First off it may be helpful if this thread were to ever get long to split comments on QTing corals vs QTing fish. While they can very well be related at times for most hobbyist they would be two completely different animals. Pun intended 
Secondly before getting into much debate on the value of QTing and all that I would like to try to help with the concerns of the origin of this post. Rbu1 who helped you develop your QT procedure? Did you follow someone’s recommendation online or another hobbyist? Something out of a book? Or was it just that you found a chemical that would supposedly kill ich and used it based on the product specifications?
Were any corals, macro algae, clean up crew, other inverts, or anything else wet at all added to the tank besides the fish? To maintain a 100% “ich free†environment these must be kept in a fish free tank for at least a couple of months.
Copper is a very harsh treatment on the animals. I personally use Hyposalinity which is not at all for the casual hobbyist, but you may consider. As long as the nutrients are kept low and the pH is kept steady through regular additions of Sodium carbonate, you would be surprised how effect it is and how well the animals pull through it.
The first thing I usually point people at is “leebcaâ€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂs articles on QT and Cryptocaryon. Try a google search. They can be found on ReefFrontiers, but the site requires you to register, for free, in order to view them. Most people decide it’s not worth the effort or get to relaxed in keeping up with what they learned the need to do and things don’t go perfectly. After that point people can either realize the fact in what they read or should admit that it wasn’t in their minds worth the effort.
If a fish is injured or stressed significantly or just arriving from the wild I do think it is best to keep it in stable conditions before anything else. Not just stable conditions fighting with 3 other fish though, and isolated chamber is best.
I haven’t lost a fish in my tanks in the last couple years(except jumpers likely due to aggression) even with very relaxed maintenance, crazy swings in chemistry, and even some crazy events like both high and low salinity and temperatures. Not a single white spot. Have also never seen my fish attempt to scratch themselves on rock, breath heavy, or anything else.
[quote=“andrewk529, post:2, topic:2941”]
to my knowledge the “ich” parasite has a 6 month life cycle.[/quote]
Source? I could provide plenty which would argue most strains of Cryptocaryon seen have a life cycle less than 1/3 that long.
One thing I would comment on your response Ian is that I agree it is important with more difficult corals to maintain parameters with harder to keep corals, but would like to mention it is easier. Imagine the bioload a 1†frag of acropora puts on a 20gallon tank! Oh wait, immeasurable. Most people have no idea how easy it is to keep a small tank if you do not feed it.
Another comment I would make is the amount of light required. Few corals we commonly keep will die quickly or even be stressed significantly by low light. You should see how little light I use on my coral QT tanks.
“You don’t get to enjoy your purchase in its final environment for another X weeks while in QTâ€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ
No, not in its final environment, but my animals are still pretty usually while they are in QT.
I too don’t have a lot of time to get into detail, but I agree with a lot of what Shawn said. Most people mess up QT and due it improperly. That being said most people kill several fish no matter what when they start in the hobby. This doesn’t mean that the practice of fish keeping is unethical or should be stopped or that keeping the fish in a glass box is responsible. People need to do the proper research and really figure out what they are doing before they attempt it as with anything in the hobby. Most newbies should not try hyposalinity.
“my regal tang has broke out with ich twice in two years. both times it was BAD.â€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ
Shawn I’m sorry to hear your fish and you went through this. It is rough watching an animal we care about in pain. This is one of the reasons why I strive to maintain an environment free of ich. While one could argue it isn’t natural for them to go through hypo, or for the tank to be free of ich for that matter, but I also believe it is not natural for fish to get badly covered in ich. In the wild they are not trapped in an area concentrated with ich and many spend much of their time further away from the substrate. They also have cleaner stations available to them which rid them of many other pests which in captivity would further weaken the animal.
Something that keeps me doing what I do is the, “Old tank syndrome†factor. Shit happens and when you consider all the possible things that could go wrong with a marine aquarium… just give it time. I would rather ich not be present when something happens.
The average size of most fish in the wild would see massive to most aquarist. To me this is a shame and I believe as the hobby and humanity evolve I hope this opinion is shared by many more. Most of the industry would label juvenile fish as small, medium, and large and rarely even know what an adult looks like. This is even now when old fisherman tell about how much larger the fish used to be and are just not any more due to humanity.
[quote=“rbu1, post:7, topic:2941”]
I was told that by QTing fish you are giving them a better chance when you place them in a tank that has ich. Because of the QT period they are able to eat well and get fairly healthy before you put them in the ich riden tank. [/quote]
I strongly believe this and doubt anyone would disagree. Some may argue that it is not worth the time and effort, the same people should realize if their fish gets ill that they made a decision which put that fish in the position it is in. Their lives are in our hands.
