Quarantine dilemma, what would you do?

[Lotus]

OK, so the quarantine tank is set up. It's currently seeding with a piece of LR, which will come out before any fish go in. It is barebottom.

Our first planned fish is a sand sifting goby (not sure which, depends on what the store has/can get). I understand they're more prone to ich than some other fish.

My dilemma is whether I should put sand in the quarantine and put the fish in there, or put it the fish straight in the display tank (where there's sand), and remove him if he gets ich (or something else). There are no other fish, so the worst that can happen is that we have to tear the tank down to get him out to treat him.

What would you do?

 

[Joe Fish]

I would definitely QT the fish first. Most QT as barebottom with some pieces of PVC. Then again, I have also read that you make the QT as close to the display as possible. So my QT tank is a barebottom with some PVC pipe also with some seeded biomedia from my display. I leave my QT running all the time so I don't have to worry about the cycle.

 

[1979camaro]

I would say throw some cheap sand in the QT if you are worried about his emotional health (so to speak). You can always dump the sand later.

 

[Lorna]

As most sand sifting gobies eat what they sift out of the sand putting a gobie in the qt without any established live sand is probably not recommended as some gobies have tend to starve in qt. Since you don't have any other fish in your main display I don't see what the harm would be in putting him directly into the main tank and then don't add any other animals until the qt time is up.......basically using the main as the qt......if he were to get ich you could then treat the main tank using hypo as you only have the live rock in it ..........

 

[Joe Fish]

wouldn't hypo kill the good stuff on the rock?

 

[Lorna]

not necessarily.....it would depend though it would be easier to qt and hypo IF necessary rather than risk the gobie starving in qt??? I remember reading quite a bit of pros and cons on qt'ing sifter gobies when I bought mine over a year ago....Though mine eats anything it can fit in its mouth......not a finicky eater at all.....

 

[Joe Fish]

I never added my YWG and he is doing ok. I guess I'm just nervous when it comes to adding fish since the ich outbreak.

 

[Mahamotorworks]

I think that a fish that starved to death defeats the idea of QT. Here are some Ideas

If the Ich meds wont kill the live rock the just add him to the main tank. The worst that happens is 150 Gallons worth of meds.

You can also add him to the fuge so it is easier to find and check him for Ich.

Add some live sand from the Main tank to the QT tank the when he passes. QT not away. Add the live sand back in to the main tank.

That is all that I can come up with.

MAHA

 

[1979camaro]

the ich meds will kill the rock

 

[TheFool]

It's for situations like this you might need to consider a 'custom' QT setup that is not barebottom or whatever. The point of QT is that it is not going to be straightforward to treat a tank , even without other fish in it. I have QT'ed some pretty finicky angels in tanks with mucho live rock, because I had to to keep them feeding, but did want to QT them.
If it comes down with ich in the main display it's a mere 6 to 10 week break before you can add anything. If it's velvet, it's tank breakdown time - do you want to risk that?