The cons of quarantine

[Aquattro]

So, not having a really well established QT tank may have contributed to the new leopard wrasse not surviving. New water with a few pounds of mature sand and 25 pounds of good rock, so figured it would be fine. Not so much...

Kills me, I'm pretty sure if it had gone into the display, it would have had a better chance. Of course it could have killed everything else too, so what ya gonna do....

[cuz]

all true!! Some fish are better off without quarantine but it does put all other fish at risk. I gambled with my new tank and so far things are ok. I know there is ich present but have yet to see it re surface on any of the fish since transfering them over.

[reefwars]

yeah that sucks , i guess the best thing to do is keep a small tank running(40-50g) treat it like a normal reeftank . keep it basically fishless untill you get new fish. fish go in here for their first week and if they are in need of meds out they come to go full qt. if they seem healthy and alive for that week then they can stay untill they go into the display to really get adjusted.

i love the idea of qt but its def risky both ways .....you add straight to and everything dies...you add to qt and the stress or some other small factor kills it.

not everyone is going to be able to set up a small tank i know that but it does help to have something stable mature and running all the time .

and the way i see it is fish know their habitats and they arnt dumb they know when we are watching, they know when we are in the tank and they know foreign objects to a point. the best chance we have at making them feel at home is to provide as close to what we can to a full ecosystem.

i also believe only qt 1 fish at a time( i dont stick to this so so i bet others dont either lol) but it should be how its done.

did i ever mention how i find fish to be the leading cause in reefstress lol??

[Aquattro]

i love the idea of qt but its def risky both ways .....you add straight to and everything dies...you add to qt and the stress or some other small factor kills it.


Yup, but rather lose one fish than all the fish plus the new one. I haven't even paid for this one yet, gotta to the LFS and see what it cost me :)

I'm going to leave this running now as a grow out/murderous hermit home, maybe a damsel or clown to maintain bacterial populations. Essentially a ghetto reef in the basement -lol

[reefermadness]

The best qt is one that runs inline with the display IMO. Also with the option of taking it offline if you need to treat.

[sphelps]

The best qt is one that runs inline with the display IMO. Also with the option of taking it offline if you need to treat.

That makes zero sense.

[sphelps]

I feel your pain Brad, I just lost a pair of Golden Butterflies and a Blond Naso. On top of that the Emperor Angel isn't looking too good either. Not sure I'll continue QT at this point, all fish were healthy and doing well, QT tanks are quite large considering and fully cycled with everything you would normally include. At this rate it hardly seems worth the effort, if you have to keep buying new fish to put into to QT it won't take long to exceed the value of the whole tank, a total wipe-out is rare and starting to seem well worth the risk.

[wmcinnes]

The best qt is one that runs inline with the display IMO. Also with the option of taking it offline if you need to treat.

That is basically the same as putting them directly into your DT.

I feel your pain Brad, I just lost a pair of Golden Butterflies and a Blond Naso. On top of that the Emperor Angel isn't looking too good either. Not sure I'll continue QT at this point, all fish were healthy and doing well, QT tanks are quite large considering and fully cycled with everything you would normally include. At this rate it hardly seems worth the effort, if you have to keep buying new fish to put into to QT it won't take long to exceed the value of the whole tank, a total wipe-out is rare and starting to seem well worth the risk.

I agree! I have lost a Leopard Wrasse, Powder blue tang, royal gramma and yellow coris wrasse all within the last while in QT. I have a couple more in there now that look good but then again the others did too right up until they died. Im starting to think that a quick freshwater dip or formalin bath and then into the DT may be the way to go..

[windcoast reefs]

I have had some really bad luck with quarantine tanks to, my solution was just to stop buying fish! :wink:

[Aquattro]

I have had some really bad luck with quarantine tanks to, my solution was just to stop buying fish! :wink:

Agreed, although my collection still wants a leopard wrasse and anachilles tang. Once I've got those, I'm done.

[Aquattro]

That makes zero sense.


