Well after seeing several posts in threads about losing fish. I thought I would put together a little article to share my experiences with QT’ing fish.
Over the last several years, there seems to be a higher need to QT your fish. Most of the fish I receive on line have internal parasites. This is found by watching for white poop in your fish. About 60% of the fish I get these days have internal parasites. This is not an issue with the fish. The fish come from all the same place…..the ocean.
I don’t believe that the fish have very many issues straight from the ocean. Once they are collected they are placed on holding facilities and they are introduced to all these parasites and diseases that we are seeing in our trade. Maybe one fish may have had something here and there and once it gets to a holding facility its spread like wild fire. That’s why we see so many issues with the fish.
I personally setup a 20 gallon aquarium for QT purposes. I only set it up when I need it. I drilled the side of the aquarium to make it easy to remove water from the aquarium. This makes it nice for water changes. Highly recommend.
When I setup the aquarium. In this instance I actually placed some sand in the bottom for some wrasses and tiger goby to make them comfortable. This is not needed normally, but I used live sand in a bag for this purpose and a scoop from the display.
When I setup the QT tank. I like to set it up at least 48 hours before my fish arrive. This is what I do.
SETUP
I place about 2 teaspoons of this stuff into filter bag and place in the filter. This stuff is the bomb! It removes ammonia and keeps nitrates at bay. Since I have been using this stuff, the QT tank really does not even cycle. Keeps everything at bay. Awesome product. I no longer use Prime. This is helpful with some medications.
Once the fish come in, I put the fish in QT and observe them for 4 to 5 days and let them start eating and get a little comfortable before I do anything.
This is what the QT looks like. Notice the drain valve for ease of water change out.
This is a hiding place for copepods if you need an area.
Once I get them eating, I immediately start running prazipro and treating their food with focus. Dont forget to remove NeoCarbonit-Z before you start Prazipro. Follow directions on bottle for how much prazipro to use and how long to run.
I do not add the recommended dose all in one swoop. I spread the dose out over 4 additions with 3 to 4 hours between each dose. This helps the fish get used to the prazi allot easier as it strips oxygen and can stress gentle fish like wrasses to death. The bubbler is essential IMO.
I run the fish through 2 cycles of prazipro treatment per the bottle’s instructions. In between the 2 treatments I run NeoCarbonit-Z for 24hours to remove the previous treatment and perform 50% water change. For the internal parasites, I stop feeding the fish focus when the infected ones stop pooping white.
This method of QT has worked really well for me. Just the 2 treatments catch most of the issues I see with fish coming in from online or LFS. If I need to medicate fish for anything else, I will bind the medication with the focus for the issue. I hope this helps.
Be patient and take everything slow while in QT. This fish need to be stress free and contaminate free before you introduce them to your display. Healthy fish make it allot better in your display and you don’t have to worry about killing any of your long term inhabitants in the main display.
Over the last several years, there seems to be a higher need to QT your fish. Most of the fish I receive on line have internal parasites. This is found by watching for white poop in your fish. About 60% of the fish I get these days have internal parasites. This is not an issue with the fish. The fish come from all the same place…..the ocean.
I don’t believe that the fish have very many issues straight from the ocean. Once they are collected they are placed on holding facilities and they are introduced to all these parasites and diseases that we are seeing in our trade. Maybe one fish may have had something here and there and once it gets to a holding facility its spread like wild fire. That’s why we see so many issues with the fish.
I personally setup a 20 gallon aquarium for QT purposes. I only set it up when I need it. I drilled the side of the aquarium to make it easy to remove water from the aquarium. This makes it nice for water changes. Highly recommend.
When I setup the aquarium. In this instance I actually placed some sand in the bottom for some wrasses and tiger goby to make them comfortable. This is not needed normally, but I used live sand in a bag for this purpose and a scoop from the display.
When I setup the QT tank. I like to set it up at least 48 hours before my fish arrive. This is what I do.
SETUP
- Remove a couple pieces of Live rock from sump and place in QT tank.
- In this case, I also added new live sand and seeded it from display.
- Fill QT tank with water from Display
- Add heater and bubble strip to QT.
- I place one pin wheel filter on each side of aquarium for water movement and pre filtration.
- Since I had wrasses that only eat pods, I placed order for pods to place in QT.
- Grab algae from refuge and place in QT for pod growth.
- Place several 2 Inch PVC tubes in aquarium for fish to hide when they want too.
I place about 2 teaspoons of this stuff into filter bag and place in the filter. This stuff is the bomb! It removes ammonia and keeps nitrates at bay. Since I have been using this stuff, the QT tank really does not even cycle. Keeps everything at bay. Awesome product. I no longer use Prime. This is helpful with some medications.
Once the fish come in, I put the fish in QT and observe them for 4 to 5 days and let them start eating and get a little comfortable before I do anything.
This is what the QT looks like. Notice the drain valve for ease of water change out.
This is a hiding place for copepods if you need an area.
Once I get them eating, I immediately start running prazipro and treating their food with focus. Dont forget to remove NeoCarbonit-Z before you start Prazipro. Follow directions on bottle for how much prazipro to use and how long to run.
I do not add the recommended dose all in one swoop. I spread the dose out over 4 additions with 3 to 4 hours between each dose. This helps the fish get used to the prazi allot easier as it strips oxygen and can stress gentle fish like wrasses to death. The bubbler is essential IMO.
I run the fish through 2 cycles of prazipro treatment per the bottle’s instructions. In between the 2 treatments I run NeoCarbonit-Z for 24hours to remove the previous treatment and perform 50% water change. For the internal parasites, I stop feeding the fish focus when the infected ones stop pooping white.
This method of QT has worked really well for me. Just the 2 treatments catch most of the issues I see with fish coming in from online or LFS. If I need to medicate fish for anything else, I will bind the medication with the focus for the issue. I hope this helps.
Be patient and take everything slow while in QT. This fish need to be stress free and contaminate free before you introduce them to your display. Healthy fish make it allot better in your display and you don’t have to worry about killing any of your long term inhabitants in the main display.
