How Do You Quarantine Your Fish

[civitan.erichanson]

There seems to be a lot of ways to do quarantine, I am curious as to how others do it. If you do something not covered by the poll please post it. Also if you use any medication - what do you use?

 

I am also curious whether any LFS is thought to maintain their fish in a way where quarantine is not necessary.

 

Thank you,

 

Eric.

[gmubeach]

My fish aren't worth enough to quaretine:) I have four fish total for about 80 dollars a quaretene tank isn't cost effective, but I do run UV and watch carefully for problems good diet is also improtant:) In addition stress leads to ich so stressing out fish in a tank devoide of rock probably isn't the best idea..... If I was going to invest in a tank of larger size I would have a Isolated quratine tank with uv and live rock:)

[CHUBAKAH]

I ONLY buy my fish from LFS's who quarantine their fish. To date I have only lost one fish, and have had zero problems with any disease.

 

Knock on wood!!

[magnetic1]

Ive learned from my past mistakes.

 

All fish go into "QT" at least for a week to see if they have issues. Like my latest group purchase. HUGE Ich outbreak in QT tank after 4 days. Imagine that in my main tank now?!

 

BRK has a really good QT procedure where they lower salinity and treat w/ copper. That's about the only LFS Id trust to not go into QT, but just to be safe, I still do it.

 

If the fish doesnt show signs of disease.. I slowly raise the salinity before introduction. Typical time is at least 2-4 weeks.

[stevearlen]

All fish go in quarantine for about two weeks in a 10 gal QT tank with lower salinity. I also do a brief fresh water dip with meth. blue. I keep a plastic pants and a few short pieces of PVC in the QT tank.

 

I'm not "just" interested in QT for the sake of disease control. I want to be able to readily observe the fish. I want to make sure the fish are eating OK before they get moved to the established tank.

 

Steve

Edited June 4, 2008 by stevearlen

[treesprite]

for about 80 dollars a quaretene tank isn't cost effective

If it's just a fish QT for single average fish , you really don't need to put too much money into it. A covered tank, a HOB filter, a heater, and something for the fish to hide in.

 

Length of time depends on a lot of factors. I kept my tang in qt for 5 weeks even though it was very healthy, because tangs are so prone to sudden outbreaks of ich. The angel I think was in qt for 4 weeks but it was really stressful for it... I would have prefered putting in the tank after just a couple days given it's good history, but was advised to follow protocol. The firefish and goby I had in qt only for 3 days, because qt was clearly stressing them out - they perked right up and became very active as soon as I put them in my nano (my understanding also is that gobies aren't very likely to get things like ich due to their coating).

[civitan.erichanson]

The numbers so far are pretty interesting with a pretty even split between use QT and no QT. I hope people continue to take the poll and vote. I am an impatient sole (bad for hobby) so I want to make sure I stick to something for my next fish which will likely be a Copperband, which are known to have feeding challenges.

 

I was also curious as to how people QT a Mandarin, since I would think most QT tanks do not have an established live sand bed with food ???

[civitan.erichanson]

after lunch bump

[Brian Ward]

The numbers so far are pretty interesting with a pretty even split between use QT and no QT. I hope people continue to take the poll and vote. I am an impatient sole (bad for hobby) so I want to make sure I stick to something for my next fish which will likely be a Copperband, which are known to have feeding challenges.

 

I was also curious as to how people QT a Mandarin, since I would think most QT tanks do not have an established live sand bed with food ???

 

Mandarins are considered to be mostly ich-proof. I would probably QT one for a much shorter period and possibly throw some chaeto with pods in the QT with him. Keep the pods well-supplied and he'll be fine.

[gastone]

It's too easy to say that you've never seen problems therefore they don't exist. We should treat against that which we don't see as well as that which we do. For the sake of argument let's say you purchase a juvenile clown. Don't quarantine, just throw it into the system. The fish doesn't show any obvious outward/behavioral signs of disease, yet dies 2 years later (from an unattributed cause). Do we just write it off as fish dying just because "they do that" or can we assume there was an underlying cause? Clowns should live quite some time... 10+ years. Scott could probably lay out a comprehensive quarantine procedure for us, and correct all of my erroneous errors.

 

In addition to a 6 week visit to quarantine (for all applicable fish), I have Prazipro for external flukes, and Anti-Parasite (a Jungle product containing praziquantel) for internal parasites, metronidazole, and the ever popular (and no longer easy to find it seems) levamisole. Of course you can treat specific ailments or species specific diseases as needed.

 

In the past I've had fish perish for both obvious reasons, and un-obvious reasons. In the future I hope to just keep it to obvious (and preferably old age).

 

Garrett.

Edited October 28, 2008 by gastone

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I only buy fish from LFS that do NOT quarantine. Never had any problems (several years) (that I saw!). Haven't had any fish loss other than from totally obvious reasons in that time, though (that I recall anyway!).

Edited October 28, 2008 by extreme_tooth_decay

[treesprite]

I only buy fish from LFS that do NOT quarantine. Never had any problems (several years) (that I saw!). Haven't had any fish loss other than from totally obvious reasons in that time, though (that I recall anyway!).

Why do you oly buy from those places?

 

I would be interested in seeing this poll start again.

[Clyde]

I ONLY buy my fish from LFS's who quarantine their fish. To date I have only lost one fish, and have had zero problems with any disease.

 

Knock on wood!!

Same here.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Why do you oly buy from those places?

 

I would be interested in seeing this poll start again.

 

 

For the most part I just buy from Roozen's since they have so much better selection than anyone else.

 

I've also bought from PetSmart (I have 5 yeard old chromis from them)

 

I've also bought from That Fish Place. Not sure if they quarantine or not. Suspect not.

Edited October 28, 2008 by extreme_tooth_decay

[treesprite]

For the most part I just buy from Roozen's since they have so much better selection than anyone else.

 

I've also bought from PetSmart (I have 5 yeard old chromis from them)

I used to work in a PETCO in aquatics so I saw how the fish were on arrival - not so great and there were always several DOAs of multiple species, so I would not buy them there... I went to TFW for fish and paid the 3x price of PETCO.

Edited October 28, 2008 by treesprite

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I used to work in a PETCO in aquatics so I saw how the fish were on arrival - not so great and there were always several DOAs of multiple species, so I would not buy them there

 

 

My guess is it's the same thing everywhere. They just hide it from you. That doesn't really make me feel better.

[WDLV]

My guess is it's the same thing everywhere. They just hide it from you. That doesn't really make me feel better.

Petco seems to be particularly bad. I shop there for cheap equipment, but that's it. The fish have looked bad as a general rule. I will say this though, they have been looking much better in the last couple months at my local store. I don't know if this from all the negative publicity that's been floating around or if it's just a fluke specific to this one store.

 

I have been through a lot of diferent approaches. Right now I use a 10 gallon, a Whisper EX45, a flower pot and a 50W heater on my quarrantine tanks, which often become the permanent residents of my clown or damsel pairs. I use this over-sized filter instead of the smaller versions because they pick up all the detritus in the tank. I use hypo (1.009) for the first few weeks and medicate only if something is awry.

I have a 40 breeder for larger specamins. If I want to quarrantine a really large/delicate fish I can use a 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank.

When quarrantining two clowns together and one is particularly aggressive I put another flower pot in the opposite corner. If that does not work I separate them.

Edited October 28, 2008 by WDLV