Agreed. It segregates the fish from the general population, which might help it settle in, but does nothing for disease management.

[tim the toolman]

I am also in the middle of setting up a qt for a vermiculated female leopard wrasse and I'm questioning wether its the right thing todo or not. I have never qtd a fish before and until now have had great luck (crossing fingers) I have just heard bad things about these guys being heavy carriers of parasites. I already have one full grown female in the tank and would like to make them a pair. Anyways that's my situation so I'll tag along this thread and hopefully it will help with my conundrum

[reefwars]

I am also in the middle of setting up a qt for a vermiculated female leopard wrasse and I'm questioning wether its the right thing todo or not. I have never qtd a fish before and until now have had great luck (crossing fingers) I have just heard bad things about these guys being heavy carriers of parasites. I already have one full grown female in the tank and would like to make them a pair. Anyways that's my situation so I'll tag along this thread and hopefully it will help with my conundrum


in your situation i would look at:

how are my current fish doing?
what fish health problems have i had before in this tank?
how mature my tank is?


overall you can get a pretty darn good chance of survival if you pick out a relaxed but active, colorful leopard.look to see if its plump in the belly and that its colors are not faded or fins tore apart. eyes should look healthy and not faded.


if you find a good fish thats in good condition , and your tank is mature,stable and the current fish are healthy and have been healthy for a long time i wouldnt even second guess it ....i would acclimate and add straight to the tank.


from what ive noticed about leopards if their surroundings dont have what they require they are unsettled and paranoid , they dash about and swim up high.

when they have lots of sand around and plenty of food to hunt for they
are a carefree fish , pretty peaceful and graceful.


thats my take on leopards and most other wrasses......they love to hunt if they cant find any food when they hunt they start to panic and they have a stressed look about them....why wouldnt they though right??

[tim the toolman]

My tank is about a year and a half old with a good pod colony and have never dealt with any illness in the tank ever. I just worry when I read about others adding a fish and ending up losing all livestock. I know this is a rarity but it is still something I consider.

Also I ordered the fish from the same lfs that my first leopard came from so selection of the specimen will not be an option. I usually would not go this route but this specific fish can be hard to locate and the other stores around that did get them in I was never happy with the condition they arrived in. (3 of 5 doa) once and I bought 2 another time when they were new arrivals and asked the store to hold them for a week to be sure and they both died.

[Aquattro]

if you find a good fish thats in good condition , and your tank is mature,stable and the current fish are healthy and have been healthy for a long time i wouldnt even second guess it ....i would acclimate and add straight to the tank.


Exact process I used for the last fish I bought. It killed everything. :(

Although I was tempted to just add it(wrasse), I had to remember the three days it took to kill all 12 or so of my prized fish. I added a perfectly healthy looking fish, but looks aren't everything.
Adding that one last fish to your tank and finding that it carries Marine Velvet is a sad way to finish off your stocking list.

The lesson I learned with this wrasse was to have a QT up and running properly before getting it. If you're not ready yet, wait on this one and order one when you are ready.

[Aquattro]

I know this is a rarity but it is still something I consider.


Don't fool yourself. I received lots of PMs from people that had this happen, they'd just never posted. Some people feel that they'll look dumb or something if they admit to being careless and kill their entire tank. A lot more people do this than post about it.

[tim the toolman]

Ive got the sand and tank running already and have close to 25 spare pounds of live rock in my sump so I think that having it all running together for the next 2 weeks before the fish arrives I should be ok. The fish was just ordered today. I also have a huge caulerpa colony in my fugue so I should be able to seed the tank with a bunch of pods ahead of time. I also brew my own photo and baby brine so I should be able to provide a good diet to start her off as well.

[tim the toolman]

Don't fool yourself. I received lots of PMs from people that had this happen, they'd just never posted. Some people feel that they'll look dumb or something if they admit to being careless and kill their entire tank. A lot more people do this than post about it.

