Reinvesting in fishkeeping.

[HoldenOn]

Hello all.

It has been a while since I opened up tropical fish forum. I hope my old friends are well and still around. I, honestly, completely fell off the wagon in regards to maintaining my fish tank. With losses in my family, the end of the school year and struggling with mental health, my fish tank fell into disrepair. I have now overhauled it almost completely. It had major old tank syndrome, which I approached with small daily changes. It also had pretty severe algae issues, which I've all but conquered now. In fact, the tank and the fish are rather healthy now, and I have established a routine in regards to my maintenance. Now that my tank has been put back on the right track, I'd like to look into a variety of things. The first is restocking, and setting up a dedicated quarantine tank (q.t.). I have lost fish in the past due to improper quarantine procedures, and would like to avoid this as I restock my tank. I have several questions in regard to the q.t.

1. What size is fitting to my needs? I intend on restocking primarily with Corydoras and Sydonthis, so nothing too large will be in the tank.
2. How do I go about treating the fish, do I wait till I see symptoms, or should I dose them anyways?
3. How long should the fish be quarantined?

Thank you all in advance, I hope to see some familiar faces.

 

[Rocky998]

Hello and welcome back to the forum. I'm sorry to hear about your losses in the family and yohr mental health.

I have a dedicated QT tank I have set up and it is only 10 gallons (right now it holds all my baby fry) which should be just fine for you as well. Ive always heard people quaranting any fish coming in for apx a month or a week at least but longer is better if you suspect a disease.
Never just treat to treat. Wait for symptoms. If you give a fish meds it can be harsh and actually give the fish issues if they were not even sick.

I'm sire someone with more experience can help you more than me.
Again, nice to have you back!

 

[Back in the fold]

Sounds to me like you already know what to do. All a quarantine tank is is another aquarium that you keep fish in for awhile until you're satisfied that they are healthy and disease free. I see you have a 29 gallon so a 10 gallon quarantine tank would be perfect for you. You can pick one up cheap. Don't go fancy on decor. A heater and a sponge filter are all the extra equipment you need. The quarantine tank is just a pit stop until they go into your main tank. When you're not using that 10 gallon it can be used for fry or for separating out a fish or for whatever reason. Hope all is settling down in your world and you can enjoy your fish.

 

[Colin_T]

All new fish, plants, shrimp and snails should be quarantined for at least 2 (preferably 4) weeks before being added to an established display tank. This allows the new fish time to recover from the move (across the world, country, town, pet shop, to your house), and lets most common diseases show up if they are going to.

You only treat fish if they have a disease. However, you can deworm all new fish in quarantine and this will prevent intestinal worms getting into your other fish. Some worming medications also treat gill flukes so it's a bonus. Deworming medications are safe and are the only treatment I recommend for all new fish even if they aren't showing any signs of disease.
Section 3 of the following link has information about deworming fish.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

A quarantine tank has to be big enough for the species of fish. Corydoras will be fine in a tank that is 2 foot long quarantine tank. Small Synodontis will also be fine in that size tank. bigger species of fish will need a bigger quarantine tank.

Have a thin layer of sand and some plastic ornaments in the tank for the fish to hide in. Have a coverglass on the tank to stop the fish jumping out and to reduce evaporation and heat loss. Have an airstone, filter and heater in the tank.

 

[Wills]

Hello all.

It has been a while since I opened up tropical fish forum. I hope my old friends are well and still around. I, honestly, completely fell off the wagon in regards to maintaining my fish tank. With losses in my family, the end of the school year and struggling with mental health, my fish tank fell into disrepair. I have now overhauled it almost completely. It had major old tank syndrome, which I approached with small daily changes. It also had pretty severe algae issues, which I've all but conquered now. In fact, the tank and the fish are rather healthy now, and I have established a routine in regards to my maintenance. Now that my tank has been put back on the right track, I'd like to look into a variety of things. The first is restocking, and setting up a dedicated quarantine tank (q.t.). I have lost fish in the past due to improper quarantine procedures, and would like to avoid this as I restock my tank. I have several questions in regard to the q.t.

1. What size is fitting to my needs? I intend on restocking primarily with Corydoras and Sydonthis, so nothing too large will be in the tank.
2. How do I go about treating the fish, do I wait till I see symptoms, or should I dose them anyways?
3. How long should the fish be quarantined?

Thank you all in advance, I hope to see some familiar faces.

Hi welcome back life does get in the way with tanks sometimes Ive certainly been there before! I do think that aquariums can be really good for mental health especially if you keep things simple and natural - lots of plants, beautiful fish etc.

Which synos are you thinking of getting - one of my favourite groups atm.

Wills

 

[HoldenOn]

Hi welcome back life does get in the way with tanks sometimes Ive certainly been there before! I do think that aquariums can be really good for mental health especially if you keep things simple and natural - lots of plants, beautiful fish etc.

Which synos are you thinking of getting - one of my favourite groups atm.

Wills

Hello Wills! I hope you are doing well. To be honest I was looking at getting the more popular S. nigriventris, partly because that's what my pet store stocks, and also because I don't know very much about any of the other species or where to get them.

They would fit nicely into my tank, which draws inspiration from a variety of river basins. Synodontis are really a fascinating and odd fish, I love them!