Warning to all those who don't QT
 

It's been a devastating 24 hours watching fish in my QT die of velvet because Canada has banned most of the helpful medications. It seems that those that are not banned are very hard to get and the shipping would take longer than I think my fish can survive.

I am not going to name stores but it came from what I would call a very reputable local shop. I am 99% sure it came from this shop.

I had my Porcupine Puffer in QT for almost 2 months and he came from another person's aquarium, not a store. He was not showing any signs of any parasites but unfortunately my display tank was not ready. Then I made a huge mistake...I added a tang and chromis to my QT thinking that worst case, I would treat them with hyposalinity if they show signs of ich. The fish looked really great in the store. A week later and the tang is dead, the chromis are dead and my puffer is suffering. I am surprised he is still alive but he is a pretty big guy.

I have one last hope to save the puffer but it's a bit of a shot in the dark. I guess I'm just venting and reminding people to QT. I can only imagine if I had added these perfectly healthy looking fish to an established display tank. It's so easy to QT...

yes QTìng is crucial if you love your fish . Luckily I have all but 2 fish I want and those fish are rarely available so I have no temptations to add new fish . But plan in advance , never impulse buy(REALLY NEVER) and leave the fish in QT for 3-4 months if possible . I have has some fish going on 15 years now so would be devastating to kill them by adding a new fish . But good luck saving your Puff

Sorry to hear about your loss:sad: Now that I have a tankful of fish that have been with me for a while, I’m quite fearful of this scenario as well.

Really wishing you luck with your puffer’s recovery. How is he doing?

Agreed. I got out of the hobby some years back because I made a mistake and did not QT a new fish which introduced velvet to my display killing almost every fish including some that I had for years. I remember not even having the energy to come on here and mention it or ask for help, I was just done with it all.

I really regret adding more fish to my QT before the puffer had gone to the display tank. I also keep thinking about how every other fish from the system that I got this tang from has been exposed to velvet and could infect other people's tanks.

I'm sure I sound all preachy now but it's frustrating to buy sick fish and not have access to the right medications anymore. I don't blame the store...it just sucks.

Yeah, you have a beautiful tank and some great fish.

yes thats also a crappy situation , knowing the fish is sick and in a system with others for people to buy and destroy what they have . So always stress QT'ing fish for newbs .

They certainly have made it hard on us and ability to treat fish it is quite frustrating these days.

Sorry to hear about your fish, always sucks. I agree always quarantine, just because a fish doesn't look ill it could very well be carrying something.

Sorry to hear about this. I lost a ton of fish due to velvet over the last year.
And still lost a few recently due to impatience on adding additions.

I'll be setting up a proper quarantine tank and procedure for any new inhabitants.

And i too just recently found out that there are no fish medications readily available at LFS anymore. geez.

Hello

@GreenSpottedPuffer sorry to hear this and thanks for sharing your stories. It's terrible to lose what we cherish. I have read light is crucial for the parasite so maybe somehow stop light from getting to the QT?

Titus

We need to know the source of these problems so we can help to resolve them.

I'm concerned with trends these days to not be transparent and honest. I get it - we don't want any cognitive dissonance / beef with our LFS - but at the same time, we need this information.