That's good to hear then. I think that sorta concretes my wants for a good qt

[reefermadness]

Agreed. It segregates the fish from the general population, which might help it settle in, but does nothing for disease management.
The idea stems from the fact that unless you have a completely separate system where water quality is just as good as the display than you are putting the fish under even more undue stress. And even if you have a separate system you have to be careful what meds you add to the system that might effect water quality.

The biggest thing is to keep the fish in segregation to allow it a place to acclimate to aquaria without stressful tank mates competing for food. Once you have this fish adapted to captive life and nice and fat it sure has a better chance in the display.

Also most of us try to buy fish with no apparent sickness. If something does pop up on it you can take the tank offline at the first sign....vastly reducing the chance of it getting transmitted to the display. At this point you can do what ever you have to do to the QT to get the fish healthy.

Really I think a fat and healthy eating fish is in most cases a healthy one and this is the number one thing we struggle with once we add a new specimen to the display (lack of eating and shyness or all out aggression from others).

And lets admit it...how many of us are going to set up a quality system just as good (in terms of water quality) as the display, just for the odd time we are adding a fish? I can see you didnt Brad, but dont feel bad...that is the norm (I've heard this story quite a bit) and where most people fail with QT. Ya two equal systems is the ideal....but not too many people have the ambition, funds or space to do that. My idea is a close second.

[reefwars]

Exact process I used for the last fish I bought. It killed everything. :(

Although I was tempted to just add it(wrasse), I had to remember the three days it took to kill all 12 or so of my prized fish. I added a perfectly healthy looking fish, but looks aren't everything.
Adding that one last fish to your tank and finding that it carries Marine Velvet is a sad way to finish off your stocking list.

The lesson I learned with this wrasse was to have a QT up and running properly before getting it. If you're not ready yet, wait on this one and order one when you are ready.


i know where your coming from it only takes that one time yes and i agree im not saying qt is bad im actually all for it , but i do choose going by species sometimes whether to qt or not.

how many fish have you had you estimate since you started reefing??

im sure if there are average a dozen fish in every tank and since youve been reefing a decade or more i bet youve had several tanks so lets say i which i bet is even a low number...umm 50 fish....in your case thats 1/50 in 10yrs , someone else may go 1 in 5 .

i guess its like poker you look at your hand count your chips and either go all in or fold:)

for certain wrasses im not with qt, id rather play the hand and go all in:)

[Reef Pilot]

Even after QT, I had an ich outbreak this summer. I had bought some new fish and a couple conch snails a couple months before and put them all in my QT tank for a month. Everyone looked good, fishing eating well, so I added them to my display tank.

About a month after that, I noticed some scratching and flashing with a couple of my fish. Unfortunately, I was away a lot this summer, and not in a good position to fight the disease in the best way possible. Most of my fish caught the ich, and two ended up dying (my long lived Copperband, and a Royal Gramma). Ironically, none of the new fish died or even displayed symptoms. Also, I have a very old Yellow Tang (10+ years) that did not show any symptoms either. I thought they were supposed to be more susceptible, but obviously not this one.

Thankfully now, my tank has recovered and all the fish are fine. I have some other butterfly fish (Pearlescales) that had it pretty bad, and thought I might lose them, but they also pulled through. The infected fish never did stop feeding, and I think that helped them fight the disease.

In the past, when I QT'ed new fish, I put them through the hyposalinity routine, with 100% success. This time because I had the conch snails, I couldn't do that. Obviously, the new fish (gobies) were carriers, even though they didn't show symptoms in the QT.

Anyway, another lesson for me. Despite all my past preaching about QT, I still got caught. I guess I will just have to be more careful. And summer, or late spring, is not a good time for me to acquire any new livestock.

[daniella3d]

I did a quarantine on a leopard wrasse for 6 weeks in a 15 gallons tank, a little bit of sand and some pieces of cured totoka liverock. No problem.

Was it really ammonia that killed your fish? if you tested for ammonia and it was very high then yes your QT water is not set up properly and is responsible for the death of the fish...

but if you did not have ammonia in the tank and the fish died, there was something else, maybe a parasite on the gills? What do you think the wrasse died from?

