ScubaSnacks
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Pacific Northwest Reefers
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Barrier Reef has some sort of qt/conditioning type setup going on but I’m not 100% sure exactly what they do. I remember asking about it but it’s been a while and I can’t remember the details. I’d give them a call and ask first since you’re pretty far away to just drop by.
I have purchased 4 fish from Barrier Reef, 3 Chalk Basslets and a Royal Gramma. The Gramma and one of the Chalk basslets are doing great. The other two Chalk Basslets died but I don’t believe it was from a disease in either case. I think there was some basslet on basslet violence, kinda similar to green chromis, and that there can be “only one”. None ever showed any signs of distress, they just disappeared.
I have also purchased fish from Saltwater City. They do a hypo salinity thing there where they take the fish down quick and bring them back up quick. I don’t know if that does much but my Tomini Tang, Orange Back Fairy Wrasse, and the two mutant clowns all came from there and all have done great.
I would but with confidence from either place.
Full disclosure, I’ve never quarantined a fish. I’ve never had the room to set up a qt tank. I may do observational qt in the future if I can get a tank to hold a stable temp in the garage. It’s pretty cold out there. I’ve been lucky not to get a fish with something difficult to deal with. No tank wipeouts so far. I know ich is in my tank but I have not seen more than a few scattered spots on the clowns and none in a really long time. I was worried during my tank move in June but other than the zebra barred dartfish freaking out and dying a couple of days later I had no losses and no signs of ich or anything else. I keep my fish pretty well fed so that they are strong enough to fend off ich. I have no illusions that will continue if I import a fish with something worse.
Whatever you buy, if you can qt it, you probably should but you have to be disciplined and do it with everything wet that goes in the tank or else it’s ineffective. I’ve never been that disciplined.
I'm following a thread right now about if QT is worth it, and it's clearly a divisive topic. While I have room and a tank for QT, I'm severely lacking in time. To your point, I think by default that would mean a high likelihood of my QT being ineffective.
I think the best options that would likely fit my availability is either the BRS 80/20 or just a 2 week observational QT. Given my newness to the hobby, the prior is probably best - not sure I could spot disease if it were there.
Speaking of spotting things; I've found two hitchhikers from the corals. The first was an aiptasia on one of the zoa frags. I found it when epoxying in place this morning after Gail the urchin knocked it off last night . That is now covered by glob of CA. I'm currently monitoring the spot to see if it comes back out. The second hitchhiker is hydroid jelly's. I've heard mixed reviews on those so I'll suck as many as I can out tomorrow during water change and hope they go away as the tank matures.
Never a dull moment.