Jeff Rehling
Guest
Is two weeks long enough to quarantine new livestock?
Granted I haven’t been doing this very long, but I haven’t seen 80 days as a recommendation for fish. The life cycle of ich doesn’t really matter for that long of a QT. If there are fish, even 80 days in a tank that has ich in it won’t get rid of it. And assuming it was a clean QT to start off with, you’re really just waiting to see if the fish is going to show signs of ich or other diseases.Then not even close. The life cycle of Ich for instance is 72 days, so most people properly QTing shoot for an 80 day QT period to be safe.
Granted I haven’t been doing this very long, but I haven’t seen 80 days as a recommendation for fish. The life cycle of ich doesn’t really matter for that long of a QT. If there are fish, even 80 days in a tank that has ich in it won’t get rid of it. And assuming it was a clean QT to start off with, you’re really just waiting to see if the fish is going to show signs of ich or other diseases.
For other things, like snails, coral, hermit crabs, etc... the recommended 76 days is so that you can be sure that any encysted (I think that’s the right term) have had time to hatch and leave the shell. Without fish present, the ich will die, as they don’t have a fish to infect.
But the life cycle doesn’t really matter at that point, either it’s infected or it’s not. 72 plus days isn’t going to make the fish Ich free. It may increase the chances of seeing signs if ich, but it still won’t cure it. You would need to either do the TTM or treat with copper for 14 days with a transfer to a clean tank, or 30 days without a clean tank to move them to (at least according to the R2R “experts”).Not true at all. A fish infected with Ich doesn't always show symptoms at all. If you are QTing with the express purpose of keeping ich out of the DT you have to go 72+ days. If that's the goal your only other choice that's shorter would be a shorter QT to observe for other things and then doing TTM. Or not QTing at all for Ich and having a plan to handle in the DT knowing the risks.
Here’s specifically the tank transfer method.someone teach me what TTM is
76 days is the time frame the Humblefish on R2R advises to run a tank fallow if you want to clear ich. This is not the period where you can observe a fish in QT for ich.Then not even close. The life cycle of Ich for instance is 72 days, so most people properly QTing shoot for an 80 day QT period to be safe.
But the life cycle doesn’t really matter at that point, either it’s infected or it’s not. 72 plus days isn’t going to make the fish Ich free. It may increase the chances of seeing signs if ich, but it still won’t cure it. You would need to either do the TTM or treat with copper for 14 days with a transfer to a clean tank, or 30 days without a clean tank to move them to (at least according to the R2R “experts”).
Edit: Again, my disclosure that I’ve been in this hobby for a very short time. QT is something that I’ve researched a ton, but don’t have first hand experience with.
I am not treating the tank. it's my frag tank as well as QT for observation. likely not a great idea to combine but that's all the space I have