Do I really need a quaratine tank? I have never used one before. I stick the fish in the tank like I'm supossed to. I do it carefully. They have all lived for several months so far!
Quarantine tank? Do I need it?
- Thread starter beautifulfish
- Start date
well it would help if a fish gets sick you put it in there so your other fish dont get sick and so you can put in the medicine with out it interfering with the other fish
The other reason for a QT tank is b/c every time you introduce new fish to your tank you run the risk of introducing any number of disease to your tank along with it. IF you QT you can watch the fish for a few weeks and be pretty confident that they are not carrying a disease which in some cases could wipe out your whole tank. But its up to you
Hmmm how much do you love your other fish
?
I had one when I was planning on introducing new fish to my main tank. I kept it because I had already cycled stuff to work with. I have taken it down, because I don't plan to add, but I have the tank around incase something gets sick. I will use it when I add any new fish, no question. I am very attached to my fish.
If you have no place to put a sick fish, you risk contaminating the others, then you'd have to start all over if they died. also they'd get medication they don't need for that one sick fish's treament.
?I had one when I was planning on introducing new fish to my main tank. I kept it because I had already cycled stuff to work with. I have taken it down, because I don't plan to add, but I have the tank around incase something gets sick. I will use it when I add any new fish, no question. I am very attached to my fish.
If you have no place to put a sick fish, you risk contaminating the others, then you'd have to start all over if they died. also they'd get medication they don't need for that one sick fish's treament.
LMOUTHBASS
My hypocrisy goes only so far
it depends on a few things - the size of your current tank, the worth of your current fish ($$$) and of course how much you care about your fish - will you be upset if they get wiped out by disease?
i refuse to NOT use a QT tank - i have a 55g tank - that's way too much water to treat should a new fish introduce a disease - having had a 20g previously and no qt tank - fighting something as simple as ick in that tank was a pain in the butt - n that was only 20 gallons of water! never mind anythign more than that! think of how expensive it would be to treat big tanks because they'll need more meds overall because there is more water -
plus new fish have been exposed to tons of other fish before they get in your tank - besides the cost of medicating your main tank it is just a pain to have your show tank under attack - you have to keep medicating and it's just an eye sore to look at if it's sick
then if you really like some of your fish it sucks to lose them because you were careless - believe me!
also wouldn't you prefer to say only medicate a small 5-10 g q tank instead of something bigger - it's cheaper and you can nip problems in the bud should one occur and contain whatever it is that the new fish might bring in -
you dont need to keep a q tank up at all times - i dont - just keep a piece of bio foam in your current filter and when you need to set up your q tank for new fish just take the bio foam out of your filter and place it in the q tank filter - by then bio foam will have all the necessary bacteria n you'll have an instantly cycled q tank! works great! you can do the same thing if you ever need a hospital tank in a jiffy!
trust me q tanks save you time, money and heart ache! I would've lost my whole tank to a bad batch of fish once if it weren't for the q tank! Fortunately because of the q tank fish that looked healthy upon purchase died from some weird outbreak in quarantine and what ever it was never infected my main tank
sorry for the long post i just felt like i had lots of good info to share!
I'd get a small tank and use it when you need to for qt with the bio foam filter technique - if you have more questions let me know!
i refuse to NOT use a QT tank - i have a 55g tank - that's way too much water to treat should a new fish introduce a disease - having had a 20g previously and no qt tank - fighting something as simple as ick in that tank was a pain in the butt - n that was only 20 gallons of water! never mind anythign more than that! think of how expensive it would be to treat big tanks because they'll need more meds overall because there is more water -
plus new fish have been exposed to tons of other fish before they get in your tank - besides the cost of medicating your main tank it is just a pain to have your show tank under attack - you have to keep medicating and it's just an eye sore to look at if it's sick
then if you really like some of your fish it sucks to lose them because you were careless - believe me!
also wouldn't you prefer to say only medicate a small 5-10 g q tank instead of something bigger - it's cheaper and you can nip problems in the bud should one occur and contain whatever it is that the new fish might bring in -
you dont need to keep a q tank up at all times - i dont - just keep a piece of bio foam in your current filter and when you need to set up your q tank for new fish just take the bio foam out of your filter and place it in the q tank filter - by then bio foam will have all the necessary bacteria n you'll have an instantly cycled q tank! works great! you can do the same thing if you ever need a hospital tank in a jiffy!
trust me q tanks save you time, money and heart ache! I would've lost my whole tank to a bad batch of fish once if it weren't for the q tank! Fortunately because of the q tank fish that looked healthy upon purchase died from some weird outbreak in quarantine and what ever it was never infected my main tank
sorry for the long post i just felt like i had lots of good info to share!
I'd get a small tank and use it when you need to for qt with the bio foam filter technique - if you have more questions let me know!
I have to add that our tank was just fine for a few months as well. Then, one fateful day, we bought 3 otos. A week later, a few of our fish had white spots. We started treatment immediately, but despite our best efforts, a month later 14 of our 18 fish had died. So, now we have a quarantine tank. It takes a lot of patience to be an aquarist. We quarantine our new fish from 3 to 4 weeks. So far, so good.
Recently, we had one more fish get parasites, and we removed it immediately from the display tank and put it in the quarantine tank, which luckily was empty at the time. So far none of the fish in the display tank have got the parasites, and the sick fish is all better. His treatment is almost over, and we'll wait a week or two before we put him back in the display tank.
It cost about $30 for the 10 gallon tank, heater (already had an old HOB filter that does just fine for the Q tank) and thermometer. We don't light the Q tank, and just put some hornwort in it to help with filtration. I highly recommend the Q tank. After 6 months of having no Q tank, we basically had to start all over just because of that one incident!
Recently, we had one more fish get parasites, and we removed it immediately from the display tank and put it in the quarantine tank, which luckily was empty at the time. So far none of the fish in the display tank have got the parasites, and the sick fish is all better. His treatment is almost over, and we'll wait a week or two before we put him back in the display tank.
It cost about $30 for the 10 gallon tank, heater (already had an old HOB filter that does just fine for the Q tank) and thermometer. We don't light the Q tank, and just put some hornwort in it to help with filtration. I highly recommend the Q tank. After 6 months of having no Q tank, we basically had to start all over just because of that one incident!