What's your success rate with new fish (1 Viewer)

[RR-MAN]

So after a year and half decided to go buy some new fish....what a disaster that was.

Got a nice 2.5" regal angle and a 2" Sailfin (Desjardini) tang and both died within a week (I could not see anything externally/fish looked nice and healthy). I had them in a four ft quarantine tank with some copper (Cupramine) and also added PraziPro based on the recommended dosage. The fish were not eating at the store - I shouldn't have bought them - I broke my own golden rule. I tried feeding them fish eggs, live brian shrimp, baby brian shrimp, and some other fancy fish food but no luck. A good lesson to learn which cost me almost $400 including the food.

Luckily I have 9 fish in my large reef so I'm not fishless.

 

[Team Turtle]

How long were new fish in tank before you added copper and tried to feed?

 

[soymilk]

It’s not advisable to use copper and prazipro at the same time.

I’ve also been using copper power. I had 50/50 luck with cupramine. I don’t think I’ve lost a fish so far with copper power.

 

[frankc]

I had a horrible run of zero success and finally had to conclude my quarantine tank was the "tank of doom". Every fish I bought died within a few hours to a few days. I still don't know what it was, but my guess is an old flower pot that I had in there as a hiding place might have been leaching something very toxic. I threw out everything but the tank itself and now use PVC for hiding spots. I just lost a new flame damsel to uronema today, but it lived a week and a half so I think the QT tank is no longer the tank of doom.

I did manage to get 4 out of 6 chromis through another QT tank this summer, which isn't great but not bad for chromis in my experience.

 

[Cody]

I would start by saying that you shouldn't listen to me and I give horrible advice

I believe that in 90% of situations, quarantining does more harm than good. It sounds like you were giving it a better go than most, but if you're not quarantining a fish in an environment where they could potentially live indefinitely (meaning properly sized, properly furnished, correct filtration, etc.) then you're just piling more stress on an already extremely stressed fish. It's basically impossible to keep a lot of the major pest/parasites out of your water column considering all the corals, inverts, macroalgae, etc that you put in your tank almost guaranteed came from water that has those problems in it too. You can't exactly treat inverts/corals with copper, and your inverts/corals don't come from systems devoid of fish. You've got ich, for instance, in your water whether you like it or not. Putting a fish that was caught in the wild (sometimes with poison), held in a container, put in a box and shipped across the pacific, put in another smaller container, put in another box and shipped to Texas, put in a smaller tank then bagged and brought to your home in a small tank with pvc and copper is just too much. The copper causes additional stress on fish too, if I remember correctly.

I dunno, it's probably not good advice, but the only people I know that lose fish are the ones that quarantine. I understand that certain things like marine velvet are a much different beast than ich, but it just seems odd that everyone I know that quarantines loses a lot of fish. Steve B was the perfect example of this. Dude's quarantine game was on point and he lost what seemed like most of what he bought in those tanks. I realize that I don't buy a lot of fish and confirmation bias is a real thing, but I don't recall losing a single fish in the last ten years that wasn't due to bullying (chromis) or the occasional one that wants to surf the nice waves of my floor. I also admit that I stick to tried and true species and prefer a less populated tank to a packed one. I hope that if it's the case that I'm just ignorant and lucky, then my ignorance and luck will continue to work in my favor for the rest of my reefing career

 

[Team Turtle]

I would start by saying that you shouldn't listen to me and I give horrible advice

I believe that in 90% of situations, quarantining does more harm than good. It sounds like you were giving it a better go than most, but if you're not quarantining a fish in an environment where they could potentially live indefinitely (meaning properly sized, properly furnished, correct filtration, etc.) then you're just piling more stress on an already extremely stressed fish. It's basically impossible to keep a lot of the major pest/parasites out of your water column considering all the corals, inverts, macroalgae, etc that you put in your tank almost guaranteed came from water that has those problems in it too. You can't exactly treat inverts/corals with copper, and your inverts/corals don't come from systems devoid of fish. You've got ich, for instance, in your water whether you like it or not. Putting a fish that was caught in the wild (sometimes with poison), held in a container, put in a box and shipped across the pacific, put in another smaller container, put in another box and shipped to Texas, put in a smaller tank then bagged and brought to your home in a small tank with pvc and copper is just too much. The copper causes additional stress on fish too, if I remember correctly.

