how important is quarantine to start?

I have always been told that I should keep new fish in a quarantine tank for 2-3 weeks before adding them to the DT - and the logic of this makes sense. However, I bought a yellow tang 5 days ago, and he was not doing well in the QT. Would not eat much, and just spent all his time hiding out behind the filter sponge looking stressed. No ich or anything, just stressed out.

This morning I decided to try putting him in the DT, and he loved it right away. Lots of live rock to graze on, plenty of hiding spaces, and much more room to swim.

So my question to the forum is how important is the QT to start? Do people use it in every case, and for how long? The next fish I plan to add is a dwarf angel of some sort (flame or corral beauty), and I hear they need live rock as well, so how well will they do in a QT?

 

QT is very important, the main reason is. Even though your fish may not be happy with his new surroundings. You're protecting your DT from all kinda of nastys, ICH, Velvet, Fungas, Bacteria, etc. The purpose of the QT is to watch him, and treat him if nessesary. I just got a Royal Gramma at the LFS, he looked great at the store, but when we got him home he stopped eatting and we couldn't find him. Looking at his scales from were starting to flake off. Had we dropped him right into the tank we never would have noticed that, so we couldn't treat him. Also there was no way to get him out w/o disturbing the entire system. If something like ICH was introduced, then all the fish have it, and any aggressive treatment of ich would harm your inverts and corals.

By using the QT method is like using insurance... do you need it? Not always, but when you need it your glad you have it.

For your flame angel you can always get some large PVC pipe and put it into the QT so he has a place to hide, would make him feel more secure perhaps.

Just my 2 cents,
Gavin

 

It's highly recommended. I haven't used it, and so far I've been lucky. But every time I get something new I'm filled with angst for the first week wondering "what if". I plan on setting one up in the near future. For peace of mind, if nothing else.

 

It's a good idea, but if you have a healthy,mature tank with all parameters in check than your fish's natural immune system should be able to easily fight diseases such as ich. As for treating the fish you have brought home... imagine trying to catch a juvenile hippo tang to give it a freshwater dip in a display tank. Had to do it once. Process is 1.Rip tank apart and 2.Cry. Haha

 

You guys are right, of course. As I said before, I TOTALLY see the logic of a QT. I just hate how it stresses the fish to be in a small, empty tank. Maybe I'll just put a piece of cured live rock from my tank into the QT to give the fish something to do. (and, yes, I know that if I have to dose the fish with copper, I can never put that rock back in my DT).

 

So far, I haven't quarantined. BUT, all my fish have come from my local saltwater only store where they can tell me exactly how long the fish has been in there, how well it's eating, etc. I also know that our water parameters are almost identical. No problems with that so far - all fish have done great and been healthy. Well, except for 2 that have jumped out of the tank for reasons other than health! If I ever bought a fish online or from another store, I would definitely quarantine.