Doc's Aquatics Quarantine Process

[Dvon0605]

copperband loves her some lrs!

Dang that guys a beast!

 

[mattyzang]

haha yeah fast grower i'd say

 

[Fishrfriend]

Hey there! Happy to help and I really hope that I can help ease your fears of qt by answering any questions you have
1.. when you mix the meds to their food, how much of each meds are u using to soak? Are you just making 1 big cocktail of meds and soaking the food?

I use the scoop that comes with with the seachem products in a 1:1 ratio with the focus. So 1 scoop of focus and 1 scoop of the other three meds. I like to make bigger batches though since I have so many fish to feed so mine ends up being two scoops. You want to make batches that only last about 3 days or so. After that the food begins to spoil in the fridge

2. You mentioned a fresh water dip during the first 3 weeks. Are you dipping them once a week or 1 time in the period of 3 weeks.

It usually ends up averaging once a week. I watch for any flashing, scatching or head shaking which are signs of flukes. It is more of an as need treatment

3. When and how often do you soak in Ruby rally?

This is also an as needed treatment. If I see any fish swimming into the high flow areas then they immediately get a freshwater dip and then a ruby reef rally bath the following day

4. I have an old hob protein skimmer, is it worth it to used it? Or will this remove medication...

If you are going to run copper power or coppersafe, it is definitely worth it! Protein skimming actually only removes a minimal amount of copper contrary to popular belief. It only removes the amount of copper that is in the water volume removed in the skimmate. My next big upgrade to my systems is to get some decent skimmers on them

5. Lastly, thinking about putting a small rock to seed my tank. I heard that chelook ayed copper does not kill the good bacteria.. any thoughts on this? I know the rock will absorb copper not sure by how much....

You're correct chelated copper does not kill the nitrifying bacteria. I would however recommend that instead of a rock using filter media such as the fluval ceramic rings or seachem matrix. Both of these have been proven to not absorb chelated copper and the last thing you want is for your level to drop below therapeutic!

I hope this was helpful to you. Lmk if you have any other questions at all!

 

[Fishrfriend]

hello Devon, Starting my QT process for my tang and wrasse. With regards to medicating my food, you mentioned that 1 scoop of focus mixed in with 1 scoop each of the other meds. My question is since I only have to feed 2 fishes, can I just mixed the meds by themselves without putting them in the food. Then I could just put some of the mixture in to the food as I used them. That way my mixture will last longer rather than the 3 days limit due to the food spoilage. Is this possible? Also, I have a mardi gras wrasse, should i add a small container of sand in my qt tank? I will start using copper power to get my copper level to 1ppm today.

 

[Dvon0605]

hello Devon, Starting my QT process for my tang and wrasse. With regards to medicating my food, you mentioned that 1 scoop of focus mixed in with 1 scoop each of the other meds. My question is since I only have to feed 2 fishes, can I just mixed the meds by themselves without putting them in the food. Then I could just put some of the mixture in to the food as I used them. That way my mixture will last longer rather than the 3 days limit due to the food spoilage. Is this possible? Also, I have a mardi gras wrasse, should i add a small container of sand in my qt tank? I will start using copper power to get my copper level to 1ppm today.

I don't see any issue with doing this. Just make sure to put the mixture in a airtight container to keep the meds from losing any effectiveness. I would put sand in the tank for the wrasse. I've personally been dealing with sand dwelling wrasses developing mouth damage when they do not have sand. My weekend project is to get sand into my qt tanks

 

[gofor100]

I don't see any issue with doing this. Just make sure to put the mixture in a airtight container to keep the meds from losing any effectiveness. I would put sand in the tank for the wrasse. I've personally been dealing with sand dwelling wrasses developing mouth damage when they do not have sand. My weekend project is to get sand into my qt tanks

I've had success with putting about 2 inches of sand in a little plastic or glass Tupperware bowl so that you don't have to deal with sand throughout the QT. Works perfectly.

 

[Dvon0605]

I've had success with putting about 2 inches of sand in a little plastic or glass Tupperware bowl so that you don't have to deal with sand throughout the QT. Works perfectly.

This was exactly my plan!

 

[Mcshams]

My wife and I were introduced to Devon through people that had met and purchased fish through him. We ordered fish, met his awesome family and saw the process. We are very happy and convinced he knows his stuff. His family is awesome as well. I may be biased because as a former Marine, we love our Navy Corpsman (doc)...so there's that.
We are looking to getting our fish through QT and have already placed our second fish order.!

 

[Dvon0605]

My wife and I were introduced to Devon through people that had met and purchased fish through him. We ordered fish, met his awesome family and saw the process. We are very happy and convinced he knows his stuff. His family is awesome as well. I may be biased because as a former Marine, we love our Navy Corpsman (doc)...so there's that.
We are looking to getting our fish through QT and have already placed our second fish order.!

