Quarantine tank, what is the process?

[Wells]

I have a question regarding quarantine tank procedure.

I've set one up for a bristle nose, got heater, filter with media from an established tank and a cave.

The pleco is very small, I'm just wondering what I'm looking out for?

What is the procedure? I don't really want to dose medicines unnecessarily, I'm looking out for fin rot, any white spots and stringy poo, anything else to look out for?

 

[itiwhetu]

Make sure the tank closely replicates your main tank. Same substrate, plants, temperature and parameters. Then when your fish comes out of quarantine they wont get stressed. Make the fish in quarantine feel like they are at home.

 

[Yohance1130]

The quarantine tank procedure I use is:

When I add new fish to my quarantine tank I leave them in there for 1 full month, I do a water change every 3 days, and When I feed the fish I soak there food in garlic. I do this for the whole month

If at any point during the time the fish are in quarantine there is a disease.

I well immediately take action to cure the disease, when the fish are fully cleared from the disease I well reset the amount of time for the fish in the quarantine tank back to a month.

So if the fish have been in the quarantine tank for 10 days and on the 11th day one of the fish catch a disease, I will medicate and cure the disease, and after the disease has cleared I well reset the time for my fish to 1 day instead of continuing to count the days from where I left off and also not counting days while the fish are sick. I we'll have to wait another month free of any disease before I can add the fish to my aquarium. If there is another disease throughout that time I we'll treat cure and reset the time again to 1.

When it is the last week for the fish in quarantine I well do a water change in the quarantine tank and also the tank the fish in quarantine well be going into.

To refill the quarantine tank I use the water I syphoned out from the main tank and I refill my main tank using tap water the same way I would refill it when I do my weekly maintenance. When you syphon out the water from the main tank just syphon out the water do not gravel vac the aquarium.

After the water change is done I wait 3 days and do the same thing again and then wait a couple more days to add the fish to the main tank

I have never had any diseases using this method with any fish throughout the whole month

The garlic and the biweekly water changes help neutralize the diseases present before they become large and strong enough to have an effect on your fish and large enough to the point were you can see the disease on your fish. This is a natural way of curing some of the diseases that you cannot see without using any meds.

Garlic also helps boost the immune system of the fish and also trigger the fish to want to eat. Some fish that are stressed will not want to eat

The reason I use water from the main tank to refill my quarantine tank is so that the fish can already start to get used to the water they will be going into before they go into that water and it we'll be less of a shock to them.

It is best to try and make your parameters from your quarantine tank as close as possible to the parameters of the tank the fish will be going into to limit the chances of the new fish from being shocked when added to the aquarium.

Hope everything goes well!

 

[quinnARIUM]

Yes, quarantine tanks are to protect both your other fish in your "display" tank and to protect your new fish. By keeping it in quarantine for a while you can be sure it doesn't develop a contagious disease, die unexpectedly in your main tank, and fully prepared it for life in your water and tank. Just try to replicate it's permeant home and watch out for any disease or irregularities.

 

[Wells]

The quarantine tank procedure I use is:

When I add new fish to my quarantine tank I leave them in there for 1 full month, I do a water change every 3 days, and When I feed the fish I soak there food in garlic. I do this for the whole month

If at any point during the time the fish are in quarantine there is a disease.

I well immediately take action to cure the disease, when the fish are fully cleared from the disease I well reset the amount of time for the fish in the quarantine tank back to a month.

So if the fish have been in the quarantine tank for 10 days and on the 11th day one of the fish catch a disease, I will medicate and cure the disease, and after the disease has cleared I well reset the time for my fish to 1 day instead of continuing to count the days from where I left off and also not counting days while the fish are sick. I we'll have to wait another month free of any disease before I can add the fish to my aquarium. If there is another disease throughout that time I we'll treat cure and reset the time again to 1.

When it is the last week for the fish in quarantine I well do a water change in the quarantine tank and also the tank the fish in quarantine well be going into.

To refill the quarantine tank I use the water I syphoned out from the main tank and I refill my main tank using tap water the same way I would refill it when I do my weekly maintenance. When you syphon out the water from the main tank just syphon out the water do not gravel vac the aquarium.

After the water change is done I wait 3 days and do the same thing again and then wait a couple more days to add the fish to the main tank

I have never had any diseases using this method with any fish throughout the whole month

The garlic and the biweekly water changes help neutralize the diseases present before they become large and strong enough to have an effect on your fish and large enough to the point were you can see the disease on your fish. This is a natural way of curing some of the diseases that you cannot see without using any meds.

Garlic also helps boost the immune system of the fish and also trigger the fish to want to eat. Some fish that are stressed will not want to eat

The reason I use water from the main tank to refill my quarantine tank is so that the fish can already start to get used to the water they will be going into before they go into that water and it we'll be less of a shock to them.

It is best to try and make your parameters from your quarantine tank as close as possible to the parameters of the tank the fish will be going into to limit the chances of the new fish from being shocked when added to the aquarium.

Hope everything goes well!

Thank you for such an informative post!

I will try out the garlic idea, being new to fish keeping even spotting the disease isn't something I'm overly familiar with so that garlic idea sounds a great shout.