quartine, is it necessary?

[rooter]

i will be added a varied stocking list to my new 90g and i was just wondering if a quarentine tank is a must or if there is a way around this?

[clown-lover]

Well lets put it like this.. How much do you love your tank? Or will you love your tank..
One infected fish can kill everything.

QT is a must and with your 90 you'll need a minimum of a 20 gallon long for a QT. You can take the risk and not do it, but I promise you that you will eventually have an issue if you don't. You MIGHT get lucky but the odds aren't in your favor for the simple reason that many fish brought into LPS aren't there for long and have been put under abnormally high levels of stress. Unless you know that your lps doesn't have a common filtration system and qt's all of the fish before selling you really should QT your fish. I mean your paying a mini fortune for them isn't it wise to protect the investment?

JMO

[srossnz]

To piggyback on this do we quarantine rock and coral as well? How would you even know a rock is 'sick'? Can I get liverock from the lfs and just add it to my tank?

[clown-lover]

I don't QT LR, and depending on the type of Coral yes I might QT.. Other I do a Lugols dip on and put right into the display. But there are several factors that go with that. Where I got it from, if it was on a central filtration unit.. etc etc etc. I also go over my corals with a fine tooth comb before ever putting them into my display as there are all kinds of other parasites that could be fine on one coral but not another.

[Lupin]

Quarantine is really necessary. I'd hate to deal with ich which is quite a pain to control.

[schigara]

Isn't it possible for ich to hitch hike in on LR, or anything, for that matter?


I don't QT LR, and depending on the type of Coral yes I might QT.. Other I do a Lugols dip on and put right into the display. But there are several factors that go with that. Where I got it from, if it was on a central filtration unit.. etc etc etc. I also go over my corals with a fine tooth comb before ever putting them into my display as there are all kinds of other parasites that could be fine on one coral but not another.

[clown-lover]

Isn't it possible for ich to hitch hike in on LR, or anything, for that matter?

It can be in its tomonts stages sure.. But like I said I don't QT Live Rock..I cure it but I personally don't QT it.. But then I also don't buy Live Rock out of tanks that hold fish either.. And I also make sure that when purchasing from my LPS that it has been in stock for more than 2-3 weeks.. That covers my curing time and any time the parasite would need to follow the life cycle and continue.

[Grins]

I QT all fish, I dip rock (fw only) and corals (the corals get Lugols/Interceptor), and motile inverts I just cross my fingers and hope.