Moving large clown loaches and qt

[jan db]

Hello. I'm fortunate enough to know someone getting out of the hobby and am buying their 9 clown loaches. I'm going to be housing them in my 12'x3'x2' South American community with mostly Severums and geophagus. The loaches range from 5"-10" and they're in excellent health and have been in the same tank with the same fish for several years. My question is whether I should try and quarantine them in a 100 gallon tank I have or whether I should be ok acclimating them then putting them directly in the display tank. I always qt fish but feel these big guys may be stressed less and do better going straight in their new home. What do you think?

[Bas Pels]

Quarantiane is always needed. I once swapped half a tank of special fish with a good friend. My fishes were healty - that is, have not been ill for 6 months, just as his.

But after the swap, all the fishes became ill - in my tank and in his. All died, and we concluded all the fishes must have been carrying some disease which they were immune against, but both groupes were vulnerable for each others disease.

Quarantaining could have made the fishes stronger, that is more able to cope with new bacteria.

However, I would add, being a cichlid keeper myself, I would never combine Botias with cichlids.

Both have their own agression, and weapons, but they do not know the other, do not expect the behaveior the other shows, and therefore are unable to cope with the agression.

The demands for the water may be the same, but it is still not a good combination

[redshark1]

I wouldn't quarantine large mature fish when they could go into a fabulous mature setup. In my experience quarantine brings more problems than it solves. But I respect and understand other people's opinion especially if they have had a bad experience in the other direction.

But I wholeheartedly agree that Loaches and Cichlids do not speak the same language and cause each other stress. For example Clown Loaches have no idea that you don't invade the personal space of a Cichlid unless you want your eyes biting out. And Cichlids don't realise that rough and tumble is acceptable play and not fighting to the death. I know your cichlids are much gentler would not mix them again as the problems are the same if less extreme.

[Loachloach]

I'd be with redshark1 on this. Large mature clown loaches aren't that sensitive and should go straight to a mature setup, knowing they've been healthy for a long time to grow that big.
6 months without diseases is not a good measure. Years without one as in large clown loaches that someone has kept for years, is pretty safe putting straight in the tank. And you can actually do them worse by quarantining in some small non-cycled tank.
I don't believe in cross contamination. It's more likely the shock of different conditions(improper acclimating), stress of transport and move, and biological overload that causes added fish to get sick or existing stock to get sick, depending on who's got the best immune system based on prior upkeep. Quarantining fish won't prevent cross contamination anyway.

[Diana]

It is possible that each tank of fish has some underlying disease that they are successfully fighting off, yet the other tank of fish could be vulnerable to.

1) Quarantine the new fish for a month, or longer if they need treatment.
2) Add a fish from the main tank to the quarantine tank. OR Add a fish from each tank to a third tank. If any of the fish involved in this crossing get sick, then treat the source tank with the appropriate medicine, even if they are not showing symptoms. They are carriers of whatever it is.

Example:
Put a CL and a Geo in a 3rd tank.
The CL gets sick.
It is the Geo that brought the disease in, so treat the main Geo tank.

http://www.angelsplus.com/ArticleQuarantine.htm

[mikev]

All died, and we concluded all the fishes must have been carrying some disease which they were immune against, but both groupes were vulnerable for each others disease.

the chances of this are very low, and if this happens to be indeed the case the quarantine would have not helped.

something entirely different has happened here.

yes, in the situation i'd have likely risked not quarantining

[NancyD]

If I had a large tank to QT them like you do I think I would do it. Have your cichlids been healthy for a long time too? I'd be awfully tempted to not QT but I have been sorry, more than once. I'd rearrange the tank to break up existing cichlid territories & add more hiding spots. Do you have breeding pairs? That could add more trouble as the cichlids defend the eggs & fry & loaches eat them...& they will.

Your tank size sounds like an amazing clown home, we'd love to see pics.