QT tank?

I posted this question somewhere and dont remember where....so posting again as I dont remember seeing answer

I am going to start off the same way as I did before. I am sure this is going to be a dumb question, but it is something I just have not really understood but now I am debating setting one up again.

I understand the whole cycle of ick and marine disease (I think) how it usually takes many weeks, upto 6 weeks for the cycle to complete. So I can see why people really SHOULD place fish in QT when they first get them to make sure they do not introduce something into their display tank.

I also know that if fish does get ick or some other type of disease it is much easier to treat it in the hospital tank rather that try to stress the fish to treat it or figure something out to treat entire tank (as there really isnt much out there that is reef safe)

But this is what I dont understand about the process. EVERY fish has ick on them (and I would assume this is true for other parasites and infx just like we all have staph and other junk???) Factors such as STRESS, poor water conditions, and various other things will cause the fish to develop these conditions.

So, we get a fish, place it in a QT tank for several weeks, by itself, with no rocks, no sand and allow it to settle down. After this we restress it and move it to the the display tank, with other fish, stinging corals, rocks, pumps, etc. This has got to stress the fish out again. So what stops the fish from developing ick then..thus defeating the purpose of the QT tank??

Just my twisted brain working....

 

I've not heard that EVERY fish has ick on it, although I can see your point. A fish doesn't only have to be stressed to get a disease. Just like us, we can be totally healthy and still catch a cold or whatever, so if every fish has ick on it, then at some point you will experience disease, no matter how healthy, clean and energetic they are. The quarantine tank serves as a way to actually kill the parasite rather then just treating the symptoms. By using copper based products that would harm inverts and corals. As you though, these are just my own thoughts and the way I understand disease and fish

 

I dont find that ICK is much of a problem in a reef tank. Just look carefully at the fish you plan to buy. Always look at all of the fish that are in the store you are looking at. Most LFS are running many tanks through the same water. So if the tank next to the tank that has a fish you are interested in has fish that look stressed, laying around, fin damage, or spots I would not buy any fish from them.