of the filter, even if you are not medicating?

Also, I would put the biowheel in my sump to get bacteria on it, should the carbon cartridge with blue filter sponge also be "seeded"?

Thanks for all the input everybody! I usually don't post much but read hours and hours through the posts to gather info and I have learned so much from everyone here on RC!

[Sk8r]

Carbon removes ammonia: this is a killer substance, and fish do not tolerate much of it. You must not use filter with a black [carbon] backside or a carbon cartridge while treating with copper or meds, because it immediately starts removing the medicine.
Don't worry about cycling a qt tank: this is one place where you, a refractometer [precise salinity maintenance] and your ammonia test strips, plus very, very frequent total filter changes, are all on your own: reefing at its most jurassic. You will never create a biofilter able to handle a tang in a 20g: just keep that filter clean and fresh so nitrate gets no change to build up.

One other caution: be sure it is POTENT aeration: tangs are midwater fish like angels and have a HUGE oxygen demand. If there's an oxygen shortage in the tank, the first fish to die will be the tangs---it's one reason I can listen to a disaster related, hear which species of fish died and which lived and make a fair guess as to the instrumentality of death. Keep that oxygenation going like crazy: don't annoy the fish with bubbles left and right, but it is really hard to get them enough oxygen. Do not let your water get in the least cloudy, ever, because cloudy or overheated water loses oxygen carrying capacity.