Another Quarantine Question
 

After reading dozens of posts about the quarantine of new fish, there appears to be many different approaches and opinions.

Can someone recommend a specific treatment schedule during the 4 - 8 weeks of quarantine? Medications such as Cupramine, Prazipro and even a Formalin dip prior to placing fish in the quarantine tank are mentioned often.

Also, how often and how much water is needed for water changes.

Thanks

Without a diagnosis of a diease, Medication of any type us is a user choice, but keep in mind that any medication causes stress and subsequent effects may be noticed much down the road. Cupramine is copper, that would be a definite no.

When I QT, I use nothing but start at a lower salinity, the same as the packing water likely 1.017-1.019 for weeks 1-2. In week 3, I bring that up to 1.023 by raising salinity .001 per day. In week 4, I raise salinity .001 per day to come to DT salinity.

Through this process, I am changing water every day or two at best, watching behavior carefully, making sure it/they are eating and acting normal, vacuuming up non eaten foods, and watch salinity and ammonia levels.

If any or one shows signs of infection or parasites, they would be moved to a Hospital Tank fir treatment, otherwise if all is Ok after 30, to the DT they go. 8 weeks IMO is too long, likely causes more stress, if no problems in 4, doubt your going to find it in 8...

You will get a variety of opinions on this topic, my way is just my way...no way is a perfect way...always some risk involved but QT does lower risks of transference by a lot

Good luck, sorry, don't use Meds, but I am sure others that do and will chime in.
Just remember if you use Meds, you should not use lower salinity water.

I don't use meds either unless the fish appears to be sick. I've found that even if a fish has a few ich spots it can recover on its own, providing it's stress free and well fed. I am extremely picky when I'm deciding whether to buy a fish or not. If it's pale, has a sucked in gut, or any blemishes at all, I pass, even if it's a fish I really want. I also ask the LFS to feed the fish and make sure it eats aggressively. I believe the number one rule in quarantine is, only select prime specimens to begin with. Of course, you can't do that if you buy online. But if you buy from a reputable dealer you can be pretty sure the fish has already been quarantined and is eating well before they ship it. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. Select your fish wisely, don't treat them with meds unless you need to, make your quarantine as stress free as possible, and get them into your display as soon as you're sure they're disease free. That way they can start getting acclimated to their real environment.

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^^^^above, yup!

That's a great comment, be picky in the buy!
One of the most important factors to success.

When I buy fish regardless of where they came from, first thing I do is dump in a tank of matching salinity to start TTM. I then medicate with prazipro on the second and fourth transfer(as of late I have yet to see a fish that does not have some sort of internal parasite). While in TTM I slowly raise salinity to match my DT(most fish are kept at a lower salinity then we keep our reefs).

After TTM and prazipro I dump into another QT tank to observe and get fattened up for the next 4 weeks. If anything is wrong in that time, then I'll assess the situation and what needs to be done additionally. Every fish is different and will respond to QT differently.

Just curious, how can you tell when a fish has an internal parasite?

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All fish I get will receive a formalin dip right out of the bag before ever being placed in to the QT. Then I do a minimum of 2 rounds of prazipro or clout, followed by Chloroquine phosphate for at least 21 days. All fish get treatment regardless if I see signs of disease or not. To answer the above question you won't know until you see white stringy poop or you notice the fish not getting fatter.

My last Blue-Green Chromis died within 48 hours after it was added to my QT. 24 hours after it was added it has poop a white string poop.

Can you tell me more about this internal parasite, do you think it can be related to his death ?

Internal parasites usually won’t kill in that short of time unless the fish was heavily infected. Being it was a chromis I would suspect urenoma since nearly all of them come from Distributors with it. Internal parasites are just like worms in dogs and cats

Im planning to buy 4 more Chromis, do you think that treating proactively (in QT) using Paraguard would be enough against urenoma ?

I would call seachem customer support number and ask them, they are extremely knowledgable about all products seachem. For the record the only thing that I have used paraguard for that it worked was flukes