On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 22:05:14 +0000, Gill Passman
wrote:

My experience is that in the UK (and you are in UK or Ireland aren't you
if I remember correctly?), they don't QT as such but keep them off sale
for a period of time to make sure that there are no obvious problems and
the fish acclimatise to the local water conditions - usually around a
week...maybe not all places do this but the ones I use do, and it sounds
like you have the same sort of thing in place...

With Clowns I never buy them straight afer they go on sale - I tend to
pay a few trips and check them each time before plunging in...if they've
been in the shop for a few weeks, which is very stressful for them, with
no obvious signs of ich/white spot I will buy them - I've adopted this
policy after losing a number of newly purchased Clowns to Ich....If they
have even one white spot don't buy any of them...

Right now, I have 4 Clown Loaches in QT...it is a normally set up tank -
plants, gravel and driftwood for them to hide under - it is 15 gall...it
also contains other fish - but experience has shown me that Clowns also
benefit from "dither fish" when settling in...3 have been in there for
around 5 weeks - although shy they seem fine - the other has been in
there around 6 days (bought from the same supplier and the same batch of
fish - he had just grown bigger and I couldn't resist). The fish will
move into their permanent home over the next few days...

The reason I am doing this is because it is a lot easier to treat a
small tank for ich than the larger community tank....and theoratically
easier to spot ich - however mine are so good at hiding it makes this a
little harder...

So give it a go, make sure there are plenty of hiding spaces for them
and keep any eye on them for at least a couple of weeks. Also ensure the
water quality is spot on as I've noticed sensitivity to even the
smallest trace of nitrites...

Good luck

Gill

I recently had a discussion on this with Vance, my lfs. His water
comes from his well, it is hard as a rock and alkaline. My water is as
soft as a baby's sleeper pajamas and settles at 6.6-6.8 after a couple
of days in the tank. He opens at noon each day, and noon is when I
generally visit him. So we talk while we wander through the store,
turning on lights, checking the tanks, pulling out the inevitable
floaters, usually just one or two, sometimes none, and when there are
more than 2, or if it's some in the same tank as yesterday, he slaps a
Not For Sale sign on the tank and medicates it. I often get him to
order fish especially for me, and I asked him what he thought of the
idea of transferring my fish directly from the shipping bags and
bypassing the process of acclimating them to his tanks, then bringing
them home to acclimate to my tanks a few days later. It was a good,
give and take, discussion - and we never did come to a total
agreement, I think we left it at deciding on a case by case basis. My
next "special order" is some Espie Rasboras, we'll figure it out when
they arrive.

-- Mister Gardener