[quote=“ronert, post:39, topic:941”]
All I know is that when I tried holding the neighbor’s cat in the tank for 10 minutes, it almost-for-sure-definately wasn’t ick that killed it so suddenly.
:P[/quote]
LMFAO :-)lol
[quote=“DamnPepShrimp, post:37, topic:941”]
Hows the lemonpeel with corals? I have heard they are real nippers.[/quote]
They are the same as any other dwarf angel. The can nip if they arent fed well enough or they happen to feel like it, but in a tank of an adequate size they wont bother any one coral enough to severly stress it.
[quote=“IanH, post:36, topic:941”]
Joe, I don’t care what you say, I never read your posts, I just end up looking at your avatar 
J/K[/quote]
<<------Salma Hayek
I barely notice my posts myself!
“most tanks have ich” true statements, never argued differently
Placing every single coral into QT is not that difficult.
“A QT that could keep hard corals alive yet not be plumbed into our system. That’s quite the challenge!” Shawn really it is easier then you think. The depth of a small qt allows you to use really cheap lighting. Also for the tank to work at removing the thread of a new ich outbreak it will contain 0 fish. 99% of corals that should be kept in most of our tanks require 0 additions of food from us to survive for two months. If anyone has trouble keeping 0 Nitrates in a tank that has no food being added to it they need to find a new hobby.
“yet not be plumbed into our system†you may be interested in hearing that some people actually keep QT tanks plumbed into display tanks. I don’t trust or advice this, but I believe they use massive UV sterilizers and ozone between the qt and the display. Just an FYI or factoid or whatever.
My qt tanks get ~5% water changes on average every three weeks and if I took pictures of my qt tank currently you would be amazed out how great everything looks. Granted there are few SPS currently, but that’s just because I am waiting till when we order from a special source at work. Several stony corals in a bare bottom tank will not quick absorb ca and mg and a reactor is not required.
“I do wish I had setup a QT originally and kept it out of my tank, but at this point it is simply too much effort for the gain.” Your new to the hobby and still have only a couple of fish. It would be just a difficult to do it now as it would have been months ago. I figured it was likely you would not decide to go the ich free route, but most people do it this way. I’m happy to share information with those who are curious, but realize most people try to take the easy way out.
[quote=“Gordonious, post:44, topic:941”]
but realize most people try to take the easy way out. [/quote]
That happens to work just as well as keeping an Ich free system as long as you have adequate water quality. I can more or less guarnetee that the amount of stress required in our tank for the fish to show ich would have the same results in any “Ich free” tank.
“I can more or less guarnetee that the amount of stress required in our tank for the fish to show ich would have the same results in any “Ich free” tank.”
What do you mean?
I mean that even though my tank isnt “Ich free”, the amount of stress necessary to make our fish show ich would probably have fish in an “Ich free” system show the symptoms of Ich as well, no matter how sterlie since that amount of stress would allow some parasite or disease to take hold. If its not ich in the system, something else will fill the niche left by the weak fish, such as velvet or a fungal infection and have the same end result.
Treating for ich seems pretty pointless to me when the treatments will not and can not kill every infectious pathogen in our tank. If the fish are stressed enough to show Ich symptoms, they are stressed enough to allow any other infection as well.
Treating for ich seems pretty pointless to me when the treatments will not and can not kill every infectious pathogen in our tank. If the fish are stressed enough to show Ich symptoms, they are stressed enough to allow any other infection as well.
This has been my point all along.
How can a fish in an Ich free environment show ich? Not following the logic there…
“If the fish are stressed enough to show Ich symptoms, they are stressed enough to allow any other infection as well.” I don’t agree. I here people ALL the time complain that every time they add a new fish ich breaks out. Or here people whose tank got all the way up to 84F or down to 76F and ich broke out. My tanks in bad times have reached 92F and 68F and there was 0 disease visible and the fish acted 100% normal 2 hours later when the temp returned to normal. Even a healthy fish in a disaster can get over run with ich during an event and may take a while to recover from it.
Now it is possible that people claiming they have ich outbreaks may have something else. You are also correct that it is possible if the fish were severely stressed something else may hurt them, but my fish have gone through a lot of crap and have weathered a lot better then what many other fish have.
Perhaps when you and I flood the markets with captive raised fish and we can’t export them anywhere we can run some experiments. For the sake of science and for the benefit of other hobbyist I would love to do this, but I’m not currently willing to mess with my animals to prove a point and see how much they can take.
In my experience, in my opinion, from the information I have, it’s not for everyone, but works for me.
I personally can see why Jon QTs everythng, he makes some valid points - Keep disease out. However, Shawn an Icy do as well, generally speaking there is going to be a pathogen of some type in our tanks, so no sense in QTing if it just means something esle will be ableot take hold and affect the fish anyway.
I would think the true benfit of QTing a fish would be more along the lines of making sure it will eat, is not carrying a severely lethal disease or any parasites, and is not already knowcking on fishy heavn’s door before you add it to the DT and have it potentially die behind the rocks where you can’t reach it, it ecays, screws up ammonia and nitrate levels and thus kills the rest of your fish.
And for what it is worth - I have never QT’d anything - and have yet to see ich in my tank.
Its going to be a compromise either way. If you know both sides make an educated decision.
I had my Qt in line with the display tank and would turn off the fuge area for new fish. I had to QT fish otherwise they would starve. I had some aggressive eaters and they were large and intimidating. If the new fish showed no signs of disease and were eating well they would be released into the main display. The Qt valves would be turned to run with the main tank again. Depending on where I got the fist I would do this for 2 weeks to a month.
Problem
potentially die behind the rocks where you can’t reach it, it ecays, screws up ammonia and nitrate levels and thus kills the rest of your fish.
Solution
Have a thousand snails in your tank that will eat the dead fish in the blink of an eye!
Ditto! Or a brittle star
had a coral cat die overnite and in morning found his skeleton perfectly intact. strippped to the bone. no flesh to be seen
lOl
I wouldn’t try another one of those coral cats. I can’t remember if it was you or someone else that posted about it before, I can’t even remember my own phone number sometimes so that’s not to surprising, but anyways… you should probably be glad it didn’t make it. Coral Cat’s (Plotosus lineatus) grow to 12.6 inches and swallow everything that fits in there mouth including fish and inverts. They are also venomous, lose there slick look(actually get pretty ugly color wise), and they put a massive amount of waist in the water adding immensely to the bioload. Even if you did like the look of them, they like to hide. Not really the best aquarium animals.
really never hid. always swam in circles. was around 4 inches and had for about7 monnths. did not relize they got huge though.
Jeeze 4 inches is huge…that didn’t sound right either
I had one of those yellow gobys disappear in my tank. Simply no trace whatsoever. I assume the brittle had his way with the body, then again my nass. snails disappeared for awhile too
when u say yellow goby u should say yellow clown goby. one siftes sand and is like3+in, and the other is like 1in. ive had my clown goby for a few months and he is pretty cool. i might get a few in a bigger tank. they are a nice splash of color.
Yea your right Brett I meant yellow clown goby the little fella.
I’m still struggling with the new one, he’s very skidish and gets lost in my 55, but the bright yellow is nice and I like their “chill” attitude.