Does quarantine stress the fish more than it's worth?

[DaveB]

I had a store accuse me of killing a fish by stressing it out too much due to quarantining it (justifiably - it had ich!) Needless to say, I have not been back to that store in a year.

I only quarantine depending on the fish and source. If I buy a nice eartheater from a trusted MFK user, I'm confident that it's fine and I'm not going to worry about tossing it in. Many fish from a good store might get the same treatment. But I wouldn't introduce a clown loach from a store to the tank with clowns without a long quarantine (which isn't worth the trouble, so I just don't buy them from stores). That would just be asking for trouble.

I can see the point about the 5g bucket though... but the answer to that is simply to use a 10g tank instead. They're easy to find, cheap, and don't take up much space.

 

[David R]

Quarantine isn't a must, it's a preference.

You could say the same about filtration...


Your argument about building up an immune system is complete bs too, have you actually done any research to prove it or are you just speculating? It may be true with some diseases, but not for parasites. Do fish actually build up a resistance to white spot if they've had it before? I highly doubt it and I've seen evidence with my own fish to confirm that. Does a dog build up a resistance to fleas if you don't medicate it? Have you ever seen a person immunized for lice?

You're right that its not essential, and TBH I have only started doing it in the past month as I'm keeping CLs in a 160g. I've mostly gotten away with it for the past 10 years, but I have had whitespot from new fish a couple of times in my pack of clowns which is why I'm quarantining new fish now that they're in a bigger tank.

Wondering if itis just more practical to choose healthy-looking fish from the store and pop them in the main tank right away.

If you can see that there are no whitespots hiding in their gills and no internal parasites etc then sure, go for it.

 

[12 Volt Man]

I had a store accuse me of killing a fish by stressing it out too much due to quarantining it (justifiably - it had ich!) Needless to say, I have not been back to that store in a year.

I only quarantine depending on the fish and source. If I buy a nice eartheater from a trusted MFK user, I'm confident that it's fine and I'm not going to worry about tossing it in. Many fish from a good store might get the same treatment. But I wouldn't introduce a clown loach from a store to the tank with clowns without a long quarantine (which isn't worth the trouble, so I just don't buy them from stores). That would just be asking for trouble.

I can see the point about the 5g bucket though... but the answer to that is simply to use a 10g tank instead. They're easy to find, cheap, and don't take up much space.

the best fish store in the world can still have ich.

we used to treat all the new fish shipments for ich, with various meds like clout, organicure, quick cure etc.

and still, ich rears its ugly head now and then.

if the store is getting lots of stock in on a regular basis, diseases and parasites are part of the deal, unfortunately.

the latest parasite I am seeing more and more of from different fish shippments both from asia and south america, is camallanus worms.

tough to see them unless you have had them before and know what to look for.

problem with that evil parasite is that standard quarentine periods are ineffective as the worm can be inside the fish for months before you even see it.

and normal deworming meds are not effective.

you need levamisole, which is, in Canada at least, hard to get and super expensive..

 

[Toby_H]

In my experience, the best way to start a quarantine tank or fry tank is to keep a sponge filter in the mature main tank for some time to be properly seeded… then when the new fish or fry arrive, put them in the holding tank with this seeded sponge filter in it…

I agree just putting a new fish in a bucket or small holding tank with out proper (seeded) filtration is causing the fish unnecessary stress and therefore greatly reduces the associated benefits of quarantining. So like everything in life, if you’re going to do it, do it right…

dont quarantine for the sake of the new fish... quarantine for the sake of the fish you already have..

^ Wonderful point put so simply ^

All that being said… 20 years into fish keeping and I don’t always quarantine new fish. It depends on the source, the type of fish, the tank it’s going into, the timing when I receive it… While I agree with and understand the benefits of quarantining… I think thee have been some posts in this thread exaggerating it into being a must… or that it is completely irresponsible to not do so...

That being said, if I make the decision to cut a corner and not quarantine, and a tank is negatively affected by that, I see it as my responsibility to accept the inconvenience and put proper efforts into taking care of the tank. UV lights, very frequent heavy water changes… Meds if necessary…
In many years of keeping many tanks, I really haven’t had any big scares though. A little parasite here and there but nothing I couldn’t eradicate with methods I was familiar with and had readily available…

Everything in life comes at a risk… educate yourself about the risks at hand and choose which ones you are willing to accept…

 

[paopanlilio]

just qt the new fish to protect you're current stock it may be a preferrence for others but for me its a must

ick can be cured but fish tb couldnt once its there its there although it wouldnt kill the fish secondary infections will.