Was the fish eating well? Agreed, although my collection still wants a leopard wrasse and anachilles tang. Once I've got those, I'm done.

[howdy20012002]

If you don't quarantine, by the time you notice something wrong with your fish, your entire system will most likely be infected.
turning the second tank off from the system will not work as it will already be too late. Therefore, there is absolutely no point in having a second tank attached to your main system as a quarantine. Parasites will swim around the water, find the overflow and be in the other tank in no time.

appearance of a fish means nothing...fish can show absolutely no signs of illness and then be dead within 48 hours.
Fish that die from marine velvet often don't even show signs.
those that do show signs, by the time they do it is often too late for treatment unless you agressively treat with copper.

The store could have the fish for months..but what else have they recently added to the same system.
there are too many variables for you to know the status of fish that you are buying out of most fish stores unless they have separated the fish and quarantined them for at least 3 weeks and not added anything else that hasn't been quarantined.

I have had fish come in...be fine in quarantine for 2 weeks..just about to put them into one of my main system and all of a sudden they have ich.

if you can financially afford to run a quarantine...run it.
realistically, to be completely sure that your fish doesn't have something you miss, you should treat the quarantine with copper or by hypsolanity.
both should be done for at least 4 weeks, if not 6 weeks to make sure that you have a parasite free fish.
otherwise you are taking your chance everytime.

[Aquattro]

Was it really ammonia that killed your fish? if you tested for ammonia and it was very high then yes your QT water is not set up properly and is responsible for the death of the fish...

Was the fish eating well?

No, no ammonia, 100% of the water was new. The fish had only arrived 2 days earlier at the LFS and not eating yet, it had buried in the sand in a small container we had put it in. I thought taking home to a larger tank with rock would help, but apparently not. It was on it's side when I got it home, and never recovered.
My previous wrasse behaved the same, but came out of the sand in a day or two and was fine after that.
I find these are timid fish to acclimate, and the LFS only has larger gravel in the fish tanks, so it wouldn't be able to bury itself in there well.

As for the QT tank, not sure if it's too new or not, but I was rushing around getting it set up Friday night. Now I'll just keep a spare tank running and use it to acclimate new fish and hold surplus corals. If I have to treat the fish, I'll move it to a smaller treatment tank.

[howdy20012002]

Not that it helps at all, but in my experience, wrasses can be 50/50 whether or not they will make the transistion from the ocean to the tank.
unfortunately a lot more of them don't make it than we would like to admit.
It probably wasn't anything you did or could have done differently.
just not a really hardy species over all.

[Aquattro]

Not that it helps at all, but in my experience, wrasses can be 50/50 whether or not they will make the transistion from the ocean to the tank.
unfortunately a lot more of them don't make it than we would like to admit.
It probably wasn't anything you did or could have done differently.
just not a really hardy species over all.

Agreed, they don't land well. I know the risk, so it's a custom order, next one I'll take in the bag so it only has one transition to make. This one was starting to come around in the store, moving it again so soon probably pushed it over the edge. But I can't help but think that a nice peaceful 50g all to itself with lots of sand and hiding spots would have helped. Next one I'll be more prepared.

[Ram3500]

