Formalin as a prevent?

[2turtles]

When getting new fish, what are people doing other than placing them in QT for several weeks? Would a Formalin bath before going into QT be advised? Should the QT tank maintain a low dose of Formalin? What about using copper in the QT tank as a preventative? (realizing you can not use both) What about the use of medicated foods?
The assumption here is the fish show no sighs of parasites, strictly preventative.

[paulamrein]

for preventative measures you can run the qt in hypo salinity. Copper is too harsh to use if not necessary. Not too familiar with Formalin, but hypo is really all you need. It is time consuming but the 2 months in QT is a drop in the bucket compared to all of the problems not qt can cause. I would venture to say only 5-10% of hobbyist actually run a qt correctly. Those people, in my opinion save hundreds in the long-run on fish and stress. Nothing is worse than having a 100$ fish die because you put a 5$ damsel in the tank with ich.

[kevin2000]

I use a formalin bath before any fish goes into my QT (which is then run at hypo). While FW dips are popular I find that a properly performed formalin bath appears to be less stressful than a FW dip and also has the benefit of reducing/eliminating brook as an issue. The operative word is "proper" which requires one to understand that dosage, aeration, and temperature control are important when giving a formalin bath.

Hope this helps.

[2turtles]

Thanks for the replies,

Paulamrein - How long do you quarantine your new corals before placing them in your tank?

Keven2000 - Would you go into details on what you feel is the "proper" way to QT using formalin? I know that you must aerate well as formalin depletes O2, do you have other recommendations for dosage other than what is stated in the direction?

[Vitaly]

I am by no means intending to be argumentative, but if one presumes that:

"The assumption here is the fish shows no signs of parasites, strictly preventative."

...then I would submit that the only thing one should do is quarantine and observe the individual. Using unnecessary, prophylactic medications creates the potential for more harm (super or secondary infection, trauma from handling, toxicity from overdose, etc.) than benefit. Six weeks in quarantine to recover from transport/shipping, no stress, regular feeding and you can be highly confident that your animal is pathogen free and will survive in your display.

Conversely, if you see signs consistent with infection (Cryptocaryon, Brooklynella, Benedenia, etc), then by all means treat with the appropriate measures to aid in recovery.

[paulamrein]

2 turtles. All coral questions should be referred elsewhere. I run fish only with a few FAKE corals. It is the general rule of 6 weeks with no treatment. just minimal lighting to keep alive. Worry about growth and color when they get in the tank. With that I mean you don't have to run high-end lighting on a QT.

[billsreef]

Since corals can even carry hitchhiking fish parasites, it's certainly a valid question in this forum Inverts such as corals ideally should be quarantined for the same 4-6 weeks as fish. Not just to be sure they are not carrying invert diseases or pest, but cysts of fish parasites such as cryptocaryon.