Going on vacation - feeding question
Vacation QT Care 3/17/08
Hello!
<Hi>
Thanks again & again for such a wonderful site. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. Just a quick question (this time). I have my 1st fish - Tomini tang - in QT for just over a week now (moving into a 125 gal in 3 weeks). He is eating well & having as much fun in a bare, 20 gal. tank as anyone could. I am going on vacation for one week next week & am concerned about his feeding.
<To be fairly blunt here, best bet next time is to wait to purchase the fish till after you return from vacation.>I have read that you can leave the fish for a week or more w/o feeding instead of having a neighbor come and over feed. I assume that is the case if the fish is in the display tank, with live rock, algae, etc. to pick on. In this case, where my fish is in QT, with nothing but some PVC, what would be best: feed heavily for the week until I leave; feed normally and ask a neighbor to do the regular feeds, or do nothing & have him starve for 6 days? He's rather small - 2 inches, so there is not much to wither away if I don't feed all week.
Thanks again for your efforts & help.
Pavlo
<I would have a neighbor/friend take care of him. In a bare QT tank and such a small fish with more limited fat reserves a week may begin to be a problem. Also most likely the QT will need to be topped off with fresh water at some point over the course of a week. Set up some sandwich baggies with measured amount of food so the caretaker does not need to worry about overfeeding. Also feed lightly while you are gone since you will not be able to watch the water quality.>
<Chris>

Coral Beauty in QT… Feeding Options, LR in QT   9/2/07
Hi Crew!!
<Hi Jennifer! Mich here.>
Quick question...I read over the FAQs and didn't see an answer. Here goes. I have a beautiful, healthy coral beauty in a quarantine tank. She's (assumption) <Heehee!> been in there 5 days now and has hardly eaten. I've offered her Mysis shrimp and she'll eat 1 shrimp and that's it. I see her nipping at the glass, like she's trying to eat algae off of it.
<Is Possible.>
I know the rule about not putting live rock in the QT but would that be ok?
<If your not treating with copper or anything, would be fine.>
What else could I offer her?
<Spirulina, dried algae sheets, any variety of foods... is often trail and error.... though I have heard many wonderful things about Spectrum foods, you may want to give them a try.>
Thanks crew!! Jennifer
<Welcome! Mich>

Fallow tank, ich, and a hungry Mandarin   9/1/07
Hello all,
First off, let me say thank you for all that you do. I would've left the hobby long ago very frustrated were it not for you all and your efforts.
<I might have too. :) >
Let me quickly get to my question. My main tank came down with ich and following your advice I pulled all fish from the display and am now keeping them in QT. One of the fish in the main display was a Mandarin Dragonet.
My main tank is chock full of pods for him to eat, but I'm afraid I can't say the same for his quarantine tank. I've been hatching brine shrimp for him in the meantime, but I've read that they're not very nutritious. I also started some stand alone pod cultures but it'll be a while before they really get going and that is a viable food source for him.
Given how disease resistant the Mandarin can be, can he safely live in the main tank during the fallow period? By putting him back in am I basically negating all the time that I have had the tank empty? Basically, will he act as a vector to keep the parasite population alive, such that after 6 weeks when I repatriate the other fish they are still likely to get infected all over again. Thanks for your help!
<Just to be safe, you should probably keep the mandarin in the quarantine tank. Baby brine may not be completely nutritious, but if he's eating them, they should keep him going until you can put them all back. Not that it should ever ever happen, but healthy fish can survive weeks without food (just like how healthy people can actually go over a month without food). Feeding the mandarin only baby brine is like feeding a person only cookies and beer for a few weeks. Granted, it's not healthy or ideal, but it shouldn't be too bad for short turn.>
-Fred
<Best,
Sara M.>

Acclimation/Citron Goby. Feeding a Citron Goby 8/13/07
Good morning Crew.
<Hello Andy.>
I have a Citron Goby (Gobiodon citrinus) that's in my 30g QT. I have had him a little over a week. He is very active at feeding time, but I'm not sure he is eating. He races all around and picks up the food, but he appears to mouth it for a few seconds and then spit it out. I've tried frozen Mysis, frozen brine shrimp, cut up pieces of squid, cut up pieces of gulf shrimp, Cyclop-eeze, live black worms, and, today, live brine shrimp that I hatched. I have read the FAQs and other sources of info on feeding the guy and (I think) have tried just about everything I've read. It's hard to see if he's getting skinny because he has such large pectoral fins, but from what I "think" I see (may be paranoia), he seems a little thin to me. Any thoughts?
<Well, you are definitely offering foods that he should eat. Mmm, I think I'd try a 10% water change and see if
that doesn't trigger an appetite, but skip a day of feeding after the water change. Hopefully he will start eating soon.>
Thanks!
<You're welcome. James (Salty Dog)>
Andy Bulgin

