Quarantine Tanks

K

kkendrix

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Jun 18, 2003
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I have some general quarantine questions. I hope you guys can help.

1) How longes do you normally quarantine new fish?
2) What, if any, medications and/or treatments do you use.
3) Any special equipment I should consider for quarantine tank?

Any other comments about quarantining new arrivals will be appreciated.

kk
 
Minimun quarantine is two weeks- more if something looks suspect.
I quarantine fancy goldfish in a bare bottomed tank with a cycled sponge filter and a heater- that's all. I dose them twice with praziquantel for gill flukes, then once with Program for anchor worms and fish lice.
During the time in quarantine they are fed "MetroGold" for the first week to clear out any intestinal parasites, then "MediGold" for the second week to clear any invisible bacterial infections.
Goldfish have lots of issues :D

I do not go through all of these medications with my tropicals, as their problems seem less severe- all they get is a couple of weeks of good conditions and close observation before they hit the display tank. Maybe some salt in the water for applicable species.

A quarantine tank needs a basic light so you can examine fish closely, a heater to keep a very stable temperature, and some filtration. Anything else only complicates cleaning chores and observation- you need to see the poops, the uneaten food, etc. without having to sort through a substrate.

If I am quarantining something timid (like an elephantnose) I would provide a hidey hole in the form of a ceramic log or flowerpot so he could feel somewhat secure. Emotional issues need to be addressed as well as physical ones.
 
Wow, awesome post Cearbhaill, looks of good info (I needed as well) in there :).

I use my 15g as a quaratine/sick tank, and keep it dosed with Aquarisol or Copper Safe. I also add a nominal amount of aquarium salts (half tonic dose because I keep Botia in the 15g). The Copper Safe/Aquarisol battle water resident ich and the salt helps the fish shed the ick form their sides (also keeps water conditions unfavorable for other yuckies ;) ). The combination of the two seem to keep things stable.

My LFS is a neat freak and his tanks look better than mine. His suppliers are top-notch, so I rarely have to worry about disease. There is a rare instance of ich from time to time (which is why I add the preventive dose for it). But if I were buying more online I'd probably do as Cearbhaill suggested.
 
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For My QT tanks, i usually will not treat the fish unless i see something wrong. Why add any salt or chemicals, if the fish do now show any symptoms. I find that this may stress them out more than helping him and I like to cut down their exposure to harsh chemicals.
I keep the fish or fishes in the tank for about a month. But I do agree with the sponge filter, heater and light. I do feed the fish good food, and crushed garlic or garlic based foods for any internal parasites.


jim
 
I have one main tank, but I have 5 q tanks.

I only house Tiger Barbs and Clown Loaches.

One q-tank I use for new arrivals. Its a 6 g eclipse, it has a biowheel, light, heater, gravel, and some pottery. It's set right besides my main tank. Fish in this q tank always draw alot of attention from the fish in the main tank. Although the fish are in different tanks, they'll see each other, hang out together, and occasionally dance with each other. Water parameters are tough to keep sometimes in a small q-tank like this.
During the big blackout, I was forced to put my new q- fish in my main tank because the water quality was getting bad. I ended up treating my main tank for 2 weeks with salt and paragon 2, as I wanted to keep an ich infection from spreading. It worked and all my fish were fine.

I q new fish for 48 hours to a week. Not good advise I guess.
But If you have a cycled q-tank or filter, then I'd say 2 weeks or more would be great.

The other 4 q-tanks are 25 g. rubbermaid containers. I bought them a month ago when some of my Tiger Barbs were fighting and badly hurt. I put about 10 g of water in each container, used an airstone, no light, no heater, and no filter. I drilled some 1/2" holes in each of the lids so they'd have a little light.

I feed the Barbs once every other day, done a 100% water change after 5 days, and then after 10 days I inspected and put them back in the main tank. The Barbs are like new again. Solitary confinement worked for me.

I've been told I drink like a fish, so maybe I think like one too.
 
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Q tanks

I have 3 10 gallon Q tanks, one barebottom and blacked out on 3 sides, 1 lightly planted, 1 fully planted. All new additions now go through 1 month Q, possibly less in the bare tank, but then in isolation in the planted tanks. They don't get into the big tanks until the month, or more, is up.

I can't really clean the fully planted tank that well after a fish has moved out so after the last fish that had problems, I let the tank run for over a month without any fish, just shrimp and snails. The next group that were in there had no problems at all and so when they left, I moved another group in, fish from a trusted source and they are great, no problems.

The lightly planted tank is really a plant grow out tank pressed into use for some new fish. The fish in it had major issues and large losses straight from shipping bags. I'll probably sterilize that tank when they are moved out, as it might become a breeding tank.

Plus I have 2 18 gallon buckets for the pond fish, they are too big for the 10 gallon tanks. Each bucket has a net cover with elastic banding, although I read that an elastic garter with a yard of net is actualy easier to use.

I intend to break down one or two of the small tanks, but find that I'm starting to come up with possible permanent resident combinations for them.... no, I'm not addicted...:rolleyes:
 
I'm kind of on the fence about treating quarantine fish. After my last experience I'm more inclined to treat with Coppersafe for several weeks and then Prazi for an extra week for a total of about 5 weeks quarantine period. Regardless of whether or not I see signs of illness.

I quarantined some rasboras for 6 weeks and didn't see visible signs of illness at all. I spent each day carefully examining them for long periods of time and never saw a thing wrong with them. After I put them in my main tank, all of a sudden, several days later, my rummynoses (which were in the main tank for 8 months and healthy) got ich. I'm 100% certain there was no visible signs of illness on the rasboras. Then I was stuck treating for ich, which in my opinion is a pain, especially in a planted tank.
 
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