Quarantine Tank?

[col748]

I have a few nice Discus in my tank and are doing well, i would like to add a couple more but scared to add with others.

Is it best to set up a quarantine tank, how best is it to do this?

Should i fill it with water that i change out of my discus tank to get qualities the same, also will it need any other fish in it rather than keeping it empty till i find the discus i want?

Thanks Colin.

 

[Joller]

it's a good idea to quarantine your fish for at least a week (I learned this the hard way)
my QT tank is just a 10gal with its own filter and heater, no substrate and a couple of hiding places for the fish, then just fill it with fresh water(not main tank water) whenever you need it, I leave fish in there for a week before introducing them to the main tank, also it's a good idea to do a few water changes a week as the tank is so small(which isn't much work anyway)

 

[Tolak]

I quar for two weeks from a known source, meaning I know the breeder & have seen his setup. Unknown sources get a 4 week quar, I would suggest this for any discus, as they can be sensitive fish.

The water setup depends on how you are doing tank maintenance. For filtration a bit of mature media from your existing filter run in a filter on the quar tank will work fine. Search this site for cloning, this is basically what you are doing when setting up a quar tank in this manner.

 

[col748]

Thanks, i guess i would need the quar tank water/filter to be mature as i wouldn't want to add fish to what is effectively a new set up?

 

[hollanda88]

it's a good idea to quarantine your fish for at least a week (I learned this the hard way)
my QT tank is just a 10gal with its own filter and heater, no substrate and a couple of hiding places for the fish, then just fill it with fresh water(not main tank water) whenever you need it, I leave fish in there for a week before introducing them to the main tank, also it's a good idea to do a few water changes a week as the tank is so small(which isn't much work anyway)

I would quartntine for at least 4 weeks as a lot of diseases wont show in a week any way so like Tolak said you can adjust the times if you know the exact set up of the breeder i.e. do the have UV...

But i would leave them 4 weeks, you don't want to loose you current stock to disease

andrew