To Quarantine, or Not?

andysgirl8800

Blenny Badlands
What exactly needs to be quarantined before going into my tank? Do I need to quarantine invertabrates? New cured live rock? Corals? Anemonies? Is there a list somewhere, or should you just quarantine everything?? Also, how long should something remain in quarantine before it's considered safe to add to your tank?
 
most people just quarantine fish prior to putting them in the tank. HOWEVER, depending on your LFS and how comfortable you are with them, I would suggest dipping your corals prior to putting them in your tank, to help reduce the chance of red bugs and flat worms....

I'm a bad person, I never QT'ed my personal tanks :P
 
Some folks QT everything.Most just QT fish.The average QT time is usually 4 to 6 weeks.
Like Nde said,even though they dont need to be quarantined,its a good idea to give new corals a soak in lugols iodine to help with coral predators and parasites.
Like Nde,I dont QT my fish per say.Since I help at the LFS,I can watch any perspective new fish at the store.I dont bring one home unless its been there and doing good for at least 3 weeks.But most folks dont get to do that though.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, rarely does anyone ever quarantine inverts. Give corals a dip, and they're usually good to go. Anemones, clams, shrimp, snails and crabs don't need anything special done to them -- a dip would likely kill them. Fish are the only animals that should be quarantined and/or medicated.
 
I trust my LFS, so I don't QT, even though I should anyway, but so far, they haven't led me wrong. I know they quarantine theirs. I go to their back room to check out their upcoming stock all the time. Although, since a month ago, they told me they no longer quarantine...they just do dips now and say they've had good results.
 
I really dont Quarantine anything but if you did want to Quarantine your fish the recommended amount of time to quarantine would be 4-6 weeks. Now for your corals just dip them into lugols iodine and they should be fine!
 
Yeah, rarely does anyone ever quarantine inverts. Give corals a dip, and they're usually good to go. Anemones, clams, shrimp, snails and crabs don't need anything special done to them -- a dip would likely kill them. Fish are the only animals that should be quarantined and/or medicated.

There is nothing to stop one small ich egg from hitching a ride on a snail or hermit.
 
There is nothing to stop one small ich egg from hitching a ride on a snail or hermit.

In that case, how do you propose medicating a snail for hitch hiking ich? Or dipping it for that matter? You can't.

Yes, I suppose there's a chance of one small ich egg hitching a ride on a snail or hermit, but if that's the case, there's the chance of one small ich egg hitch hiking in on your live rock and live sand too. Are you going to give those a freshwater dip or a copper soak?

My point is, so what? There's nothing you can do about it.
 
Ich isn't the end of the world anyways. If you minimize stress, feed your fish a healthy, appropriate diet, don't overstock and keep your water quality up, ich usually doesn't pose a problem. Some highly sensitive and sickly fish seem to come down with ich no matter what, but those fish need extra precautions taken (i.e. UV sterilizer). For the other 95% of the fish commonly kept in this hobby, the presence of ich in the tank usually isn't a threat.
 
Back
Top