Quarantine Time?
 

Question: How long do you think is reasonable for a reputable sw store to quarantine fish stock prior to sale?

I think 24 hours is enough to make sure it's not going to die from shipping. Any further quarantine should be the responsibility of the purchaser.

Could not agree more, 24 hours in store then up to the customer to take the quality time in quarantine !


Sent Via Pirate Ship.......

Agreed. LFS should not be able to quarantine fish for any extended time economically. Fish need to be in and out fairly quick in order to make a decent profit on them. If the LFS is not making money off the fish they won't be in business long. Some fish will take shipping stress for longer, like Wrasses. Generally, I like to buy a fish within 24-48 hours of it arriving at the store so it can be acclimated to my quarantine tank before it breaks out in disease if it is going to. I find if the fish has been in quarantine for a few days before medicating the outcome is usually better. If longer than 24-48 hours, then I think it's better to wait 7-10 days to wait until the fish is feeding well and acclimated to the store water before moving it again and re-acclimating it to your own water.

A lot of US stores are quarantining their fish for days and weeks now. The most famous one is of course diver's den. They not only quarantine their fish for a minimum of 2 weeks, they even train the fish on prepared foods. Of course their fish price is usually higher than the stores that don't do quarantine. 2weeks may not be enough to allow time for some disease to show up, but it's better than nothing. I personally would buy fish that have been quarantined and eat prepared foods for a higher price.
This practice requires a big facility and knowledge and sound business strategy. Not many Canadian fish stores have those requirements, at least the first 2.

Actually, it's not. It's worse than nothing, because you're paying more for a fish that should still go into a 6 week quarantine when you buy it. I would never add a fish to my tank after 2 weeks of being in a Q tank. Oh, sorry, I did that once, it killed all my fish 3 weeks later :)

Unless a store has a completely separate system setup for each shipment over a 6 week period, it's pointless. If they do have that, a clownfish is going to cost about $400!! lol
I'd still prefer my fish at 24 hours. Unless I QT it myself, I don't consider it safe, so if the store isn't going to quarantine, and I mean really quarantine for 6 weeks, I'm not paying more for it.

2 weeks are good for some diseases, like velvet. Of course it's not good for marine ich.
I personally would still suggest QT fish on your own no matter where the fish come from, be it DD or else.

Velvet, I believe, is 42 days minimum. 2 weeks is the same as 2 hours as far as confidence of health goes. I know once you have velvet in the tank, it's suggested that you leave it for 8 weeks.
The fish that brought velvet into my tank was fine for almost 4 weeks before it showed signs. Then it killed everything. Having gone through the loss of all my fish, 2 weeks is meaningless. A nice gesture, sure, but in no way does it give any confidence.

The deal on velvet...

"Because of its lifecycle, a general recommendation has been to quarantine new acquisitions for 20 days to avoid introducing the disease (Noga, 2000 and Trevor-Jones, 2004), but I would urge most hobbyists to isolate them for a full month, with six weeks being optimal, for a number of reasons. The first reason is for uniformity. Because it will take at least a month to known if your new acquisition is free of Cryptocaryon irritans, it is better to simply get used to a long period of quarantine. Second, the signs of this infection are not obvious and, in my opinion, most aquarists can easily miss them. A full month or more of quarantine should give you enough time to notice the infestation, or, if you don't pick up on the signs, the fish will likely be dead by the end of the quarantine period."

from http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-0...ture/index.php

I guess for me, after having lost all my fish, nothing goes into my tank without full QT. So if a store does 2 weeks, that's meaningless, and I wouldn't buy the fish if it cost more because of the 2 weeks. (As I said, the fish that wiped out my tank was in it's own tank for 2 weeks before I bought it).
If the store can QT it for 6 weeks with no new additions, no water transfer (using separate gear on all contact),then I may consider paying a bit more, but probably not enough to offset the costs the LFS will incur performing this. Therefore, give me a good price on a one day old fish, I'll QT at home and take my chances.
I think a 2 week period just lulls people into a false sense of doing the right thing, and only marginally, if at all, prevent disease.