I disagree - most people dont have spawning fish (except clowns) - because most people have only one member of a certain species. But we've been down this road before - and it never ends anywhereWhat almost everyone is not getting is that a natural tank is not just throwing fish into a tank and hoping for the best. That won't work. It will never work in a new tank because those are never healthy.
For a natural, Immune tank to work the fish must be in excellent condition and the fact that they are swimming around, not dying and displaying no spots does not make them healthy.
Far from it. We see people walking around all over the place and most of them look healthy, but we can only see the outside of those people.
Many of therm have diabetes, cancer, Lupus, hardening of the arteries, nose rings, etc.
One of the best ways to tell if a fish is healthy is if it is filling with eggs as all female fish fill with eggs. You can't stop a healthy fish from filling with eggs.
Fish not in optimal health will not do that and will be susceptible to everything.
A Noob will not be able to see this, I am sorry.
Of course if you have a pair of fish, they should be spawning, and if they are not, they are not healthy.
(Of course they need to be old enough to spawn)
Virtually all my pairs of fish spawn, every one of them all the time.
That only will happen with the proper food. And I have said it too many times but dry foods will not do it.
In some fish like clowns it will because they are the hardiest fish and very hard to kill, They also have some thick slime on them which is one reason they can live in anemones.
Fresh or better, live foods should be given occasionally for the bacteria in their guts.
Everyone can get either fresh or freshly frozen clams or if not grow some worms.
If you can't get those foods, quarantine.
To get fish in spawning and immune condition, the tank shouldn't be to clean.
(Yes Mn, thats where my Long Island Sound water can help)
There should be a little algae growing and some "mulm" on the rocks. In a healthy tank you should see tube worms and multiples of tiny arms sticking out of the pores in the rock. There should be pods all over the rock.
New tanks will get all of that eventually but not is you quarantine everything, treat with copper and God Forbid, antibiotics.
See if you can find any fully quarantined tanks, especially where drugs were used that are old and the fish only die of old age and never ever get sick.
Old is not 5 years.
There is a reason for that. Those tanks are short circuiting the system and those fish have almost no immunity and anything that enters will kill those fish.
I can't help it and I can't change my beliefs as I didn't come up with this last Tuesday. It is what it is and if you can keep drugged fish long term without them getting sick, go for it.
But I started this thread about my system. Anyone can make a thread about a quarantined system. But lets hear how old it is with no problems.
I am old so I can't keep saying the same things and I hear all the time that my system can't be duplicated.
My tank ran for decades on ASW and it was just as new as any one elses tank.
Fish in the 70s were all sick with ich and velvet rampant.
That is not a new thing. I overcame it with at first, copper. But I gradually learned that I needed food with living bacteria in it and overcame all diseases.;
It is what it is.