How Long To Quarantine

[HappyGeorge]

Ok guys my pair of firefish have now been in my Quarantine tank for 4 weeks. They were from a tank that was having some unexpected losses. A few fish died for no reason that could be identified and I took the firefish as I had the Q tank ready to go and didn't want to see them suffer.
They were hiding away in the tank they came from, but when introduced to mine they have immediately taken residence in a cave at the back and come out and swim together in the flow when the lights first come on, then one will hide away for a while. Then mid evening they come out for a couple of hours together and swim against each other. No signs of any problems, feeding nicely no spots or marks, nice and active but obviously as fairly shy fish they're not exploring the tank 24/7.

Question is how long would you leave them in Quarantine for?

 

[Uriel]

Isn't "standard" quaruntine 6-8 weeks. If it where me probably minimum 10 weeks. I'm very careful these days though after a single ill pleco wiped out 60% of my stock in my tropical tank. Lost 1-2a day, every day was heart wrenching.

 

[sorgan]

I have never QT'd a marine fish, in my eyes any nasties that a fish may have will surely be in LR anyway and as most marines are wild caught they are usually pretty resistant to things. I've never had a problem with fish illness but that's just me.

 

[chr15_8]

I think it is 6 weeks standard.

All the fish I'm getting for my new tank will be going into a QT for 6 weeks.

Like what's been said above if there was unexplained problems in the other persons tank I would consider quarantine them for a longer period.

 

[Yuma]

My 2 cents.

First off, +1 on using a Quarantine. You are doing something that not everyone does and you should be commended for that. It will save you potential issues down the road. The first time you avoid getting something nasty in your display tank you will be glad you used a QT. Case in point, my wrasse came down with ICH real bad after 4 weeks in QT. Had it been in my display, I would likely have had issues with all my fish. Anyone that says QT isn't necessary hasn't had to tear down a tank to get all of their fish out of the display tank because they are all sick, or lost a bunch of fish because they refused to. I'm not saying it can't be done successfully, I'm sure countless people have done so, but you are taking a HUGE risk if you don't QT. As Sorgan points out, it certainly can be done, it's just my opinion that it is a huge risk.

Arguably, the most common illness in fish is ICH, as I'm sure you are aware. The life cycle for those little buggers is around 28 days, to go from infecting fish, to drop off, reproduction and then reinfecting fish, usually with a vengeance. Depending on temperature, salinity and other factors, I've read that this cycle can be extended by as much as 10 days, so to be sure that ICH isn't an issue, you are looking at 5-6 weeks, safe side being 6 weeks.

As for the other baddies, 6 weeks is going to give you a good idea about whether the fish are healthy, eating well, and going to be ok, in my opinion. If the fish are breathing hard, or not eating, etc., you know, just anything that doesn't quite look right, you can certainly keep them in longer if necessary, but my personal opinion is that you want to get at least past the potential life cycle of ICH first and foremost and that should give you enough time of observation to determine if there is anything else wrong.

There are SO many variables in a tank that it would be difficult to know why the fish were not making it in the previous owners tank. Just the water parameters alone are 5 or 6 things that could be wrong, and that doesn't include other tank mates, filtration, feeding amounts and frequency, or anything else, so I wouldn't put too much stock in that unless you have something specific as to why the tank wasn't supporting fish.

Those are my personal opinions from the reading I've done and experiences I've had personally, I hope that helps.

 

[HappyGeorge]

Thanks everyone.

The system they came from suffered some very strange losses, fish just became lethargic and died the firefish and a mystery wrasse survived with no apparent ill effects. The wrasse (which someone else has) is doing fine too. Behaviour wise I am entirely happy with them but it's the life cycle of any nasties that were the issue.
Think I will give them another couple of weeks then, just to be sure.