[Chamilitary]

I understand if you have alot of fishes and its an established aquarium but doesn't it stress sensitive fish even more by moving them around over and over again?

Are the water in the quarantine tanks supposed to be from the main tank's water.

I don't really get it.

 

[The old man]

In case they come down with some disease it is easier to treat them in a tank with only a sponge filter if you using charcoal in main tank. Personally, I just use the drip method to acclimate them to the new tank. Only had some Rams that ended up with ich when added, but treated the whole tank and got rid of it without losing any fish.

 

[davemonkey]

Let's say you've got an aquarium with fish already in it. And you go out and buy some more fish from Fancy Freddie's Fish Fare. You get home and through them in your quarantine tank for a week so that you can keep an eye on them for signs of disease. If they do develop the disease, you can treat them in the quarantine tank without your other fish being exposed to the disease or to the chemicals used to treat it. It's also cheaper to treat a small 10 gal quarantine than it is to treat a larger aquarium (if you have a lrager one).

 

[fish dork]

Exactly as Davemonkey said... and remember you can also lower the water level to make dosing of medicines in your quarantine even easier on your wallet.

 

[BryceM]

If you only have a single 10 or 20g aquarium with only a few inexpensive fish, it's probably not worth it to do a quarantine.

If you have a 500g tank full of thousands of dollars worth of rare fish, you'd be out of your mind to not quarantine new arrivals.

 

[praxis5624]

I could not have said it any better Davemonkey. This topic should raise another topic: Those who disagree in quarantining must have money at hand to waste. I love the fish that I keep: LF White Clouds and Endler's Livebearers and on occassion when I feel it's necessary to add fresh genes to my stock, the acquired stock is quarantined and introduced after a period of time. Most fish in pet stores are mostly stressed and thier diet needs are not really address with a regular staple diet. During quarantining, I feed baby brine and other treats to increase their metabolism which in turn will ultimately strengthen the immunity as well. I disagree with introducing disease to my established aquarium ( possibly ) and risk losing fish that I drove around town to several locations to buy, time and money.

 

[praxis5624]

Another point in hand, the live plants you could lose due to introduction of medication which all know is deadly to most plants.

 

[Chamilitary]

Makes sense, but quarantining the fish also stresses it out, and moving them again after quarantining stresses them out again right?

So while they are moved from the Quarantine tank to t he main tank, they could potentially catch another disease because of the extra stress.

 

[JanS]

Moving them across your house to the same water they've been kept in for the last month is totally different from bringing them home from the store.
When you bring them home from the store, they've just been shipped from who knows how many different handlers in a short period of time, they've been exposed to many different water parameters, including bag water, and have been tossed around in shipping several times, so they are going to be stressed and more vulnerable to picking up different things that they could normally fight off.
I always quarantine for about a month, so they've had plenty of time to settle in and by the time you move them to the main tank it's a piece of cake. I just toss them in a convalescent container to move them from one tank to the other, so they hardly notice.

 

[Chamilitary]

But a barebottom quarantine tank and my planted tank with driftwood and stuff could potentially have differnt parameters?

should I use the main tank water in the quarantine tank?

 

[lauraleellbp]

Ideally, the QT tank at first should match the parameters of the water the fish are coming from- so if you're buying them from an LFS, the QT tank should match the parameters at the LFS.

I always QT for at least 2 weeks, and then during the final week start acclimating the fish to my main tank by doing water changes and replacing the water in the QT tank with water from the destination tank.

The more patient you're willing to be, the better off your fish will be and less losses you'll experience when acclimating new fish.

 

[Six]

If you're losing fish or worried about losing fish due to acclimation- it is being done incorrectly. If there's worry about moving fish form tank to tank, there's likely more husbandry issues than that.

 

[The old man]

ok, I was a bit quick with my answer, but thought he was talking about a new tank. First of all you should only add a few fish to begin with a new tank planted or not. Then as you add fish you probably should quarantine any other additions especially if you have a lot of expensive fish in the tank already. Also, it depends a lot I think where you get the new fish. My lfs will not sell fish for about a week until he accounts for shipping stress loss, signs of disease, etc.
Petsmart or Petco a completely different story. Also, certain fish (Rams) are more suseptible to ich, etc. and should have been quarantined as I got them from a not very reliable dealer at the time. And finally a fish you need right away for a specific purpose (eating BBA) if you go to a reliable dealer and can check his stock I would not quarantine, but just use the drip method to acclimate. If I was setting up a quarantine tank I would set it up using the water from the main tank, but not sure if that is very important. Just keep charcoal out of your quarantine tank.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Why do you keep activated carbon out of your QT?

IMHO you should QT regardless of the source.