qt may be stressfull for fish but theres a lot of ways to qt if you're concerned about the gallon or tank you'll place the fish at then its not a really big problem since we all need hospital tanks get a tank that is 30 percent of your main tank and get a hob or overhead filter in your main tank which you can easily transfer to the qt/hospital tank

 

[paopanlilio]

just qt the new fish to protect you're current stock it may be a preferrence for others but for me its a must

ick can be cured but fish tb couldnt once its there its there although it wouldnt kill the fish secondary infections will.


qt may be stressfull for fish but theres a lot of ways to qt if you're concerned about the gallon or tank you'll place the fish at then its not a really big problem since we all need hospital tanks get a tank that is 30 percent of your main tank and get a hob or overhead filter in your main tank which you can easily transfer to the qt/hospital tank

seems like somebady already gave the same idea of the extra filter in the main tank

accessed this thread about 45 mins before i could post
an extra tank is always handy

 

[dogofwar]

I have a couple of quarantine tanks going all of the time in my 50-ish tank fishroom: both are 20Ls.

It's far better to quarantine and treat a small tank and a few fish than to treat a bigger tank and lots of fish that were previously healthy.

I keep a few extra sponge filters running in my tanks / sumps. Mature filter + new tank = cycled tank.

Buckets make poor quarantine "tanks" because it's extremely difficult to observe the fish...which is the point.

 

[dingoofus]

You could say the same about filtration...


Your argument about building up an immune system is complete bs too, have you actually done any research to prove it or are you just speculating? It may be true with some diseases, but not for parasites. Do fish actually build up a resistance to white spot if they've had it before? I highly doubt it and I've seen evidence with my own fish to confirm that. Does a dog build up a resistance to fleas if you don't medicate it? Have you ever seen a person immunized for lice?

You're right that its not essential, and TBH I have only started doing it in the past month as I'm keeping CLs in a 160g. I've mostly gotten away with it for the past 10 years, but I have had whitespot from new fish a couple of times in my pack of clowns which is why I'm quarantining new fish now that they're in a bigger tank.


If you can see that there are no whitespots hiding in their gills and no internal parasites etc then sure, go for it.

Oh okay, so my theory is bs now? You are saying I'm just speculating? and I haven't done any research? Well it sounds like you haven't done any research against my theory and you're just speculating against my theory, sorta the pot calling the kettle black aye. Dismissing a valid point as bs, before doing any proper research on the subject, shows that you are a sheep, by that I mean you go with the rest and your mind isn't developed enough to even try question tradition.

This statement alone shows how undeveloped your mind is, "Your argument about building up an immune system is complete bs too, have you actually done any research to prove it or are you just speculating?." Now I don't know about you, but I just hought it was common sense to know that our bodies develop immunities after we've suffered a sickness?

Okay a few of your questions...
Does a dog build up a resistance to fleas if you don't medicate it? Okay, it's not fleas but the parasite I'm going to talk about is worse, it's a tick in nsw. There is a tick in Nsw that kills dogs, over years, without any human interaction mind you, the Dingo has built up an immunity to this tick, the tick will never kill a dingo, it can kill a normal dogs but not a dingo. Also the dingo was used in the making of another australian dog, the Kelpie, the kelpie has also got this trait in it, which protects it from this tick.

Have you ever seen a person immunized for lice? Mate, I don't know how old you are, but if you are in your 20's and still getting lice, there is something wrong with you.

Just adding on, filtration is also a preference,... in the wild they don't have electrical devices helping in their water quality, there is great thing called plants.

 

[dingoofus]

Just adding on for everyone, I'm taking everyones points in, that's how we develop our fishkeeping strategy, I'm not dismissing anyones points as bs and I'm not criticizing anyone. So if you can't open your mind to different suggestions from th normal, there is no point trying to learn anything. You can't learn something if it's not out of the norm for you.

So, stop criticizing my point just because it's not what the majority of people do. I'm sorry if I'm not a moneky see, monkey do person. If you wan't to go against my point, by all means do it, as long as you do it intelligently. That means don't try to negat my point with statements like that's BS, if you are trying to convince me to try your side of thinking, it's best not to insult, or try criticize my thinknig with lame sarcastic questions like, "have you ever seen a dog get treated for fleas?" etc. We all have brains here, lets use them to come to a conclusion on the question that this thread is trying to adress.

 

[Lupin]

This is not a personal debate, but a debate in general so please keep the personal comments out of context. There is freedom to express your opinions and facts so telling others what not to speak, is most underhanded in light of general debates.