* * * This posts so touches home rite now . Three week ago I picked up a barnacle blennie . Did I Qt him no why would I do that I have been running for four years never seen a spot on a fish.
* * * *A week later in the morning I find my lawnmower blennie who we have had for two years dead in the tank. I assumed he died do to a lack of food in the tank . I tried to feed him all sorts of food but he would only eat off *he rocks and glass we called him the sea monster .
* * Three day after that I noticed my cleaned wrasse all over my scopas tang . After a closer inspection I could see white spots . The next day I could see my mimic tang looked ill almost like he was loosing weight . So set up a qt tank to medicate with copper.
* * This is where I made a mistake . I removed my mimic and the scopas to treat them with copper . The next day my prize mimic tang was dead . I loved this fish he was the second fish we added to our tank about four years ago . My five year old son named him Big Bird when he was three .
* * *Yesterday my wife called me when I was at work to tell me the barnacle blennie was dead and our white cheek tang was covered in white spots . So on the way home from work I got the biggest uv sterilizer money could buy . I removed all my rocks from my tank and put all the fish in the qt tank except for the Mandarin.
* * Sadly this morning I lost the white cheek tang this really hit hard he was the coolest fish . All my other fish appear to be ick free but I will treat the in the qt tank until Saturday when I will have to add the add them back to the Display tank .
* * This is where things get scary on the 29 of October I am going to Maui for a week . I have a good friend watching the tank but he has only fresh water experience .
* * Will I ever add a fish with out qt again ? Not in a million years . I bought a $30.00 blennie and it cost me easily $130 in live stock. Beautiful full grown fish . And I have added a $ 230 bandage uv sterilizer in hopes it will contain the outbreak .
* *Please don't gamble all it takes Is one ick carrier fish to destroy a thriving Eco system . I pray that the uv works when I am away.*

[The Guy]

I believe UV sterilizers help with ick and have one on all my tanks. Some people say they are not effective, but i think they are a good thing to have and have had no problems so far. The amount of flow is very important for parisites low flow with a high dwell time is the best for IMO.

[kien]

To set up a QT tank in a pinch I just take live rock and some water out of my display tank and put it in the QT tank.

I haven't purchased a fish in ages but I usually play it by ear. A combination of factors like how fragile I think the fish is, how healthy I think the fish is and how healthy I think his previous tank mates were, etc. Either way, it's a total crap shoot, unfortunately.

EDIT: And by "display tank" I mean my sump. I have a pile of live rock down there that's handy for QT tanks.

[Enigma]

My QTs have been hit and miss. I lost one fish during QT, and I've abruptly ended two QTs well ahead of schedule: one due to the fish's behavior in the QT, and one due to a major ammonia spike (getting that fish into the display was how I chose to deal with the situation). I'll keep doing it, but I am a bit apprehensive about it, now.

[reefermadness]

If you don't quarantine, by the time you notice something wrong with your fish, your entire system will most likely be infected.Are you speaking from experience or just guessing?
turning the second tank off from the system will not work as it will already be too late. Therefore, there is absolutely no point in having a second tank attached to your main system as a quarantine. I laid out some reasons but you choose to ignore them. The tank is mostly to allow the new fish to acclimate to captive life with out aggression and competition (for food) from other fish. This a lone came be life saving for some fish. Parasites will swim around the water, find the overflow and be in the other tank in no time.

appearance of a fish means nothing...fish can show absolutely no signs of illness and then be dead within 48 hours.
Fish that die from marine velvet often don't even show signs.
those that do show signs, by the time they do it is often too late for treatment unless you agressively treat with copper.

The store could have the fish for months..but what else have they recently added to the same system.
there are too many variables for you to know the status of fish that you are buying out of most fish stores unless they have separated the fish and quarantined them for at least 3 weeks and not added anything else that hasn't been quarantined.

I have had fish come in...be fine in quarantine for 2 weeks..just about to put them into one of my main system and all of a sudden they have ich.If you experience is with ICH than I say to you that even fish and systems that show no signs of ICH for years carry ICH. Also ICH will go away on its own 99% if there are no underlying factors (agression, stress, bad water quality) and the fish is eating

if you can financially afford to run a quarantine...run it.I agree....like I said best practice is a seperate system where the water quality is as good as the display....my suggestion is in second place sure but there are some obvious benefits. Also I would like to point out that a tank tied in like that adds to the water volume which is good all the time. When you do decide to buy a fish, which most of use dont know when that happens exactly, this tank is ready to be used right away
realistically, to be completely sure that your fish doesn't have something you miss, you should treat the quarantine with copper or by hypsolanity.
both should be done for at least 4 weeks, if not 6 weeks to make sure that you have a parasite free fish.Be careful as copper can affect water quality
otherwise you are taking your chance everytimeseems like we are always taking chances in this hobby..

