First timer…..fish quarantine

Hi everyone, hope you are all well.

So I have a question regarding fish quarantine. Today I have stocked my 60L tank with 6 cardinal tetras. This is the first fish to go in here having completed the nitrogen cycle.

I plan to get more tetras, possibly some guppy’s on Sunday to join the little fellas. I’ve been reading up a lot about the fish being quarantined in another tank before introducing them to the other fish incase they have came with any unknown diseases etc.

So if I want to put more fish in do I now need to go out and buy a new tank and keep it for back up or for quarantine duties? Is there an easier way?

Thanks

Michael

There are two methods for quarantining new fish--and quarantining is without question a wise thing these days. One involves a small(er) aquarium kept permanently running so all new fish go into that for a period of weeks before being transferred into the display tank. The other method is to set up a temporary QT which can be a small tank or some use a plastic tub.

I have always used the permanent QT because it avoids any cycling problems, it provides an established stable environment which will always reduce stress to new fish, and it allows the fish to become accustomed to conditions that are basically identical to the display tank, so when they are moved over they have no "new" issues other than obviously the other fish in the display tank.

Whichever method, you will need a heater and a filter (which can be a simple sponge filter, but it needs to be cycled ahead of time unless you use floating plants.

Hi Michael and welcome to the forum

You should check the GH and pH of your water supply before getting guppies. They do best in water with a bit of mineral content and a GH around 200ppm and a pH above 7.0.

The GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, most tetras, barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

Cardinals and guppies don't generally mix well in the same tank.

Hi everyone.

Thanks for all your replies. So today I have went out and purchased a small 22 litre aquarium for quarantine duties, complete with filter and heater. I have put an ornament from my display tank into the QT to help the bacteria boost.

Do you recommend I keep this running all year round even when there’s no fish going in it? Or is it something I can put away until it’s needed?

Thanks

Michael

You could set it up as a plant tank and leave it running. Then you can sell the surplus plants or put them in the main display tank. And if you see something at the shop that you want, you can buy it straight away and put it in the quarantine tank.

However, if you don't want it set up, then you can wash it out after each use and leave it to dry on the shelf. If you do this, move the filter into the main tank so it stays alive and keeps the good filter bacteria. Then you can use the filter on the quarantine tank the next time you need it.

Plant tank! Plant tank!
Gooooooo plant tank!

Oh, and welcome!

So this is my quarantine tank that I’ve set up. I like to angle the nozzle so that there’s more surface agetation and air bubbles.

After about 24hrs it looks like it may already be going through the nitrogen cycle. I will have a think what I want to do with the tank whether to keep it for plants or just back up.

That's fine as a QT tank. The slight haze is not the cycle, but due to bacteria that consume organics (different from the nitrifying bacteria) and you might be surprised at the level of dissolved organics in tap water, which is what these bacteria are feeding on here. They can reproduce in about 20 minutes so they rapidly multiply. Not an issue.

You do need to either have live plants to take up the ammonia of any fish you add, when you add them, or you need to seed the filter with the bacteria, i.e., cycle the tank.

Byron said:

That's fine as a QT tank. The slight haze is not the cycle, but due to bacteria that consume organics (different from the nitrifying bacteria) and you might be surprised at the level of dissolved organics in tap water, which is what these bacteria are feeding on here. They can reproduce in about 20 minutes so they rapidly multiply. Not an issue.

You do need to either have live plants to take up the ammonia of any fish you add, when you add them, or you need to seed the filter with the bacteria, i.e., cycle the tank.

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Hey, so I’ve been adding in some fish food for “ghost feeding” don’t think there’s much more I can do to get the ammonia going. I don’t like the thought of cycling a tank with a fish in it, sounds so unfair for the fish.

Murray92 said:

Hey, so I’ve been adding in some fish food for “ghost feeding” don’t think there’s much more I can do to get the ammonia going. I don’t like the thought of cycling a tank with a fish in it, sounds so unfair for the fish.

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True, but aside from that, new fish are under significant stress from being netted and bagged, and exposing such a weakened fish to ammonia or nitrite could likely end is life. If you cannot have floating plants, it is worth keeping the filter running in a tank with fish so it will hold bacteria, then move it over to this tank when you need to add fish.

Byron said:

True, but aside from that, new fish are under significant stress from being netted and bagged, and exposing such a weakened fish to ammonia or nitrite could likely end is life. If you cannot have floating plants, it is worth keeping the filter running in a tank with fish so it will hold bacteria, then move it over to this tank when you need to add fish.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I think I will put the filter in my established tank.