I dunno, it's probably not good advice, but the only people I know that lose fish are the ones that quarantine. I understand that certain things like marine velvet are a much different beast than ich, but it just seems odd that everyone I know that quarantines loses a lot of fish. Steve B was the perfect example of this. Dude's quarantine game was on point and he lost what seemed like most of what he bought in those tanks. I realize that I don't buy a lot of fish and confirmation bias is a real thing, but I don't recall losing a single fish in the last ten years that wasn't due to bullying (chromis) or the occasional one that wants to surf the nice waves of my floor. I also admit that I stick to tried and true species and prefer a less populated tank to a packed one. I hope that if it's the case that I'm just ignorant and lucky, then my ignorance and luck will continue to work in my favor for the rest of my reefing career

I 100% agree on the stress level of the animal and tank size. Copper does irritate the gills. I personally have had very good success with q.t by monitoring the animal for several days first before trying to treat anything or feedin. and no lights at first. I like to give them a few days to adjust first.

I do disagree with the idea the tank should be geared towards permanent living to be effective. I only run sponge filters (keep a few in display sump) and extra air stones in my q.t and rely heavily on water changes for water quality. Meaning 50% or more twice a week depending on fish. Now that works for me so not a definitive method. However i have not unexpectedly lost anything without there being a visual sign of disease. Would also agree we will never eliminate things like ich or velvet but we can avoid exposing everything in our tanks to these things by adding a new fish instantly.

 

[Tangs]

I got my Seabay Clown in July and he is doing awesome. No isolation no water tests no sump 1.5 hours in store bag no.iodine all good

 

[Bigfishy]

I 100% agree on the stress level of the animal and tank size. Copper does irritate the gills. I personally have had very good success with q.t by monitoring the animal for several days first before trying to treat anything or feedin. and no lights at first. I like to give them a few days to adjust first.

I do disagree with the idea the tank should be geared towards permanent living to be effective. I only run sponge filters (keep a few in display sump) and extra air stones in my q.t and rely heavily on water changes for water quality. Meaning 50% or more twice a week depending on fish. Now that works for me so not a definitive method. However i have not unexpectedly lost anything without there being a visual sign of disease. Would also agree we will never eliminate things like ich or velvet but we can avoid exposing everything in our tanks to these things by adding a new fish instantly.

I agree with Turtle.
A quarantine tank is a great idea and a must for our hobby.
I use a quarantine tank and have always had great success.
Where most people mess up with a quarantine tank-
1 putting too many fish in the quarantine tank at once.
2 not having an established bacteria for the Quarantine tank, thus amonia is usually off the charts

One might ask how can I have established bacteria for a quarantine tank?
- it is easy, buy a porous media put it in a bag, and keep it in your sump. when you are ready to quarantine a fish, put the media in the filter. I use a hang-on-the-back overflow filter. I keep a few bags in my sump at all times. When I get ready to quarantine a fish, I pull water out of my display tank and use it to fill the quarantine tank.
****note when done throw the media - this is a small price to pay for success. (only cost a few dollars)
- or keep a quarantine tank up and running at all times with one fish that stays in the tank to keep it established.

 

[RR-MAN]

I agree with Turtle.
A quarantine tank is a great idea and a must for our hobby.
I use a quarantine tank and have always had great success.
Where most people mess up with a quarantine tank-
1 putting too many fish in the quarantine tank at once.
2 not having an established bacteria for the Quarantine tank, thus amonia is usually off the charts

One might ask how can I have established bacteria for a quarantine tank?
- it is easy, buy a porous media put it in a bag, and keep it in your sump. when you are ready to quarantine a fish, put the media in the filter. I use a hang-on-the-back overflow filter. I keep a few bags in my sump at all times. When I get ready to quarantine a fish, I pull water out of my display tank and use it to fill the quarantine tank.
****note when done throw the media - this is a small price to pay for success. (only cost a few dollars)
- or keep a quarantine tank up and running at all times with one fish that stays in the tank to keep it established.