 

[grim]

you keep charcoal out of the qt in case you have to medicate the charcoal removes the chemicals

 

[JanS]

you keep charcoal out of the qt in case you have to medicate the charcoal removes the chemicals

I'm neither for or against charcoal in a q-tank, but if you do find you need to treat the tank, it's as simple as removing the carbon/charcoal before you start treating.

 

[Jimbo205]

If you only have a single 10 or 20g aquarium with only a few inexpensive fish, it's probably not worth it to do a quarantine.

If you have a 500g tank full of thousands of dollars worth of rare fish, you'd be out of your mind to not quarantine new arrivals.

Could not be said better.

 

[Jimbo205]

Main Entry: 1quar·an·tine
Pronunciation: \ˈkwȯr-ən-ˌtēn, ˈkwär-\
Function: noun
Etymology: partly modification of French quarantaine, from Old French, from quarante forty, from Latin quadraginta, from quadra- (akin to quattuor four) + -ginta (akin to viginti twenty); partly modification of Italian quarantena quarantine of a ship, from quaranta forty, from Latin quadraginta — more at four, vigesimal
Date: 1609
1: a period of 40 days
2 a: a term during which a ship arriving in port and suspected of carrying contagious disease is held in isolation from the shore b: a regulation placing a ship in quarantine c: a place where a ship is detained during quarantine
3 a: a restraint upon the activities or communication of persons or the transport of goods designed to prevent the spread of disease or pests b: a place in which those under quarantine are kept
4: a state of enforced isolation


Just in case anyone wanted to know how long they should quarantine for.
This is not graved in stone, but a yardstick to compare to.
Sometimes the 'old-timers' knew what they were talking about.

This definition is from Merriam-Webster's Online. Which makes spellcheck look like.... you know.

 

[Complexity]

I use quarantine tanks (Q/T) for all my new fish. It's not just the money, but I get attached to my fish. I know their particular personalities and quirks, and I don't want to lose them.

Regardless of how wonderful the LFS may be, unless they are breeding the fish themselves, they have no way of knowing the condition of the fish coming in. Many of these fish have been breed in massive numbers overseas where quantity is more important that quality. Fish diseases can be rampant in these places.

Then the fish goes through the stress of shipping and the store's different water parameters. Unless the store is going to do their own Q/T for 2-4 weeks (too costly). then what you are buying is not their fish, but the fish they received from their importer. Some stores make matters worse, no doubt. But no store can be certain all the fish are healthy when they just arrived in a box from overseas.

I quarantine my new fish because I do not want to introduce an illness into my main tank. I also think it's good for the new fish to have their own peaceful tank before they're thrown into my main tank with various schools of fish, dwarf cichlids and shrimp. Many of the new fish have never been mixed in with other fish, that has to be stressful to them. By allowing them their own Q/T where I can observe them very closely, ensure they are eating well, and if the fish do turn out to have a disease, it is so much easier to treat them in a Q/T than in the main tank. It's much easier to treat just one species of fish in a Q/T than to find meds that work for all kinds of fish, inverts and plants.

I do not use water from my main tank. I always use very fresh and clean water (conditioned tap water). I run the tank at least a day before adding the new fish. Depending on the particular fish, I may add caves, live plants (great for new shrimp), silk plants (unharmed by meds), floating plants or whatever matches the fish's preferred environment. I then watch the for 2-4 weeks. I do frequently water changes to keep the Q/T very clean, and I watch the ammonia closely.

After the fish have successfully completed their time in the Q/T, they are accustomed to me, used to the food I feed, acclimated to my water, and much stronger and less stressed than they were when I bought them. So moving them into my main tank is one more step for the fish, but it's not anywhere near as stressful as what they go through when you buy them. That little bit of stress usually doesn't harm healthy fish.

The day you experience or even read someone else's experience of having a tank full of fish they love, only to lose them all, one by one, after introducing a sick fish that hadn't been quarantined, you'll be glad you use a Q/T. It's heartbreaking what these people go through. I don't want to experience that with my tanks. So I use a Q/T for all new fish.

 

[Mud Pie Mama]

Very well spoken, Vicki. I do have a horror story involving sick fish just as you've mentioned. A search w/ quarantine, I'm sure will bring it up.

I'll also add that if you put new fish into a well planted tank. It can be hard to keep an eye on them and observe them closely, just because there are so many hiding places w/ all the foliage, driftwood, rocks, etc.

It can be even harder to try to net them out if something comes up and you want to try treating just a few fish and not your whole tank. Some fish are so fast and expert at evasive maneuvering, that I've had to remove all my plants in order to net them out (Diamond Tetras for one.)