Quote:
Originally Posted by natural reef
Hi Dmort yes true you could always add that one fish or coral and bring in something devastating. But equally even with QT if you run natural seawater DT changes theres a risk of picking up potential viruses and bad bacteria from ocean water. Point being we cant control everything so IMO best approach is to concentrate on the best possible water quality and livestock immunity from healthy feeding. In my sump (and this is cheap to do) I simulate a beach, a tidal zone, deep sand press, and mangroves set up tidal 3 hours on off wet dry as well as macro fuge, big skimmer, nitrate bicks, uv ,ozone, zeo, phos, carbon. This seems to allow for heavy fish stocking with about 40 corals so far mainly sps. QT tanks are small and provide less cover. This is dangerous to fish that need swimming area. Also prolonged use of copper can damage their livers. Sometimes you will see this in an LFS where for eg anthias , tangs, gobies swimming round rake thin like zombies gradually losing energy reserves. If you can get them straight in the tank and get them adjusted to the system and feeding well the immune system should kick in as the fish fattens and regains strength
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If you do use natural sea water there is a chance of these parasites and others getting into the tank but for the majority of us were mixing our own water and this leaves one basic entry system for the parasites. Imo we owe it to the fish we keep as pets to get it right and give them a healthy environment to live in, i believe it to be quite cruel to snatch a fish from an ocean and place it in our tanks for our enjoyment and and the fish is miserable because of parasites. To me it's not about my life being easier by not quarantining it's about the fish being happy comfortable and a mutual enjoyment. I don't believe the average person would let there dog or cat suffer from a flea of tick infestation, so we need to get it right for the fish, these creatures did not ask to be in our tanks let's make them happy and parasite free 😃
Also then fish in the Lfs looking thin and zombie like I think you said, this has nothing to do with qt and everything to do with wholesalers and Lfs have to make a profit with that said the wholesalers are moving these fish through there facilities as fast as possible there probably not being feed hi quality food no enough food from the time the fish is caught shipped half way around the world and makes it to an Lfs they are highly stressed under feed and malnutritioned. A qt process allows the fish time to adjust without competition for food from a DT full of other fish, it allows us to watch him closely treat him for ailments and fatten him up before being introduced into a competitive environment giving him the best fighting chance of survival. Imo when this process of qt is skipped the fish is more likely going to die he's weak scared stressed possibly bullied and then has to deal with parasites.