A few questions about quarantining

[spruce]

Hi,
I have a few questions about quarantining,
-Should you quarantine even the 1st fish you get?
-If the main tank ends up having a mild case of ich, should you continue to quarantine additional fish as you get them, even though when they go into the main tank they could be introduced to Ich again?
-Would it be safe to say that the number one reason why people quarantine new fish is to prevent introducing Ich into the main tank?
Thanks,
Spruce

 

[beth]

The main reason that people QT fish is be able to deal with sick fish more effectively wo contaminating their display with either diseases or medications.
So, in that light, yes, QT even the first fish, so that you do not contamonate your tank with diseases or medications.

 

[arkman]

I have a stupid question about QT. How do you keep the tank cycled?

 

[spruce]

Thanks Beth for the reply Beth.
If you wouldnt mind me asking, could you share with me some of your experiences when using Copper instead of Hypo? Have you seen copper hurt alot of fish? I just lost a Tang, and I beleive it was becasue I used Copper in my Q-Tank :-(

 

[beth]

I can't say that I recall loosing a fish to copper, but copper is a medal which is toxic. Coopersafe, particularly is beleived to be toxic.
As Terry said, it has few applications where other safer means would have been the better choice, so why use it when you don't have to? Particularly when treating ich? The fact that it remains as trace in the tank says something about its potential problematic potency. Also, I wonder how effectively do aquarist use it. Likely most hobbyist use coppersafe which tells you in the instructions to use X-amt of tablets per gal, per day, etc. That is very imprecise to say the least. Test kits are needed to measure copper and maintain therapeutic doses during treatment. And the test kit needs to be compatible with the type copper being used. It is not as easy as dropping a few tablets in the aquaria.