i have a starry blennie and a small spotted randall’s goby in a 10 gal qt. both are eating, been in for a week. what should i be looking for? spots are impossible to see on blennie’s body, b/c it’s pretty spotty. they seem fine. give me some advice, cause i wanna put them into the main tank as soon as is sensible
i can’t believe with all the experts here that i can’t get an answer, so i gotta bump it
Depends on what you are QTing for. I am currently QTing so I can make sure the fish are getting food and don’t have to fight for it in the DT. After making sure they are healthy, not dying, and nice and fat, I would move them to the DT, but in my case I am waiting until the 75 is finished being set-up and putting them in there so they will be more readily accepted by all fish.
I am not QTing against ich, but am making sure they aren’t showing outward signs of it. If you are QTing against ich, you can use copper or a hyposalinity treatment and give them 8 weeks to be certain they don’t have it.
What are you QTing for?
Note: I am not one of the experts your talking about!
i got the fish from live aquaria [the doctors] and people are supposed to qt any new arrivals, right? just a matter of protocol and practice? i guess to answer you, i’m qting for any signs of anything-- weaknesses, not eating, aggression, disease etc… i see nothing unusual. do you as a non-expert think that a week is enough for some weirdness to show up? when should i be able to put him in w/the rest in my 65 gal is the question? you’re expert more than i am, seems to me.
Sorry, Sundays the responses come slower. I got off work at 7 am after 16 hours and I had to sleep a little.
Most qt is done to observe the fish without the added stress of the local fish picking on the new guys. White Spots, sores, lack of appetite, erratic swimming, heavy breathing and a host of other things. I Qt any where from 1 week to 5 weeks depending on the fish their appetite and where the fish was acquired from
thanks, al. so i see nothing bad. the blennie hides, comes out observes, swims, eats. the goby eats, displays his eye/fin , eats, hides. a week qt for both now. i have a very non-aggressive tank. waddya think? this week for introducing them to the 65 gal?
Damn Firefox! Sorry my browser just crashed, so you won’t get my nice response I just wrote up verdict_in
Anyway. My :TWOCENTS. If they seem to be eating very well, are of relative size of the DT inhabitants and/or the DT mates aren’t very aggressive then you should be fine. In the case of more delicate and/or smaller fish I would probably wait along the lines of 2+ weeks.
I’d tend to think your starry would do fine, not sure on the size of the goby. I’ve had a bit of an issue with very small gobies in the past, but I wasn’t QTing then and making sure they were eating well BEFORE putting them in the tank. So if he is eating well he may be ok.
I know your dying to put them in right? If it all looks good to you, go for it. The fatter you get them in your QT the longer they can last in the DT if they won’t eat because they aren’t used to their surroundings.
many thanks. dying is the exact word. drs sent me a clown goby also, but it was dead in the bag.
i have 2 other small gobies in the tank and some percs, very easy-going tank. i think based on the info here, this week for sure into the 65 they go. YAY!
Sorry I am really late on this. I have wanted to write an article with this information for a very long time, but have not took the time to. Here are a couple of helpfull hints. The importance of QT some hobbyist debate, but if you ask any author, speaker, or anyone that works for a public aquarium it is not debated at all. I qt everything wet going into my systems for at least 8 weeks.
Here is one opinion:
http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine-fish-care-health-disease-treatment/19255-fish-quarantine-process.html
Note at the bottom, “How the quarantine process fits into the acquisition of a new fish:” this is a small part of what this particular author, Lee, believes should be done to new fish.
The article refered to in the above article, http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php
i just could not acc these two in a 10 gallon tank for 8 weeks. the blenny is about max size for a 10. i followed all the concepts mentioned in the article and will just have to accept the risks of putting them in the main tank asap. they are the last fish i will get, except maybe to replace anything that dies later on of old age, so the qt, hopefully, will have done its job for these two. crossing my fins.
Not to take away from what the others said about QT, but I will say that all of the fish I’ve received from the Drs. have always been in great health. Usually they’re top notch for fish.
these two were fine, but as stated above a clown goby was doa in filthy water.
I QT all my new fish with cupramine and prazipro for 4 weeks. Having a display fallow for 8-10 weeks also insures that my display is disease free! Some may not like doing this, but I’d rather deal with it in the begining rather then have an ich outbreak later on.
[quote=“DamnPepShrimp, post:54, topic:589”]
Having a display fallow for 8-10 weeks also insures that my display is disease free! Some may not like doing this, but I’d rather deal with it in the begining rather then have an ich outbreak later on.[/quote]
Do you QT all incoming corals for 8 weeks as well?
Im pretty sure he is fish only, so that isnt something he has to worry about.
[quote=“Gordonious, post:55, topic:589”]
[quote=“DamnPepShrimp, post:54, topic:589”]
Having a display fallow for 8-10 weeks also insures that my display is disease free! Some may not like doing this, but I’d rather deal with it in the begining rather then have an ich outbreak later on.[/quote]
Do you QT all incoming corals for 8 weeks as well? [/quote]
Yup! Although there have been many studies that 8 weeks isn’t enough to kill off ich. So I usually do 6-8 weeks since I feel I’ll never get rid of ich. In my reef, I didn’t have a chance to QT anything, but everything has been fine since day 1. My FO is a different story, I have some expensive fish that I can’t risk losing. I will be adding a CUC to my FO tank soon, and will keep them in a seperate tank for 6 weeks or so to keep flukes, velvet or other parasites/worms out. Ich is very hard to keep out of a system, cross contamination and not leaving the display fallow for 10-12 weeks (sometimes longer). Good health, water quality, varied diet, no stress (from other fish, temp changes etc) will keep a fish’s immune system healthy enough to fight off ich. I can deal with a little ich from time to time, flukes, velvet or internal parasites/worms I can’t though.
I just want to mention. Ich won’t survive longer than 10 weeks w/o a host. If you are just keeping fish in QT for 10 weeks and they already have ich (from the LFS), then they are just sitting there with the ich for 10 weeks and you are dumping it right back into your aquarium, unless you are doing some sort of copper or hyposalinity during the QT period.
That is not correct. Ich can definitely survive beyond 10 weeks without a host. It has already been proven and unforunately there are some people that have left their displays fallow (while treating in QT) for 10-12 weeks and still had ich. I am not saying that all ich will last that long, but enough will to still have ich in the display. Also, when in QT, I treat with cupramine and prazipro for 4 weeks, to kill almost every disease including ich.
Oh, in the research I did, the longest ich that survived was 72 days, which is just over 10 weeks. The more realistic number (according to the research) was 56 days I believe.