Quarantine your new fish!

[zygote2k]

We've been buying fish from a few stores in metro area of md and we've experienced about a 90% mortality rate. Sometimes the new fish are spreading disease to existing fish. We've also had several customers tell us similar things. I don't necessarily think that it's the stores themselves that are causing the issues, but they don't QT their fish which is a whole other issue. I think many of these diseases are in the wholesalers systems and they just pass them on to the retailer. We've seen some cases of Brooklynella out there too.

As a result of these issues, we've set up a dedicated QT system and established a 1 month QT process to help ensure that our fish don't wind up contaminating established fish tanks.

If you are buying fish from stores that don't have a QT system, you should QT them before adding them to your display.

[Origami]

Thanks for the heads up, Rob. That's an awfully high loss rate. I wonder if our sponsors are seeing this from their sources, too?

[Fishie]

Maybe u should setup a qt option for members here...for a smallish fee should the fish make it through the process ...I would pay for such a service

 

Lease ur system for everyone to use ???

Edited April 18, 2012 by Fishie

[Ryan S]

does liveaquaria QT their fish? or are they a wholesaler that just ships them out as soon as they get them in?

[smallreef]

I know they QT their divers den stuff... but Im not sure about the others...

[DaveS]

Maybe u should setup a qt option for members here...for a smallish fee should the fish make it through the process ...I would pay for such a service

 

Lease ur system for everyone to use ???

 

This is an interesting idea. I would be curious to see what people think abou this. What is it worth for someone to QT your fish for you? Let's make up a scenario and see what people think.

 

Fish QT service which provides:

-Place to hold fish

-Hypo salinity

-Medication/Copper

-food (frozen meaty foods, garlic, maybe some live brine if needed)

-4-8 weeks stay depending on QT cycle

-No guarantee fish will survive

-Anything else??

 

What would you be willing to pay for this? 30% "value" of fish? $10/fish minimum? More? Less?

[Chad]

I think fish going through a QT would be worth 20-50% more if I don't assume the risk of loss. In other words, I would pay that much more for the fish I wanted coming out of the system, but pay nothing for a lost fish.

 

If it were a service where I assume the risk, then I would put the value a bit lower at 5-10%.

 

And yes, I just made these numbers up on the fly after two glasses of wine (but I'll stand behind them tomorrow too).

[Coral Hind]

Chad,

I don't think a small 5-10% bump would be worth the time, energy, and costs for an individual to QT livestock properly. Any corals added to your tank would also have to be QT'ed for weeks in a system that was void of fish to ensure nothing hitchikes in.

[scott711]

Chad,

I don't think a small 5-10% bump would be worth the time, energy, and costs for an individual to QT livestock properly. Any corals added to your tank would also have to be QT'ed for weeks in a system that was void of fish to ensure nothing hitchikes in.

 

Agree. People forget that when you QT fish you can't introduce any new livestock until you finish QT'ing the existing livestock. If you introduce new livestock to your existing fish in QT you risk introducing something new and you have to start the whole process over.