Thanks man! Definitely biased I can do no wrong in a Marine's eyes lol. It was great getting to meet you guys and I'm super excited to get this order out to you! Appreciate the kind words 😁

 

[orbela]

No it will not. I would recommend some form of chelated copper though since it is much easier on fish than cupramine. I would use media as it will be less effort and money to be honest. Every 100% water change is going to be cupramine that needs to be redosed

Alright so are you recommending copper power instead of cupramine? Unfortunately my fish got here before I could set up qt and one had ich. Hopefully my supplies get here quick.

 

[Dvon0605]

Yeah I'd recommend copper power over cupramine, but it's better to treat as soon as possible

 

[orbela]

Yeah I'd recommend copper power over cupramine, but it's better to treat as soon as possible

I’m going to use cupramine since I have on hand. Thanks

 

[laverda]

Good info here, thanks for sharing. I have a QT tank that is basically a 50 gallon reef tank. I QT my fish there for 90 days while observing them. One reason I do it this way is to supply pods for things like pipe fish and a mandarin I currently have is QT. It has worked fairly well for me. I do lose some fish in QT, always within the first few days. It has kept problems out of my display. Because it has rocks, it is not the best for observing fish when they first arrive. I feel the more natural environment helps reduce stress. I also feed a medicated pellet food, but that is no help for pipe fish or mandarins.
I currently have 1 mandarin, 3 neon gobies, 2 pipe fish, 2 other small gobies, 4 cleaner shrimp and a few inverts in QT for 3 weeks now. I did not see 4 of the fish for their fist week in the tank. I am still not sure if both pipe fish are alive or not. I suspect only one is. When I get new fish I like get a few typical with in a few days so I can QT them together. Then add multiple fish to my display together to keep bulling down.
As most losses are within a day or two of purchase I am wondering if you can make recommendations on improving my system?
I am thinking I should get back in the habit of fresh water dipping fallowed by a second 45 minute dip in ruby reef rally. Then feeding foods soaked in seachem focus, metroplex, kanaplex, furan 2, and vitachem for the first 14 days. What foods do you typically feed during QT.

 

[Dvon0605]

Good info here, thanks for sharing. I have a QT tank that is basically a 50 gallon reef tank. I QT my fish there for 90 days while observing them. One reason I do it this way is to supply pods for things like pipe fish and a mandarin I currently have is QT. It has worked fairly well for me. I do lose some fish in QT, always within the first few days. It has kept problems out of my display. Because it has rocks, it is not the best for observing fish when they first arrive. I feel the more natural environment helps reduce stress. I also feed a medicated pellet food, but that is no help for pipe fish or mandarins.
I currently have 1 mandarin, 3 neon gobies, 2 pipe fish, 2 other small gobies, 4 cleaner shrimp and a few inverts in QT for 3 weeks now. I did not see 4 of the fish for their fist week in the tank. I am still not sure if both pipe fish are alive or not. I suspect only one is. When I get new fish I like get a few typical with in a few days so I can QT them together. Then add multiple fish to my display together to keep bulling down.
As most losses are within a day or two of purchase I am wondering if you can make recommendations on improving my system?
I am thinking I should get back in the habit of fresh water dipping fallowed by a second 45 minute dip in ruby reef rally. Then feeding foods soaked in seachem focus, ametroplex, kanaplex, furan 2, and vitachem for the first 14 days. What foods do you typically feed during QT.

So as far as an observational qt, I think you have a perfect system. How do you treat for things like ich, velvet and flukes? The medications you listed do not treat those parasites. Do you move the fish to a medicated qt if you do see any spots?
I do agree with the rocks reducing stress. Fish just do not seem to calm down in sterile, barebottom quarantine tanks with pvc to hide in.
I feed ALOT during qt. My tanks usually look horrible because of all the algae growth. Fish get PE mysis, rods, LRS fertility, clam on the half shell, nori, and spectrum pellets. I'll be doing a writeup on fish nutrition sometime soon
If you're losing fish within the first few days, I would try matching your qt salinity with the salinity the fish is coming from. I've noticed a much higher success rate this way. Usually your fish are going to come in at a lower salinity around 1.019. I've tried drip acclimation, cup acclimation, and just dump and pray. Matching my qt salinity beforehand has yielded the best results. I think fish need a much longer transition time when going from a lower to higher salinity.
I would give the fish a few days to acclimate to qt before the fw dip. It can be rough on them after being transported and moved around.
All in all it looks like you have a very good handle on your qt process! I'm always looking for a way to switch to a more naturalistic qt as it is easier on the fish. I look forward to more input from you and how your process evolves!

 

[Jerry Williams]

This has been the best info. Thanks for the clarity and easy to understand info. I'll be setting up a QT following these suggestion here this next week. I have all the chemicals and medicated food additives, getting a 20 gal tank tomorrow with Shark 400 HOB filter.
J

 

[Dvon0605]

This has been the best info. Thanks for the clarity and easy to understand info. I'll be setting up a QT following these suggestion here this next week. I have all the chemicals and medicated food additives, getting a 20 gal tank tomorrow with Shark 400 HOB filter.
J

Awesome im glad I can help. Please let me know if you have any questions at all! I'm sure there's a ton of stuff I missed so please ask away! If you have any urgent issues you can always pm me for my number. Im glad that more people are quarantining. I hope it becomes common practice for all hobbyists in the near future!