The quaratnine tank has been set up for about 8 months - quarantined few fish for a buddy few months ago. I do add a spong filter from the main reef every month or so to give it some life - also use seachem ammonia alert. I usually quarantine two fish at a time. It'a 4 ft tank so ample space - with some rock/pvc.

Seachem - Ammonia Alert

www.seachem.com

It’s not advisable to use copper and prazipro at the same time.

I’ve also been using copper power. I had 50/50 luck with cupramine. I don’t think I’ve lost a fish so far with copper power.

How long were new fish in tank before you added copper and tried to feed?

Copper was in the tank when I added the fish - LFS said they run copper in all FO tanks.
Probably a bad idea to add the PraziPro with copper but previous qt fish did okay.

I had a horrible run of zero success and finally had to conclude my quarantine tank was the "tank of doom". Every fish I bought died within a few hours to a few days. I still don't know what it was, but my guess is an old flower pot that I had in there as a hiding place might have been leaching something very toxic. I threw out everything but the tank itself and now use PVC for hiding spots. I just lost a new flame damsel to uronema today, but it lived a week and a half so I think the QT tank is no longer the tank of doom.

I did manage to get 4 out of 6 chromis through another QT tank this summer, which isn't great but not bad for chromis in my experience.

Oh wow - yeah I feel like the live stock quality is not the same anymore. I have a buddy in aquarium maintenance business and he is killing fish right and left in his quaratine tanks. He's telling me bad quality fish.

I would start by saying that you shouldn't listen to me and I give horrible advice

I believe that in 90% of situations, quarantining does more harm than good. It sounds like you were giving it a better go than most, but if you're not quarantining a fish in an environment where they could potentially live indefinitely (meaning properly sized, properly furnished, correct filtration, etc.) then you're just piling more stress on an already extremely stressed fish. It's basically impossible to keep a lot of the major pest/parasites out of your water column considering all the corals, inverts, macroalgae, etc that you put in your tank almost guaranteed came from water that has those problems in it too. You can't exactly treat inverts/corals with copper, and your inverts/corals don't come from systems devoid of fish. You've got ich, for instance, in your water whether you like it or not. Putting a fish that was caught in the wild (sometimes with poison), held in a container, put in a box and shipped across the pacific, put in another smaller container, put in another box and shipped to Texas, put in a smaller tank then bagged and brought to your home in a small tank with pvc and copper is just too much. The copper causes additional stress on fish too, if I remember correctly.

I dunno, it's probably not good advice, but the only people I know that lose fish are the ones that quarantine. I understand that certain things like marine velvet are a much different beast than ich, but it just seems odd that everyone I know that quarantines loses a lot of fish. Steve B was the perfect example of this. Dude's quarantine game was on point and he lost what seemed like most of what he bought in those tanks. I realize that I don't buy a lot of fish and confirmation bias is a real thing, but I don't recall losing a single fish in the last ten years that wasn't due to bullying (chromis) or the occasional one that wants to surf the nice waves of my floor. I also admit that I stick to tried and true species and prefer a less populated tank to a packed one. I hope that if it's the case that I'm just ignorant and lucky, then my ignorance and luck will continue to work in my favor for the rest of my reefing career

I always listen to your advice.
I feel like the live stock quality is sub- par at the LFS so quarantine is a must. Can't afford to lose all my fish - very expensive mistake.

 

[Team Turtle]

I agree with Turtle.
A quarantine tank is a great idea and a must for our hobby.
I use a quarantine tank and have always had great success.
Where most people mess up with a quarantine tank-
1 putting too many fish in the quarantine tank at once.
2 not having an established bacteria for the Quarantine tank, thus amonia is usually off the charts

One might ask how can I have established bacteria for a quarantine tank?
- it is easy, buy a porous media put it in a bag, and keep it in your sump. when you are ready to quarantine a fish, put the media in the filter. I use a hang-on-the-back overflow filter. I keep a few bags in my sump at all times. When I get ready to quarantine a fish, I pull water out of my display tank and use it to fill the quarantine tank.
****note when done throw the media - this is a small price to pay for success. (only cost a few dollars)
- or keep a quarantine tank up and running at all times with one fish that stays in the tank to keep it established.