You don’t want your fish to eat? Quarantine 10/6/05
Hi Crew,
<Hi Lynn.>
     Can you tell me how long can fish safely go without being fed while in a bare QT. <Depends on the species, some will go on feeding strikes for 3 weeks and show no ill effects. Though you should try to induce feeding as soon as possible.> I quarantine mine in a 40 gal, doing 20 gal changes every 48 hours and adding Amquel as well. <Sounds good.>  Prior to this I always  have ammonia problems, so this time I haven't fed them at all (its now 10 days) Can they go the duration of 21 days with no ill effects?  <Ok, I understand your ammonia problems, when I have my QT set-up I feed twice daily, and I also execute a water change immediately after the feeding is complete.  Getting fish to eat is hard enough I would not purposely induce a hunger strike. You want them to be as strong as possible before leaving the confines of your QT and being added tot he display.  Here’s a scenario for you to consider, let’s say you don’t feed them and they do survive.  You then add the fish to the display and they refuse to eat do to the induced hunger strike. Lets also say they are too weak to deal with or compete with tank-mates that are already established in the display…not a good scenario is it? Please feed your fish. QT is not solely for preventing disease into your main tank. QT is to be used as a time to make sure a new inhabitant is eating, alert healthy and strong enough to be added to a display.>
Thanks so much
Lynn
<Adam J.>

To Feed Or Not To Feed (Pt. 2)
Update on Powder Blue Tang.  Unfortunately since I am a relative newcomer to Marine fish I don't have a quarantine tank set-up.  I have however monitored the PBT and it seems quite active and has a good appetite still. Color seems a bit faded but I haven't seen any other PBT.
<Well, faded color is a sign that something is off- either environmental conditions are not to the fish's liking, or it is under some other kind of stress>
Today as a try I started a dip in freshwater with sea cure (copper medication) for 5 minutes. Do you suggest I continue.
<Well, I would probably dip in the freshwater,  but I think that copper is better utilized in solution on a continuous basis (per manufacturer's instructions) in a separate treatment tank...>
The spots that were there first have developed into a gash like form running up and down the PBT body, about a 1/4 inch now.  They were originally small, about a 1/16 inch.  They appear almost as a wound that appears to be healing. Is this possibly my answer.
<Could be...And it could be that, if this "disease" is parasitic in nature, that these skin traumas are the "collateral damage" caused by the parasites (which may have been destroyed!)...Continue observation, and maintain impeccable water quality to assure that the fish has every opportunity to recover in a healthy environment>
Nitrite is 0, all of reading the same. Do you have any inclinations to this being a parasite, wound or any thing
other, I'm not worried about a concrete answer, I am just looking for some ideas.
<Well, I think that this may be the "after effects" of a parasite of some sort, as I indicated previously>
Suggestions for quarantine tank, size, protein skimmer, filtration.
Thanks again Bill
<Well, Bill- a quarantine tank is so simple to set up- a piece of cake, really...Nothing fancy required...All the information you need to know about quarantine of fishes is available on the WWM site. Do a search of the WWM articles and you'll find some good information. I recently wrote an article that's on the site and ran in FAMA about the quarantine process which should answer your questions...Do check it out! Good luck! Regards, Scott F.>

Antiparasitic Food
Would you use the antiparasitic food just as a precaution if the fish in quarantine were new and showing no signs of disease?
<No, I wouldn't treat with medications unless needed specifically for a diagnosed problem.  Craig>

Feeding A Fussy Fish In The Hospital Tank
OK, Thanks for the great tip, to which I will adhere.
<Scott F. on the follow-up this morning>
My only concern is that one of the fish in this QT (which is bare, except for two medium-sized formerly-live rocks) is a scooter blenny, who always picks around among the live rock for little critters to eat.  He does not eat prepared of frozen food.  It's almost 4 weeks and he seems to be doing ok (maybe a little
skinnier), but I'm wondering "what is this poor fish eating?  Will he make it?"  So it's on account of him that I feel a little pressure to get them back in the main tank.  Any comment?
Jeffrey M. Zegas
<Well, Jeff- you've done very well so far in getting your fishes to this stage...Don't rush the process, okay? You have to keep these fishes in the hospital tank for the full 30 day period, at least...Ich is a very tenacious disease, and you need to make your stand here and now to beat it! As far as the Scooter is concerned- at this stage of the game, I'd consider dropping in a couple of small pieces of live rock for him to forage on for the remaining period of time. Unfortunately, these rocks will become "hot" after being in  system that has copper, so I would not return them to the main system after the treatment period. Another idea would be to "go on safari" in your main system's sump one evening, and try to catch some live amphipods to feed this little guy. It's kind of tedious, but it works well. The other option is to purchase a 'pod culture from an e-tailer, like Indo Pacific Sea Farms (my fave) or Inland Aquatics, and pop in a few 'pods each day...Hang in there- you're almost home free! Good luck! Scott F>

QT & Compatibility for Crustaceans +
Thank you for you fast reply. To follow up: what will my shrimps/crabs eat while quarantined 2-4 weeks without substrate, etc.
<Just about anything you can get to them; flake food, pellets, sinking wafers, and bits of frozen foods (krill, plankton, formula foods, etc.). -Steven Pro>