 

[Jerry Williams]

Awesome im glad I can help. Please let me know if you have any questions at all! I'm sure there's a ton of stuff I missed so please ask away! If you have any urgent issues you can always pm me for my number. Im glad that more people are quarantining. I hope it becomes common practice for all hobbyists in the near future!

Once you have the copper at theraputic levels, what do you do later when you have new fish? Will they be ok being freshly introduced to that much copper or do you start over with each set of new fish?

 

[Dvon0605]

Once you have the copper at theraputic levels, what do you do later when you have new fish? Will they be ok being freshly introduced to that much copper or do you start over with each set of new fish?

I drop the copper level back down to about 1.5 ppm through water changes. Alot of fish can tolerate therapeutic levels immediately if they aren't sensitive to copper but I like to ease all of my fish into it just to be safe

 

[laverda]

So as far as an observational qt, I think you have a perfect system. How do you treat for things like ich, velvet and flukes? The medications you listed do not treat those parasites. Do you move the fish to a medicated qt if you do see any spots?
I do agree with the rocks reducing stress. Fish just do not seem to calm down in sterile, barebottom quarantine tanks with pvc to hide in.
I feed ALOT during qt. My tanks usually look horrible because of all the algae growth. Fish get PE mysis, rods, LRS fertility, clam on the half shell, nori, and spectrum pellets. I'll be doing a writeup on fish nutrition sometime soon
If you're losing fish within the first few days, I would try matching your qt salinity with the salinity the fish is coming from. I've noticed a much higher success rate this way. Usually your fish are going to come in at a lower salinity around 1.019. I've tried drip acclimation, cup acclimation, and just dump and pray. Matching my qt salinity beforehand has yielded the best results. I think fish need a much longer transition time when going from a lower to higher salinity.
I would give the fish a few days to acclimate to qt before the fw dip. It can be rough on them after being transported and moved around.
All in all it looks like you have a very good handle on your qt process! I'm always looking for a way to switch to a more naturalistic qt as it is easier on the fish. I look forward to more input from you and how your process evolves!

I always lower the tank salinity to match the water they come in and then drip acclimate them for 30 min or so. I do water changes every day with display tank water the week before moving new fish and raise the salinity and other perameters to match the display tank.
I almost always have some cleaner shrimp and cleaner gobies in my QT. I have found they do wonders for ICH. I have not seen ICH in years using this method. In fact in the past I have put fish in my QT covered in ICH and the cleaners just about attacked the fish, but I Never saw ICH on them again. Cleaner gobies are not immune to ICH, so you need several for this to work. That I know of I have never had flukes. Something did kill all the fish I had in QT about a year ago. I never saw any symptoms. I just had fewer fish each day. I didn’t have any cleaner gobies (sometimes hard to find), just cleaner shrimp which were fine. I left the QT fallow for 90 days after that just to make sure.
The big disadvantage of rock in the QT is it is harder to catch the fish to move to the display or if I wanted to treat or dip them. I pretty much have to take most of the rock out to do so.
Like you I tend to feed my QT heavily. If need be I will change a few rocks out between batches of fish. I have plenty of extra cured rock around. I also restock it with pods weekly when I change my filter socks on my display.

 

[Dvon0605]

I always lower the tank salinity to match the water they come in and then drip acclimate them for 30 min or so. I do water changes every day with display tank water the week before moving new fish and raise the salinity and other perameters to match the display tank.
I almost always have some cleaner shrimp and cleaner gobies in my QT. I have found they do wonders for ICH. I have not seen ICH in years using this method. In fact in the past I have put fish in my QT covered in ICH and the cleaners just about attacked the fish, but I Never saw ICH on them again. Cleaner gobies are not immune to ICH, so you need several for this to work. That I know of I have never had flukes. Something did kill all the fish I had in QT about a year ago. I never saw any symptoms. I just had fewer fish each day. I didn’t have any cleaner gobies (sometimes hard to find), just cleaner shrimp which were fine. I left the QT fallow for 90 days after that just to make sure.
The big disadvantage of rock in the QT is it is harder to catch the fish to move to the display or if I wanted to treat or dip them. I pretty much have to take most of the rock out to do so.
Like you I tend to feed my QT heavily. If need be I will change a few rocks out between batches of fish. I have plenty of extra cured rock around. I also restock it with pods weekly when I change my filter socks on my display.

This is awesome. I really like your naturalistic approach to observational quarantine. Especially the use of cleaner shrimp and neon gobies. Id really like to try this out one day. There's people who say that peppermint shrimp will eat ich tomonts as well so you may want to throw a few in your qt as well. As far as cleaner shrimp and neon gobies go, they actually only eat the dead skin tissue that is created by ich. They cannot eat parasites that burrow below the epithelial. They can however eat velvet, flukes, and lymphocystis. Do you run a uv sterilizer on your qt as well?