Quarantine Conundrum

[TwoTankAmin]

My example was not one dead fish. So what if you you lose another of the 6 fish and then another. I am assuming since you have no idea what killed them you watch them all die and start over rather than make your best guess to try and save any of them? I always have extra tanks available and I usually also have a bottle of Dr. Tim's One and Only in the fridge for emergencies. But, once there is a death in a Q tank it is no longer a Q tank it is then a hospital tank. Since there are plenty of things which can be transmitted by a sick fish to others, I would not move the fish to a new tank. There is no guaranteed that the problem dosen;t hiuch hike on. or in the fish and both make it to a new Q tank. Sick fish do not need the stress from being caught and moved, imo.

It was not uncommon in the past for me to be getting in a box load of fish. I rarely buy retail and I was always willing to import or to buy wholesale when I had that option. I have received a large school (60+) of cardinals for a 75 gal. I received 35+ 2 inch redline barbs.

The most fish I have received in a single purchase was 99 zebra plecos and 15 Hypancistrus L173. The zebras arrived all in on huge bag and I had 3 DOAs and lost two more shortly after. The rest did fine. The 173 were also all in a single bag and there was 1 DOA. The fish were shipped to me airport to airport. They were dropped off in LA at the airport at what was about 11:30 a.m. my time and I picked them up at the Delta Air Cargo facility at La Guardia in NYC at about 10:30 pm. They were in my Q tanks in fewer than 15 hours from being bagged.

Also, my rule for Q is that wild caught fish get 3 montths in Q. Locally raised fish get a month to 6 weeks. Usally, locally means bred by people whom I know. Those Q times are how long they must be continuously in Q without any symptoms or deaths. If I have to treat, and do so suuccessfully, those time periods start over.

 

[seangee]

I agree with you. Here is a real life example. I have six Alestopetersius caudalis arriving in a few days. They will all go into my quarantine tank. Let’s assume only one Fish dies. I do not have another quarantine tank to place the remaining 5 fish in. So the five surviving fish have to remain in the quarantine tank where the sick fish died. Since I have no idea why the fish died, I do not treat the quarantine tank with medication but I perform 50% water exchange. So now I am left observing the remaining fish hoping they survive for the full six week quarantine period. Would you do anything more?

That would be my course of actions. Sometimes fish just die, and that is more likely after shipping. I woud not attempt treatment unless I knoew there was a problem.