Quarantine service

[piusma]

Wanted to find out the answer for a while. Wondering if there is any interest at all for

a) quarantine service.

Or

b) paying premium for a fish that has been properly quarantined, pest and ichy free etc.

The reason why I'm asking is that when I first started this hobby, I have a hard time trying to keep fish in my little quarantine tank alive. I have then decided to set up a proper 55 gallon system as a quarantine tank and now I have a good system / routine in QTing fish. However I will soon finish stocking my 180 gallon and I'll have no need for the QT system.

Since the QT tank is matured and I have a good routine keeping great water quality in the QT tank, I wonder if I should keep it running and offer either a QT service or purchase fish from the LFS and QT them then sell them at a premium. I have no intention of creating a business out of it as I've already have a full time job and 2 toddlers. However, as this process is getting to the point that I'm having quite a good sucessful rate, I figured it might be a great service to offer those out there that might find this great value.

Obviously I'm not going to challenge myself with any exsortic or challenging species, but I believe I could easily QT a small batch of anthias or clowns or tangs. I wonder if anyone out there would find this useful and wondering how many of you are willing to pay a premium to take a pest free fish home that you can just drop into your display tank.

And for those who are interested, what kind of premium would sound like a fair price for these fish?

Steven

[paddyob]

If that is something you are truly considering.... you need to consider this:

1) You may be subject to losses which equals money you lose.

2) Cost of upkeep - if you want the system to remain "clean" you are going to need to do regular testing and maintenance to ensure the pests you introduce do not remain in the tank.

3) You MAY need a business licence if you are going to do it profit.

4) In a QT system a sick fish is a sick fish. If you introduce healthy fish along side a specimen with an illness, all you are doing is promoting to passing of said pest to the healthy fish.

5) Keep in mind also that the cost to an LFS is way lower than to yourself. Unless you find a store willing to sell at a lower cost you are not going to make much... unless you plan to really jack your prices up... at which point you may find nobody really want what you have.

IMO starting a 55 gallon QT for profit would not really be the best idea. For your own purposes... one or two fish... sure. Or consider just offering people a place to QT their fish for 2-3 weeks and say charge them $5/week or something for the "room and board". Let them buy the fish so you don't swallow the loss directly. Of course then comes the issue of "who is responsible for my dead fish cause it was alive when I brought it over".


There is a lot to consider.

Most place have huge systems set up for QT purposes and we all know bigger equals more stable and more dilution of pollutants, etc.

On top of that.... I have bought fish that have been through "QT" for 2 weeks min and you know what... they are all dead today. All the fish I have living today have never been through a formal QT.

I personally would not buy, at a premium price, a fish from another hobbiest's home. I don't even like the premium prices the LFS wants for certain fish.


This is only my view. I am not intending to make your mind up, or squash your plans. You asked for opinions and this is simply mine.

Hope it at least gives you something to think about.

[piusma]

Thanks for your feedback and please keep them coming. I have no intention of setting up a business with this and the profit would be too insignificant relative to how much money it cost in this hobby.

May be I should better layout my vision. I am thinking of purchasing a few fish at a time. Let's say 4-5 fish at a time, QT and treat them with prazipro and cupramine for a total period of 4-5 weeks. And then offer these fish to hobbist directly out of the QT tank. I understand there will be lost and that all would be factor into the reselling price of these fish. This will make the cost of the fish higher but they would be clean and ready to be added to the display.

For those who actually QT their fish probably understand the cost of medication and cost of doing water change and hydro bills etc. Base on the fact that it will cost less to QT multiple fish at the same time.

I would be happy to pay a premium to purchase a fish from a system that is 100% clean.

[Myka]

I wouldn't be interested to pay more for a quarantined fish. I am quite happy to do it myself where I know the fish wasn't medicated (although I do wonder what some exporters do to them).

[tang daddy]

Here is my feed back, paddyob has some good points....

On top of what he has suggested I would definately like to buy anthias that survive and eat. We all know this is not an easy fish to keep and even if you are able to keep it, it wont be long term.

I think there might be interest from a few reefers in this service but as mentioned before, no one likes paying premium price including myself.

Most of the fish we pick from the stores are what we believe to be healthy specimens, (not many people will buy sick fish that have open wounds or filled with ich) with that said why would You subject the fish to a copper bath or any other medication if it does not need one?

IMO this would stress the fish out more and cause it to be weaker. I believe even after you treat these fish when they enter a new system they may be stressed and get ich again.

Through my experience and Im not claiming to know everything, I have found the best way to keep fish alive is to have good compatibility in your system. I have had my tank stocked perfectly in the past and with a wrong addition lost 3-4 other fish. When I first started I never thought about compatibility and this is some of the reasons why fish dont live for long, the other is probably because they are cyanide caught...

I do see fish in stores with ich and sometimes it's a number of reasons. Some fish are more prone to ich like the powder tangs or even hippo tangs...
other fish have had a long plane ride in a bag only to be put into small tanks with other sick fish. Or perhaps like mentioned above they were possibly cyanide caught!

What I am getting at is you can Qt other peoples fish but it may be more work for you with a small pay off. And what was suggested earlier best to let people buy the fish and then you qt them for a price...

QT Service price(not cost of fish)

damsels $5
tangs $10-15
angels$10-30 depending on size
....

Just my suggestions good luck!

[vaporize]

I actually do that on my side of the country But most people do not appreciate it and rather pay $10 ocellaris clownfish than a $30 one; so they rather replace livestock and take chances.

It is same as asking how many people actually have a proper quarantine tank setup.

Unfortunately, most have to learn it the hard way to watch un-quarantined fish kill the pets that lived with them for 3, 5, 10 years before they appreciate such. And alot of them never learn either.

Unless you are really good with disease ID and medication, you are going to be lucky if you even break even. Throwing bi-furan and curpamine into a QT is not really quarantine

[plutoniumJoe]

I have often thought that this might be a value added service that some LFS might provide. I.E. holding back some fish for a few weeks then selling them at a premium. I think however that some LFS medicate some fish especially the Ich magnets to 1. help the fish and 2. encourage purchases. The longer a fish stays at the store the less return on their investment.

If you look at the forums people are often selling fish at 50-70% of the LFS prices. Fish bought from a local reefer have been in a stable environment for anywhere from 1 week to several years and they are already discounted compared to a fish that has been snatched from its local habitat, bagged and shipped for 18hrs, introduced into a LFS tank, bagged and shipped to a consumer and introduced into another tank all in a week or so.

I think it is a great idea but I think it might be a tough go.

-Joe

[piusma]

I see how most people don't want to pay a premium for their fish. I guess to each of their own, everyone of us handles our fish differently. I personally see paying the premium would save me the time and the money/space for a QT setup. I guess it is not as important to everyone else. I guess I'll be tearing this setup down after getting my last batch of fish. Regardless It's some fun discussion everyone! Happy reefing.

Steven