LESSON LEARNED ABOUT QUARANTINING NEW FISH

platytetrafan

platytetrafan

AC Members
Jan 20, 2007
1,563
5
38
NY
OK I learned a good lesson about QTing new fish and will do this for now on. I lost 2 trilineatus cories due to my impatience in adding three more directly from the LFS to my main tank without QTing first well the next day turned out the new ones were really sick. 2 died and the other on his way well my other two existing cories got sick too. Thank god the rest of my fish did not come down with whatever this was.

I immediately Qt'd them. The new ones I brought back to the LFS for a refund. I had no idea what disease they had but when my existing cories got sick it looked like ich so I treated with salt and aquarisol and increased the temp in the QT did wc's to no avail one died. The spots on the other cory seemed to be gone but once I stopped the aquarisol what ever this was came back so I tried Maracyn.

To no avail lost that cory too. Now the Qt is empty I cleaned it with very hot water and it is dry now including the whisper filter. I am planning on adding cories to the main tank but want to QT the new fish first. Is is safe to use this QT tank or should I clean it with peroxide or bleach first?
Is it necessary to clean the filter too?

Is one week QT long enough for a new fish before adding to the main tank? If not how long should I QT the new fish?
 
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I would quarantine for a week, if you dry anything out completely, the ich will die. The larval stage where they are in the water last three days, without a host they die, I would wait 5 days to a week before adding new fish. Its been a while since I last had ich, I hope I remembered correctly.
 
Wow, tough lesson... sorry to hear it. I think cories are sensitive to salt though. You should be careful if you treat with it.
 
Yeah I know they are sensitive to salt I used less than a tsp and I was not completely sure what this disease was that they had it looked like ich but who knows. I am not good at dxing disease but one thing I did learn is that before adding any new fish to my main tank I will QT to make sure they are ok before I risk infecting my healthy fish.
 
1 week is not nearly enough for QT, should do 1 month minimum after all signs of any disease are gone. I QT'd for 3 weeks once and 2 days after I introduced the fish to the main tank they had an ich outbreak. After that experience, and reading similar experiences of others, I QT for at least 1 month and treat the tank and new fish for parasites and ich as a precaution.
 
Same as above. I keep all new fish separate for about 1 month and like msjinkzd, if they need to be treated for something, I start the QT from the beginning. I've got to much invested in my tanks to risk killing everything. Plus, treating a small tank is sooooo much easier then a large tank.

If your tank, and everything that goes with it is dry, I think you should be fine to start again.
 
plaalye said:
1 week is not nearly enough for QT, should do 1 month minimum after all signs of any disease are gone. I QT'd for 3 weeks once and 2 days after I introduced the fish to the main tank they had an ich outbreak. After that experience, and reading similar experiences of others, I QT for at least 1 month and treat the tank and new fish for parasites and ich as a precaution.
Click to expand...

How is it that the ich didn't come out in 3 weeks? You treat all new fish as a precaution? With what?
 
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