Quarantine Question

[loxodonta51]

I am a currently a first year vet student at Cornell and also a saltwater hobbyist, with three marine tanks up here with me. Recently I, along with other interested students at Cornell, have been discussing the possibility of starting a preventative medicine program at Cornell for aquarium fish. This would largely center around the existence of quarantine tanks at the College that people could either place their fish in after purchasing them for 4-6 weeks or send their fish to if they became ill. Vet students would then care for these fish, test water parameters, etc.
Administrators are very interested in starting this program, but wanted to get input from those in the hobby about whether they believe people would utilize this service. Therefore, that is what I am asking: do you think people would use this?
Thanks for the input!

 

[trigger40]

Quote:
Originally Posted by loxodonta51 http:///t/397560/quarantine-question#post_3543602
I am a currently a first year vet student at Cornell and also a saltwater hobbyist, with three marine tanks up here with me. Recently I, along with other interested students at Cornell, have been discussing the possibility of starting a preventative medicine program at Cornell for aquarium fish. This would largely center around the existence of quarantine tanks at the College that people could either place their fish in after purchasing them for 4-6 weeks or send their fish to if they became ill. Vet students would then care for these fish, test water parameters, etc.
Administrators are very interested in starting this program, but wanted to get input from those in the hobby about whether they believe people would utilize this service. Therefore, that is what I am asking: do you think people would use this?
Thanks for the input!
would you?

 

[trigger40]

Quote:
Originally Posted by loxodonta51 http:///t/397560/quarantine-question#post_3543602
I am a currently a first year vet student at Cornell and also a saltwater hobbyist, with three marine tanks up here with me. Recently I, along with other interested students at Cornell, have been discussing the possibility of starting a preventative medicine program at Cornell for aquarium fish. This would largely center around the existence of quarantine tanks at the College that people could either place their fish in after purchasing them for 4-6 weeks or send their fish to if they became ill. Vet students would then care for these fish, test water parameters, etc.
Administrators are very interested in starting this program, but wanted to get input from those in the hobby about whether they believe people would utilize this service. Therefore, that is what I am asking: do you think people would use this?
Thanks for the input!
oh, and question. how big would the qt be and what equipment

 

[loxodonta51]

I definitely would and plan to do so.

QT sizes would depend on the fish, of course. We would plan to have a few 55 and 30 gallons for the marine side (additional small freshwater tanks would also be available), bare bottomed tanks with hiding spots that are easily cleaned. I have yet to decide on filtration; I have to search our current inventory to see if what we have available already is sufficient.

 

[trigger40]

Quote:
Originally Posted by loxodonta51 http:///t/397560/quarantine-question#post_3543609
I definitely would and plan to do so.

QT sizes would depend on the fish, of course. We would plan to have a few 55 and 30 gallons for the marine side (additional small freshwater tanks would also be available), bare bottomed tanks with hiding spots that are easily cleaned. I have yet to decide on filtration; I have to search our current inventory to see if what we have available already is sufficient.
HOB filters are the way to go if you got em. at our M.S.A. program at school thats all we use(with the exception of our DT's). but they are cheap and low matnence and have the carbon option. i asume you got the heaters and lighting planed out, and what color are you painting the bottoms?

 

[loxodonta51]

I do know we have spare HOB filters on campus. And yeah, I know we have functioning heaters and lights already. Probably black, but if we have dark blue available already, I will just use that.

 

[trigger40]

thats good, what size?

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by loxodonta51 http:///t/397560/quarantine-question#post_3543602
I am a currently a first year vet student at Cornell and also a saltwater hobbyist, with three marine tanks up here with me. Recently I, along with other interested students at Cornell, have been discussing the possibility of starting a preventative medicine program at Cornell for aquarium fish. This would largely center around the existence of quarantine tanks at the College that people could either place their fish in after purchasing them for 4-6 weeks or send their fish to if they became ill. Vet students would then care for these fish, test water parameters, etc.
Administrators are very interested in starting this program, but wanted to get input from those in the hobby about whether they believe people would utilize this service. Therefore, that is what I am asking: do you think people would use this?
Thanks for the input!

Since EVERY tank needs a hospital tank for sick fish. and new fish should be placed in a quarantine tank, the only problem is going to be keeping enough of them.

 

[silverado61]

It doesn't seem very feasible to me. For a few reasons.
First: You'd pretty much need 1 tank per fish and or customer. Think of it this way: A customer brings in their fish for quarantine, it stays well for 3 weeks with 1 week to go, but you put in another fish and unbeknownst to you, this new fish has ick. It just infected the clean fish with one week to go and you send it to the customer and now their whole tank has ick.
Second: A new fish comes in and comes down with ick. You treat it till its well and send it on its way. Now you either have to leave that tank empty for 6-8 weeks to make sure the parasite dies off or empty the tank and fill it with water from an established healthy tank or fresh water and cycle the tank again.
It just doesn't seem very cost effective to me and if you pass that cost on to the customer that can be quite expensive for them.
Just a thought.
Always learning.

 

[jay0705]

Lets look at it like this. Say your qt is medicated. Ie copper. After say a wk in a tank w copper would then a healthy feeding fish get a passing grade to graduate to the main tank?
Just throwing it out there, idk if copper would kill all nasty stuff but I know it kills alot. Usually in a wks time.

 

[tthemadd1]

My thoughts are also about practicality. If I own a sick fish I have to get it out of the tank then transport it to your group vs just having a second tank at home. My LFS has a similar process at her shop. For a few bucks a day you can bring down your fish and she will maintain the system treat the fish and keep your aquatics separate from others. The main difference is she is there at the store keeping an eye on them, tracking their progress and I usually leave with new corals. Would this be of benefit for the group for research?