[howdy20012002]

I totally agree that having a separate system will allow the fish to acclimatize to the situation a lot better and will definitely help the fish make the transistion.
I am not trying to disrespect you or say that your idea doesn't have merit in that sense of acclimatizing.
what I am saying is that it will not help save your system if the fish has marine velvet or ich.
if anything, I would shut the second tank off from the main system before you add the fish and leave it shut off for the the quarantine process.
also, if the fish died during the process, make sure you just don't open the flood gates open again and bring it back into the main system until you leave it fishless for a least 6 weeks..just to make sure that if it was a parasite that killed the fish, it is not just waiting for the chance to link up with your fish in your main display.

I am speaking from experience and alot of reading.
I personally have 6 quarantine systems with over a 1000 gallons of water up and running.

According to online sources, the symptoms you notice are typically the last stages of the process.
the parasite is swimming around in your system long before you notice it unless of course you buy a fish already completely covered in the parasite.

I totally agree btw about being careful with copper..it is a very handy tool but make sure that you stay on top of it...it can kill the fish just as easily as the disease you are trying to eradicate

on another note, for those individuals that think you can't have ich free systems, I would have to disagree with you 100 percent.
i currently have the ich magnet powder blues and browns, and multiple other tangs that are not showing a single spot after their quarantining and have been placed in the main system...it is possible, but only through a proper quarantining process..

I personally am having a struggle because I don't know if I want to say the hell with it and treat all incoming fish with copper for a min 2 weeks during quarantine.
that is the only true way that I know the fish will be parasite free before adding it to my main system...
hyposalinity will work for ich, but not for marine velvet and it should be done for at a least a month...It is not financially feasible for me to quarantine fish for a month.

[daniella3d]

ONe thing that really helped my leopard wrasse to acclimate and eat well was live white worms. It's all that the fish ate at first.

[Aquattro]

Ok, here we go with wrasse number 2. Let's see how this one works out. got him out of the box with a delivery tonight. In a container in the QT, buried in sand. Let's hope he comes out in a couple days.

[windcoast reefs]

Ok, here we go with wrasse number 2. Let's see how this one works out. got him out of the box with a delivery tonight. In a container in the QT, buried in sand. Let's hope he comes out in a couple days.

Hope it works out this time! They are a gorgeous fish! Mine never came out of the sandbed at the store! So your one step ahead of me! :wink:

[reefwars]

Ok, here we go with wrasse number 2. Let's see how this one works out. got him out of the box with a delivery tonight. In a container in the QT, buried in sand. Let's hope he comes out in a couple days.


leopard??

[Aquattro]

leopard??

Ya, little tiny guy from fiji.

[daniella3d]

Good luck with it. Mine did great.

[Aquattro]

He's still dorsal fin up, so that's a good sign. Just filled the QT with water from the main display, added some friends (hermits) and now we wait...

[tim the toolman]

Hope all goes well. Mine was supposed to arrive the same day as yours but my lfs forgot to include it on the order. Poop.
So now I wait 2 more weeks lol.

[Aquattro]

This guy is a tiny little sucker, really cute. Currently hiding in the sand, so hopefully he comes out soon. Probably getting hungry.

[Aquattro]

Failure #2 :(

[reefwars]

Failure #2 :(


that sucks man sorry to hear this.


i wasnt gonna say it as i do agree with qt but i added a leopard wrasse to my system the same day you posted you were gonna qt another one, shes just a small gal at 2"

there are 7 wrasses in this tank including 2 already established leopards, the new leopard was settled in in a couple hours and is doing well with the other fish and is eating frozen mysis already.


it sucks that theres such a risk for qt, as much as i would like to say for sure my fish isnt sick or going to get sick i have to take a chance on some things.

leopards imo are one of the fish who dont do so well with qt , they are such a finicky fish untill they are comfortable with their surroundings.


sorry to hear this brad , but now maybe look for a leopard from someone elses system and just plop him in there??....i know its a tough make or break situation

[reefwars]

i know someones next post is gonna be how they had a leopard in qt that did fine , but i find them to be a tricky fish especially when they come from the wild.

