quarrantining new fish

[cooksalot]

hi, how do you all go about quarrantining new fish? i have set up my QT tank (10G, no substrate, heater, pump, and am going to add a piece of PVC pipe or a piece of dead rock as a hiding place).

i've read everything from the full 6 week wait and see QT to a speedy version or lowering SG and treating with prophylactic antibiotics. how well do all these methods work? if i were to treat the fish what kind of medication would you suggest? anything i'm missing? thanks!

 

[drunktank]

you don't really need to start off with any medication, only if you see signs of something that needs to be treated. Personally, I find QT systems are just a good way to make sure ur fish is healthy and eating. You don't want to mess your display up by not being careful. secondly, i'd stick with PVC hiding , b/c any medication or esp copper you use can be absorbed into the rock. Hyposalinity in terms of QT once again is really only needed if you feel you have to treat for lets say ick or other paracites. My suggestion, is set up your QT tank to mimic the salinity and temperature of your maintank and use the QT to watch your fish for any problems. If after a week or so you don't notice anything out of the norm, put him in the main tank. If you to notice something , treat accordingly.

 

[cooksalot]

If after a week or so you don't notice anything out of the norm, put him in the main tank. If you to notice something , treat accordingly.

but is it true that a lot of illnesses won't present themselves after only a week? that is my concern...i don't want to leave the fish in a QT unnecessarily long, but at the same time if i move it out too soon, then there was no point in QTing it to start with....if that makes any sense.

 

[marrone]

but is it true that a lot of illnesses won't present themselves after only a week? that is my concern...i don't want to leave the fish in a QT unnecessarily long, but at the same time if i move it out too soon, then there was no point in QTing it to start with....if that makes any sense.

You should QT your fish for atleast 2 - 6 weeks, the more the better, as there are some diseases that mayn't show themselves for quite sometime. You also want to look for any parasite that the fish may have.

Remember when you QT a fish you're protecting the fishes in your main tank and not the fish being QT. It's better to leave a fish in QT, and have it die, then to place it to soon in your main tank and have it kill all your other fish.

By QT the fish you're also giving it some down time, before you move it into the main tank, where there will most likely be some fish that may attack it. Remember these fish are being pulled from the sea and shipped around the world so they need some time just to settle in before being introduced to a possible hostile situation.

 

[scarf_ace1981]

if you really want to qt make sure he's in there for a while. i never qt and when i had my 90g set up it caused me many problems.

no need to medicate unless the fish shows sings of ick, velvet, popeye, etc...

 

[ming]

Remember these fish are being pulled from the sea and shipped around the world so they need some time just to settle in before being introduced to a possible hostile situation.

Sounds like...

Gladiator.. READY.....

But yeah.. I completely agree with the longer QT, and non-medicating unless you see symptoms

 

[Harif87]

I agree whats being said here. QT should be for about a month to 6 weeks. Dont medicate if its not neccesscary. All you need it a bare bottom tank with PVC pipe to serve as hiding. Dont bother adding LR to the tank since if you need to medicate it would be a waste of money since it would kill off the bio filter. If your not QT-ing for that long i would also suggest having a UV sterilizer hooked up to the DT.

 

[cooksalot]

thanks for all the advice. i don't have any fish yet, so the initial goal is not so much about the first fish being bullied as i don't want to possibly introduce any disease into my tank (which at the moment has LR, CUC and two small corals).

since the QT tank hasn't been cycled, i understand that i need to siphon out as much uneaten food/waste as possible, but what happens if i see an ammonia spike? just handle it with water changes?

 

[drunktank]

its just my opinion, or how i do things. But since I have a large tank, i usually just fill the QT tank up w/ tank water since its cycled already. If you keep ur readings relatively low you wont have problems w/ spikes until the fish is in, and then you can do water changes. Of course thats just how I do things GL and let us know what kind of fish list your planning!

 

[Harif87]

since the QT tank hasn't been cycled, i understand that i need to siphon out as much uneaten food/waste as possible, but what happens if i see an ammonia spike? just handle it with water changes?

Water changes will heal all my friend







(in most cases)

 

[cooksalot]

GL and let us know what kind of fish list your planning!

thanks! as of right now, i'm planning on three fish (i would like four, but i'm afraid that might be pushing it in a 24G...what do you all think?).

i'd like a bangaii cardinal and two false osellaris (maybe one b&w and one typical orange and white, haven't totally decided if i'm going to try that, but if i do i will be introducing them at the same time).

other thoughts are a 6 line wrasse, a clown goby, or maybe a royal gramma.

any opinions?