Why i run sponge filters...cheap!

 

[Team Turtle]

The quaratnine tank has been set up for about 8 months - quarantined few fish for a buddy few months ago. I do add a spong filter from the main reef every month or so to give it some life - also use seachem ammonia alert. I usually quarantine two fish at a time. It'a 4 ft tank so ample space - with some rock/pvc.

Seachem - Ammonia Alert

www.seachem.com

Copper was in the tank when I added the fish - LFS said they run copper in all FO tanks.
Probably a bad idea to add the PraziPro with copper but previous qt fish did okay.



Oh wow - yeah I feel like the live stock quality is not the same anymore. I have a buddy in aquarium maintenance business and he is killing fish right and left in his quaratine tanks. He's telling me bad quality fish.





I always listen to your advice.
I feel like the live stock quality is sub- par at the LFS so quarantine is a must. Can't afford to lose all my fish - very expensive mistake.

My rule of thumb is to not mix meds unless it's metro and focus or something to that effect. With copper i have found different brands and levels is what really boogers the fish when mixed. Why i never add meds right off the bat and if running cooper start fresh at 0 on day 3 or 4.

 

[reeftopia]

Ive had the best luck running a continuous quarantine system. 40 gal with live rock and some lps. Seems to make them more at home.
I find that after 2 weeks in quarantine success rate goes down. Once there eating and happy 7 to 10 days there going in. Everytime
Ive seen velvet its been in the first few days

 

[Team Turtle]

Slow and steady. Many factors affect q.t success..from temp to basic water quality like ammonia levels. Find what works best for you and what you're willing to monitor. For me, double down on water changes and sponge filters that come seeded from my main display. Extra air stones as well..more oxygen never hurts. After a few days of ignoring the fish i start running the light on a timer same as my display..and then introducing food. 50% or more water changes 2x a week. I've kept fish in q.t for seval months before for various reasons. With just some pvc and a sponge filter. But I'm a home body so i can commit my time to it.

 

[Cody]

The quaratnine tank has been set up for about 8 months - quarantined few fish for a buddy few months ago. I do add a spong filter from the main reef every month or so to give it some life - also use seachem ammonia alert. I usually quarantine two fish at a time. It'a 4 ft tank so ample space - with some rock/pvc.

Seachem - Ammonia Alert

www.seachem.com

Copper was in the tank when I added the fish - LFS said they run copper in all FO tanks.
Probably a bad idea to add the PraziPro with copper but previous qt fish did okay.



Oh wow - yeah I feel like the live stock quality is not the same anymore. I have a buddy in aquarium maintenance business and he is killing fish right and left in his quaratine tanks. He's telling me bad quality fish.





I always listen to your advice.
I feel like the live stock quality is sub- par at the LFS so quarantine is a must. Can't afford to lose all my fish - very expensive mistake.

Yeah I could see that with a larger tank. That's why I understood when @reeftopia did it in the past. I would much rather let fish die in quarantine than to introduce something to a tank with literal schools of both yellow and purple tangs.

 

[frankc]

I got a pearlscale butterflyfish once that I planned to quarantine for about a month. It looked and acted perfect for the first 28 days or so, but just when I was thinking "I'm gonna put it in the 150 tomorrow", it became covered with velvet and died shortly thereafter. It was the only fish in the tank with probably around 60 gallons of water.

 

[RR-MAN]

Thanks guys for the great feedback...

Quarantine tank has been shut down since this morning after almost a year. No more new fish for me.

 

[Reefahholic]

100% for first 8 hrs. Hehe

Probably about 95% honestly. Unless I get something really difficult, but I stay away from most of those.