[reefwars]

did you find the body or he just never came out?

[howdy20012002]

sorry to hear of your loss.
wrasses are also notorious for dying for no apparent reason.
I wouldn't blame the QT as long as it is set up properly.
In my experience, any wrasse is very hit and miss regardless of where you put them.

[Aquattro]

did you find the body or he just never came out?
Lying on the sand. It was out eating yesterday, so no idea. Tank should be fine, all water came from DT.
The LFS has a second one that is doing fine there. Going to stock the tank with a couple damsels to make sure it's not something in the tank. Man, so tempted to just add one to the tank, but I don't want to lose what I have :(

[reefwars]

Going to stock the tank with a couple damsels to make sure it's not something in the tank.

thats what i would probably do too, practise on some hardier fish and if they do well at least you have some piece of mind about the water quality in the qt.

leopards are pretty easy to come across so its not like you have to take theonly one youll see in ten years;)

another thing i notice about most leopards is they dont take well to being the only fish, they like friends or they act weird:)

[reefwars]

maybe try a pair next time and sell of the other after qt??

[Coralgurl]

Don't feel bad Brad, I added a flame angel to my dt last week, no qt. Haven't seen it since, figure its a goner, even though it was fine at the store. Acclimated for an hour, in the tank and gone. Fish...ugh...

[Borderjumper]

Failure #2 :(
Shltty :sad:

[Borderjumper]

maybe try a pair next time and sell of the other after qt??
That may give them a little more confidence.. Or just cost twice as much when they both die... If you decide to try it I would buy the second off ya after quarantine.

[windcoast reefs]

Than sucks! Sorry to hear it didn't make it. I added my new guy to the display, he is doing well but I don't think I will ever ad one again, just because of the risk.

[kien]

Failure #2 :(

:hug:

[Aquattro]

Ok, LFS called tonight and got a couple more leopards in, so wrasse #3 added to QT. Tank is fully established with a couple of damsels, LR and corals, so she should feel at home. hit the sand right away, so hopefully I see her come out again.

[tim the toolman]

Persistence is the key. Hopefully

[Northernseacorals]

So, not having a really well established QT tank may have contributed to the new leopard wrasse not surviving.


To think $24 worth of Prodibio Startup would have saved that fishes life.

[Aquattro]

To think $24 worth of Prodibio Startup would have saved that fishes life.
Tank was setup with 30 pounds of cured live rock, so I'm not sure what magic juice would have done to help. The wrasse at the store in a 5 year old tank also died, probably wouldn't have helped there either.

[Northernseacorals]

Tank was setup with 30 pounds of cured live rock, so I'm not sure what magic juice would have done to help. The wrasse at the store in a 5 year old tank also died, probably wouldn't have helped there either.

You ought to give it an honest try Brad, would have totally stabilized the tank for you mate.

:mrgreen:

[Aquattro]

You ought to give it an honest try Brad, would have totally stabilized the tank for you mate.

:mrgreen:

It's not a product line I'm interested in using. But the day after the wrasse died, I added other fish which have done fine, so the suspicion I had that the tank wasn't ready wasn't founded. Leopard wrasses are just more delicate than I had thought. Of three black ones, 2 died here a few weeks apart, the third in a 5yr+ tank at the LFS also died, so I'm confident that it's not a tank/water quality issue. My tank also housed SPS shortly after the wrasse and it's all doing fine, polyps out, encrusting, etc.
My mistake was over estimating their toughness. I think.

[howdy20012002]

a tank setup with 30 lbs of cured rock and an improvished sandbed is more than ample to quarantine a tiny leopard wrasse.
Wrasses are notoriously bad at dying regardless of where they are put, what you have in the tank, or any additives you may add.
I blame the fish, not the owner.